Suffolk

This week’s 10 Questions is with Natalie Smith, owner of Woodbridge Antiques Centre, Suffolk

An extraordinary relic of the African slave trade was among the headline lots from a three-day sale held by Lockdales in Martlesham Heath near Ipswich last month.

A Suffolk-based jewellery dealer with over 30 years experience in the trade faces ruin after falling victim to a sophisticated robbery last month.

Hundreds of gelatin silver studio prints by the society and theatre photographer Angus McBean (1904-90) will be sold by Lacy Scott & Knight of Bury St Edmunds in a stand-alone sale on April 12.

Back in 1998 Lacy Scott & Knight of Bury St Edmunds were instructed by local art teacher and model enthusiast John Clibbon to sell the majority of a large collection of tinplate toys.

By the late 17th century, Port Royal, located at the end of the Palisadoes at the mouth of Kingston Harbour in south-eastern Jamaica, had earned the reputation of being both the richest and the wickedest city in the world.

This 17in (43cm) high bronze by Demetre Chiparus has been consigned by an elderly lady who had owned it from new to Durrants’ sale on October 12 in Beccles, Suffolk.

This 19th century metamorphic mahogany estates writing desk will appear at Diamond Mills & Co’s sale in Felixstowe on August 8.

THIS large, 18in (45cm) high, London-made brass lantern clock, c.1660, proved the highlight of the recent single-owner estate sale conducted by Durrants of Beccles.

Lowestoft porcelain specialist and Suffolk auctioneer Russell Sprake marked 50 years in the auction business last month with perhaps his finest ever sale – and a record price for the factory at auction.

MANDER Auctioneers of Clare in Suffolk have moved to new larger premises three miles down the road at Lower Road, Glemsford, CO10 7QU.

ONE of the rarer acts of peace-time bravery saw the crew of the airship R33 awarded the Air Force Medal.They included George Ernest Long, whose medals and associated ephemera came up for auction at Lockdales of Ipswich on March 27.

ESTIMATED at £3000-4000, this 18th century mahogany decanter box retaining a pair of profusely cut double-magnum sized decanters c.1780, attracted multiple bidders at Suffolk saleroom Neal Sons & Fletcher of Woodbridge.

EAST Anglia auctioneers Sworders have ceased holding sales in Sudbury. The former Olivers saleroom in Burkitt’s Lane, Sudbury will now become an office and storage facility with all future consignments removed for sale to Stansted Mountfitchet.

MOST Star Wars aficionados are familiar with the story of the Flintshire pensioner who bought 20 Palitoy action figures for 49p each in 1978 and sold them at Stockton-on-Tees toy specialists Vectis for a small fortune in 2003.

WOODBRIDGE, Suffolk saleroom Neal Sons & Fletcher included a small collection of post-War silver by Robert Welch, Gerald Benney and Stuart Devlin in their November 18 sale.

THE dealer who bounced a cheque at Durrants Auction Rooms, reported in last week's ATG has come forward to say it was a 'hiccup' and the bill will be paid.

DURRANTS Auction Rooms have issued an alert about a man claiming to be an antiques dealer from Belgium, who has recently bounced a cheque for nearly £3500 at their rooms.

POLICE have asked for information about a theft that took place at Cavendish Antiques and Interiors in Suffolk in the early hours of April 11.

A BANKRUPT Suffolk antiques dealer who went on the run to Bulgaria after swindling creditors in a £1.9m fraud has been jailed for ten years.