East Midlands

“I’ve sold Jesus Christ… could I interest you in St Patrick?” So asked Martyn Watson of Penrith, Cumbria, stalling out in the Epic Centre and keen to shift his statue of Ireland’s patron saint.

Condensing a two-day event into one and moving to a new weekday slot are no mean feats – just ask Arthur Swallow Fairs, which has just launched a new streamlined format. ATG went along to the first edition to view the results.

Arthur Swallow Fairs’ Antiques & Home show may not have the moniker ‘international’ attached but the event attracts a strong overseas group of buyers who comb the fair, clutching sheets of shipping firm stickers to identify purchases for collection.

Belinda and Tom Kilduff (pictured below) are Lincolnshire locals and Antiques & Home Show loyalists. They noted how “busy, condensed and lively” the one-day format was.

Captain Albert Ball (1896-1917) is remembered as one of Britain’s greatest heroes of the skies. At the time of his death over Arras in the First World War, aged just 19, he had shot down at least 44 German planes and was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.

A collection of First World War memorabilia relating to British army Private John Trickett – including an 1889 copper penny apparently bent when a bullet hit his breast pocket – brought a multi-estimate sum at Hansons (20% buyer’s premium) of Etwall on March 22.

A hunger strike ‘Fed By Force’ medal awarded to Suffragette Selina Martin (1882-1972) has been snapped up at auction by an Australian museum.

Jaguar Fairs is launching a new biannual two-day antiques, collectors’ and vintage fair in Derby with the first to be held on Saturday and Sunday June 8-9 at the Derby Conference Centre.

An abstract creation by the revered Singaporean artist Cheong Soo Pieng (1917-83) took £15,500 at Derbyshire saleroom Hansons (20% buyer’s premium).

Post-war art stored in a cupboard for “many years” by an academic institution in Leicestershire drew strong bidding for two British artists in particular at Derbyshire saleroom Hansons (20% buyer’s premium).

Following the fall of Louis-Philippe in the 1848 revolution, the French royal sculptor Henri Joseph Francois, Baron de Triqueti (1804-74) was obliged to cast his net further afield for new patrons.

With the great country house contents sales of the past now largely a distant memory, single-owner collection sales have become the next-best thing.

Collectables untouched by Byronmania but selling well at the Harold Ward auction at Mellors & Kirk on February 6-7 included a 19th century ‘Grand Tour’ Italian alabaster model of the Piazza del Duomo, Pisa, and a gold-mounted malacca walking cane engraved to the pommel with the 1816-37 royal arms.

That rare beast – a good old-fashioned single-owner sale – is a format that seldom fails to produce decent results.

A former cake factory site near Southport is the base for dealer Brett Griffiths, who is also one of the big fans of IACF’s fairs.