London

A panel of judges, including interior designers Alidad and Kit Kemp and representatives from World of Interiors and Homes & Gardens, deemed Guinevere Antiques to have the best stand of The Summer Fair, Olympia.

Given today’s obsession with celebrity, especially Royal celebrity, it was always on the cards that Christie’s sale last week of Princess Margaret’s jewellery, silver and other personal belongings was going to make much more than the £2m-3m predicted.

As if they will need it, some of the lots included in Christie’s June 13-14 sale of items from the collection of HRH The Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon (1930-2002) have received a little posthumous pepping up.

This is the month the trade in London really goes into overdrive, starting this week with the opening of The Summer Fair, Olympia on Thursday (June 8). Olympia is just one of four major London June fairs and these are complemented by an increasing number of dealer exhibitions around the capital.

Pottery specialist to leave landmark Kensington Church Street premises for Mount Street

LONDON-based organisers Gay Hutson and Angela ‘Bunny’ Wynn are relaunching their February Art on Paper as a broader-based international art fair. The first 20/21 International Art Fair will be held at The Royal College of Art, Kensington from February 22 to 25, 2007.

THE launch of a new collecting agency for the artist’s resale levy has broken the monopoly of The Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS). The Bridgeman Art Library, one of the world’s leading sources of fine art images, told ATG that they have set up a new company called Artists’ Collecting Society (ACS) to collect the levy on behalf of artists in the UK.

“This was the earliest Cup Final programme I’ve ever seen,” said Graham Budd (15% buyer’s premium), referring to lot 747 in his sale on May 9-10 in association with Sotheby’s Olympia.

Edinburgh auctioneers Lyon & Turnbull unveiled two new appointments at the official opening of their new London office on Tuesday, March 9.

PHILLIPS de Pury & Company are to open a new London saleroom and hold a special Contemporary Art and Design auction on October 14 during the Frieze fair.

2007 fixture will be cut to three days

LESS than two months remains to find the final £116,057 towards the £1.4m price of a unique portrait of the 17th century poet John Donne.

All Bank of England banknotes issued prior to the early 1800s are rare but the note, pictured here, dated 30 August 1705, is believed to be the oldest in private hands.

Art London moves from its summer slot to autumn and also changes location for its eighth staging.

CAPTAIN Thomas Bowrey’s principal claim to fame has been as the author of a 1701 English-Malay dictionary. Despite criticism of its clumsy errors, eccentricities of transliteration and quaint dialogues, this remained a standard reference for over 100 years.

As ATG went to press, the best-selling work of art in last week’s series of Islamic sales in London was this impressive 16in (40cm) diameter blue and white Iznik pottery dish, right, offered at Christie’s on April 4.

IT was a case of sweet and sour as two headline-grabbing London auctions came to an end before a bid could be raised last week.

Following its recent discovery by a metal detectorist in the south of England, one of Britain’s rarest medieval coins is to be sold by London numismatists Spink.

Bloomsbury Auctions are opening a Contemporary art department to compete for a share of London's burgeoning market.

A magnificent Charles II silver fluted fruit sideboard dish saved from export in 2005 is now on display at the Royal College of Physicians. It will be displayed alongside their existing collection of memorabilia relating to Sir Francis Prujean, the President of the Royal College of Physicians (1650-1654) whose life-saving cures were recorded in Pepys’ diaries.