UK

It looks too good to eat, doesn’t it? This is Sotheby’s Surrealist Tea, concocted by the Sotheby’s Cafe as a cheeky marketing gimmick (albeit a tasty one) to promote their Surrealist Art evening sale on February 5 at New Bond Street.

The merry-go-round of regional antiques fairs around the UK continues and next up is ‘The Pavilions of Harrogate Antiques & Fine Art Fair’ organised by Cooper Events from February 8-10.

‘Homes & Antiques’ magazine has announced the shortlists for its 2013 Antiques Awards.

The handwritten draft of one of John Betjeman’s best-known poems, ‘The Arrest of Oscar Wilde at the Cadogan Hotel’, is just one of the gems in the next tranche of the Roy Davids Collection to appear at Bonhams Bond Street.

A group of hitherto unknown 19th century documents has come to light revealing illegal trafficking of Chinese people to Latin America where they were forced into slavery.

Medals and other material relating to George William Hutson, a British athlete who served in the First World War, will be offered for sale at Peacocks on February 1 in Bedford.

Frank Marshall’s two-day sale on January 29-30 in Knutsford, Cheshire, will include this painting by Laslett John Pott (1837-1898).

Andrew Smith & Son’s January 29 sale in Winchester includes this winter landscape by Frederick Marinus Kruseman (1816-82).

Heavy snow and ice at the Lincolnshire showground have led to the cancellation of the Lincolnshire Antiques & Home Show scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, January 28-29.

A rare American coin from a schoolboy’s coin collection was knocked down at auction for £185,000 at Salisbury saleroom Woolley & Wallis this week.

The Association of Accredited Auctioneers (Triple-A), founded in 2012 by 19 UK auctioneers to attract Chinese buyers, are to hold an auction of Western fine art and antiques in China.

Peter Bainbridge has confirmed to Antiques Trade Gazette that the Qianlong vase at the centre of a highly publicised payment dispute since November 2010 has finally been sold.

Clarion Events, owners of the ‘Antiques For Everyone Fairs’ in Birmingham, have announced that as of February 1 they will close their Birmingham office, thereby moving the management of the triannual fairs to the head office in London.

For the first time this year, ‘Master Paintings Week’ and ‘Master Drawings London’ will combine together under the new umbrella title of ‘London Art Week’ from June 28 to July 5.

Police are appealing to antique collectors and dealers to contact them if they have come into contact with some valuable pieces which were stolen during a burglary in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire.

Antiques traders in the Oxfordshire area are being urged to be on their guard after a theft at Burford Antiques Centre.

Consigned to Special Auction Services on the back of the £76,000 Märklin ‘first series’ tinplate toy HMS Terrible they sold from the Ron McCrindell collection in April 2012, this Märklin tinplate battleship Sachsen will be offered in Greenham, near Newbury, on January 31.

Created by the 20th century Finnish architect and designer Alvar Aalto, this Paimio seat, with a model no. of 41, is to be included in Sworders’ Decorative Art Sale on January 29 in Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex.

The names Cartier and Paul Hubner of Augsburg guaranteed the quality of a lapel watch and parcel gilt cup, but their values were enhanced by the names of early 20th century celebrities when they were offered at a recent sale held by Sworders at Stansted Mountfitchet.

Getting the New Year off to a good start at Addisons of Barnard Castle, County Durham, a 20th century blue and white porcelain table screen by the renowned Chinese ceramic artist Wang Bu (1898-1968) improved upon an estimate of just £130-150 to sell for £34,300.