UK

HUGE quantities of antique silver and gold were scrapped last week as precious metal prices hit record highs.

ANTIQUES fairs will be able to continue at Swinderby for some time, despite the site’s prospective development as a gravel pit.

Tennants sale in Leyburn on March 24-26 enjoyed a substantial contribution from George Tinworth (1843-1913) and his wonderful anthropomorphic mice.

BACK in the 1980s, on the back of the Lalique boom, there used to be fairly regular offerings of scent bottles at auction in London.

DEALERS at Portobello Road were celebrating a dramatic victory last week after the council rejected a planning application which campaigners said would have been “devastating” for the antiques market.

THE owner of a tearoom in Horncastle, Lincolnshire claims he is a victim of bureaucracy after he was told he could face prosecution for selling antiques from the premises.

THE National Association of Valuers and Auctioneers (NAVA) are holding their annual forum for chattels auctioneers and valuers – or anyone with an interest in the industry – at The Belfry, West Midlands just off the M42 on May 9.

THEY may look plain and simple, but this pair of silver wall-hanging candle scones had private and trade bidders clamouring to buy when they came up for sale last week at Colchester auction rooms Reeman Dansie.

ISLAMIC art dominated the London sales agenda last week with the first of the two bi-annual series of auctions devoted to this field in the capital.

THE London Islamic sales week got of to a ‘magic carpet’ start when Morton and Eden held an 81-lot sale devoted to the rarest Islamic coins.

THE organisers of Asian Art in London have announced that this year, for the first time, they will allow dealers from outside the UK to take part.

PRINCE Charles's interest in all things green has been boosting the antiques industry at the Ideal Home Show.

A £5000 reward has been offered for the return of the stock of Somerset jewellers Joseph Leonard, which was stolen in a raid on March 28.

AMONG the 30,000 papers released by the Margaret Thatcher Archive Trust earlier this month – and now available to the public at the Churchill Archive Centre – is a brief note on antiques fairs.

ONE of the rarer acts of peace-time bravery saw the crew of the airship R33 awarded the Air Force Medal.They included George Ernest Long, whose medals and associated ephemera came up for auction at Lockdales of Ipswich on March 27.

SOUTH London saleroom Rosebery’s of West Norwood had to be evacuated on Wednesday, March 23 after a client left a Second World War bomb brought in for valuation at the front desk.

ON visiting a bungalow just south of Knutsford for a probate valuation, Patrick Cheyne had been dismayed to find nothing of any value in the home itself – but rather better things emerged when he was shown the garage.

THE 16-lot section devoted to Martin Brothers art pottery at Bonhams' latest Ceramic Design sale provided a number of the notable results.

THE highlight of the two-day sale conducted by Rosebery's of West Norwood, London on March 15-16 was this unsigned lantern clock, left, consigned 'in the rough' by a private vendor.

THE large sums of money currently paid for the very top works by leading South African artists was seen once again at Bonhams’ latest sale in this category.