UK

UK: This early 18th century Welsh oak dresser had everything collectors of vernacular furniture want – clean unaltered condition, good colour, watertight provenance and extraordinary size.

UK: ONE of the most important drawings to appear at auction in London will be put up for sale at Christie's on July 4.

UK: DESPITE suffering a devastating fire at his premises on March 25, Arundel dealer Spencer Swaffer is running his business as usual from his warehouse just three miles away.

UK: IN THE primitive pantheon of vernacular furniture, the bread and cheese cupboard is an unusually specialised form, hence the immense interest from country furniture buffs in the oak example here which was consigned to the Colwyn Bay rooms of Rogers Jones and Co. for sale on February 29.

UK: THIS Linthorpe pre-Columbian-style pottery vessel, designed by Dr Christopher Dresser during his time as Art Superintendent at John Harrison's Middlesborough factory c.1879-81, was sold to London's New Century by Darlington auctioneer Thomas Watson & Son for £1500 (plus 15 per cent premium) on March 21.

UK: SOTHEBY'S are to sell a remarkably well-preserved and restored 18th century Spitalfields London town house and its contents, the home of the late Michael Gillingham, a well-known London art and antique dealer.

UK: A pair of gilt and cedarwood girandoles in the neoclassical manner, 5ft 9in high by 3ft wide (1.75m x 91cm), from the contents of Barnby Moor House, near Retford offered by Neales of Nottingham on February 24.

UK: THE Arts and Crafts movement in Scotland and England has been well documented both in commercial salerooms and academic exhibitions, and indeed the value of work designed by the likes of William Morris and Robert Lorimar has never been more popular.<b

UK: INVESTIGATIONS by a Surrey antiques dealer have uncovered a crime spree by what appears to be a single gang right across the South East of England.

UK: The factors which make for a desirable cased fish are four-fold: the case (bowfronts are most popular), the label of a good taxidermist such as Cooper, condition and (as the joker in the pack) the beast itself.

UK: HAVING ascribed it to the Italian School of the 13th/14th century in their auction advertisement, Hy. Duke now believe that this 73/4 x 9in (20 x 23cm) oil on panel, right, is in fact the pinnacle – missing for 150 years – of the Madonna panel by Nardo Di Cione (1343-1366).

From a Ligurian Spring by Henry Herbert Lathangue (1859-1929) sold for £330,000 plus 15 per cent premium at Bearne’s Spring Seasonal Sale, Exeter on March 1.

UK: This pair of 8ft 2in (2.5m) high polished steel gates inset with Lalique glass segments were bid to £13,000 at Christie's South Kensington on February 9.

UK: Spink's move from the King Street premises the firm have occupied for over three-quarters of a century, also marks a major re-assessment of the way they do business.

UK: EVERY so often a dealer will acquire an object of academic interest for relatively little money and put it into an auction to see how much it will make.

UK: POLICE are investigating the possibility that the same gang is behind a number of thefts from antique shops in Greater London and Surrey over the last few months.

UK: A HIGHLY important painting by the early Italian master Cimabue (c.1240-1302) has been discovered by Sotheby's at Benacre Hall, near Lowestoft, Suffolk, home of the reclusive Sir John Gooch, 12th Bt., who died last year.

UK: While the art market has been quieter in the provincial salerooms since the New Year, an exception was provided by this oil on canvas View of Venice at the Entrance to the Grand Canal, which appeared at Lawrence's of Crewkerne on February 17.

This simple 91/2in (24cm) diameter pottery 'souvenir' plate, made in Llanelly c.1910 and decorated with Welsh folk heroine Mari Jones in the manner of the factory's most famous painter, Samuel Shufflebotham, sold to a Pembrokeshire collector at £1700 (plus 15 per cent premium) at the Carmarthen rooms of Peter Francis on January 25.

ELABORATE multi-figure conversation pieces are amongst the most sought-after classes of silhouette.