East Midlands

The first Olympic gold medal won by a British woman in an individual swimming event has been bought by her home town for public display.

Close to 2000 dealers are booked for the Peterborough Festival of Antiques on Friday and Saturday, September 27-28.

The Tiles and Architectural Ceramics Society hosts its annual antique and collectable tile fair on Saturday October 5 at St Jude’s Hall, Mapperley, Nottingham.

Dealers who give up trading up from shop premises in favour of a unit or units at an antiques centre have differing stories as to why they make that choice.

A busier than usual summer for the local housing market appeared to boost both vendor consignments and bidding at Market Harborough auctioneers Gildings (18% buyer’s premium).

Before an artist achieves ‘blue chip’ status, there is often a watershed moment in the market – a result – that makes people sit up and take note. For the Salford painter LS Lowry (1887-1976) this was the purchase of 'Going To The Match' in 1999 at Sotheby’s by the Professional Footballers’ Association.

The first lot up at the Batemans (20% buyer’s premium) sale at Stamford on August 3 was this 8¾in (22.5cm) long 'Huntsman', model 1501, stamped 'Beswick England' and the painter’s number '94'.

A 1538 Coverdale New Testament was one of the high spots of a 39-lot section of books from a single family collection that opened the Hansons (20% buyer’s premium) July 31 auction.

Two rare pre-war Dinky trade boxes which had been in loft storage for two generations appeared for sale in Lincolnshire. Toy specialist M&M Auctions (21.6% buyer’s premium inc VAT) in Spalding offered them on behalf of a family who had owned the toys since new in the mid-1930s.

Drawing keen interest at Hansons (20% buyer’s premium) in Derbyshire last month was a work by Belgian painter Francois Joseph Navez (1787-1869), an artist who rarely appears in the UK salerooms.

Shown below is ‘Un Baleinobus’, one of a rare series of 78 chromlitho illustrations featured on eight uncut stock cards or sheets that sold for £1000 as part of a Hansons (20% buyer’s premium) sale of July 31.

An exceptional example of Thai silversmithing has sold for £13,500 (plus 17.5% buyer’s premium) in Leicestershire.

Well-known dealers Ruth and Paul Thurman were the long-term organisers of Field Dog Fairs, running antiques and collectors’ events across the East Midlands, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire and Northants.

Visit by auctioneer to a regular auction-goer’s apartment uncovers Wedgwood collection.

The Patriotic War of 1812 stirred up powerful feelings of national pride in Russia.

Bamfords’ James Lewis has set a new Guinness World Record for the 'Longest Auction by One Single Auctioneer'.

On December 27, 1851, the architect Sir Charles Barry (1795-1860) wrote to Augustus Pugin (1812-52) with a progress report on the interior decoration of the Palace of Westminster.

Racing along to a double-estimate £2400, this tinplate clockwork Tri-ang Magic Midget made by Line Bros in 1933, led the field at the 450-lot toys sale at Gildings (15% buyer’s premium) in Market Harborough on June 24.