UK

AFTER two stagings, Clarion Events, organisers of the Olympia fairs, have abandoned their new fixture FORM. In 2009, for the first time in 13 years, it looks likely that there there will be no Spring art, antiques or design fair at the West London exhibition complex.

A companion work to an August Bohm masterpiece has bought a house record to Gloucestershire firm Wotton Auction Rooms.

THIS lifesize bust of the actor Charles Dance has been stolen from a car only days before it was due to be entered for exhibition.

Police are looking for a thief resembling this man who stole a valuable clock from an antiques shop in Kent on Sunday March 9.

Burglars made off with a large cache of Doulton figures and silver in a sophisticated raid on Bagham Barn Antiques of Chilham, Kent last month.

Semley Auctioneers have opened an office and reception at 97 Old Brompton Road, London SW7 3LD.

Kensington Church Street dealer Paul Reeves did a double-take at Sotheby’s earlier this month. As well as curating their March 20 mixed-owner decorative arts sale titled The Best of British, he also mounted a week-long selling exhibition of his own stock under the same title in their Bond Street Galleries.

It’s hard to believe there are still undiscovered works by the most renowned artists hanging unnoticed in dusty corners of private houses. But that is what a Christie’s valuation team discovered last year.

Sworders moved into their much-lauded new environmentally friendly saleroom on March 31.

Two medals awarded to the same man during the Crimean War, but separated for many years in different collections, have been reunited after selling to the same buyer at Smith & Wilde’s March 21 auction of militaria at the Royal Armouries in Leeds.

AS part of this year’s 550th anniversary of hallmarking in Scotland, the National Museum of Scotland are hosting The Scottish Seminar from April 11-13.

KENSINGTON and Chelsea council have told the landlords of Antiquarius to halt the building work that has split the King’s Road antiques centre in two. This comes after the building received a Grade II listing last week.

This oak architect’s or engineer’s chest is quite possibly a one-off piece made for renowned Liberty & Co. designer Archibald Knox by the Barnstable firm Shapland and Petter.

After five years of trading in Worthing, Gorringes have closed their saleroom on 44-46 High Street. In its place, one of their senior valuers will be opening up in his own name.

Vendors at an auction conducted by the former head of Christie's teddy bear and doll department are still waiting to be paid, more than three months after the sale. The parent company has now gone into receivership.

Is the final chapter in the story of Colin Wilson's ‘Giambologna’ monkeys about to be written? Not, it seems, without a twist in the tale.

Pre-war delivery vans advertising commercial brand names have long been the kings of the Dinky collectors’ market. This was reinforced on March 10 when Vectis of Stockton-on-Tees sold the so-called 5th Avenue Collection, which included examples bearing well known and long-forgotten brands.

West Sussex-based auctioneer Bellmans are the latest UK saleroom to open an office in Central London.

EASTER weekend saw the opening of The Antiques Storehouse at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.

Summers Place Auctions of Billingshurst, West Sussex, are to host The Glory Of The Garden in aid of St Catherine's Hospice, a Crawley-based charity, on May 16.