Derbyshire

The Buxton Decorative Antiques & Art Fair made a welcome return to the annual fair calendar with a well-attended four-day event in the Peak District.

The Library Auction at Hansons (Bishton Hall, Staffordshire) on June 15 includes this autograph letter by Roald Dahl.

From 1932-34 Clarice Cliff was the art director for a project involving nearly 30 artists of the day to promote good design on tableware.

Items belonging to the late comedian and entertainer Nicholas Parsons (1923-2020) are being unveiled at The Buxton Decorative Antiques & Art Fair in Derbyshire – the first ‘in person’ event of its type to take place in England this year.

A hoard of Romano-British bronzes discovered by metal detectorists in North Yorkshire last year will be offered at auction.

They sang about a Champagne Supernova but ‘24 large cans of quality lager’ were more to their taste when Oasis stipulated their needs for band and crew at an early gig.

This copper alloy and champleve enamel brooch would once have graced the chariot of an Iron Age chieftain.

West Country-based fair organiser Cooper Events is targeting a late spring return following the government announcement that hospitality venues would be permitted to reopen indoors as part of ‘stage three’ of its timetable for easing Covid-19 restrictions in England.

A row has erupted over the circumstances surrounding the auction of a collection of Modern British art in Derbyshire in December.

Influential Moses Harris work had made no appearance in auction records and sparked vibrant bidding at Hansons.

A recent fine art auction at Hansons (25% buyer’s premium) included a once magnificent Qianlong (1735-99) copper-red and underglaze blue lantern vase.

An item of local interest to bidders at Bamfords in Derby was this 18th century account book for Radbourne Hall, the seat of the Chandos-Pole family.

Keeping score in the earliest days of the Football League was not as easy as checking the internet.

While Manchester United and early FA Cup match programmes often make the big money at auction, a group on offer at a West Sussex saleroom showed that far less famous names can also make the running.

An original Raleigh Chopper bicycle that may never have been ridden has been sold at Derbyshire saleroom Hansons (25% buyer’s premium) for £1250 – more than double top estimate.

This large 16in (40cm) high baluster faience vase, sold by Hansons (25% buyer’s premium) in Teddington, is by ‘father of art pottery movement’ Joseph-Théodore Deck (1823-91).

Harry Potter first deemed too scruffy by a public library brings a spellbinding result