London

UK: PICTURED here are three of best-sellers from a trio of horological sales held in the London rooms last month, all of which fared well in terms of overall selling rates.

UK: ONE OF THE principal successes in the printed portion of this sale was a copy of the 1827 Evans auction catalogue of the Library of the Late Lord Byron....

UK: FOR the moment at least the great international wine auctioneering machine grinds on serenely enough with lottage selling rates routinely at levels of 90 per cent or better.

UK: THE Christie’s South Kensington sale of March 19 fielded no fewer than three copies of the book that was the main source of western knowledge of Japan in the 18th century, the two-volume History of Japan... written by Englebert Kaempfer.

UK: SIGNED cabinet photographs of Oscar and Constance Wilde flank one of their younger son, Vivian, which has been inscribed and dated 1891 to the reverse – although the well known portrait of Oscar is known to date from 1889.

UK: WHILE the Chelsea Antiques Fair, one of our most venerable events, does not seem to generate any buying buzz, it soldiers on and must be doing something right because year after year very good dealers return twice annually to stand at this most traditional of antiques events.

Musical Instruments UK: NO fewer than four sales of musical instruments took place in London between March 15 and 17: at Phillips, Sotheby’s, Bonhams and Christie’s South Kensington (all 15/10 per cent buyer’s premium). Over 1000 lots went under the hammer in all with over £2.3m netted between the four rooms.

UK: FOR ‘British Decorative Arts’ read ‘British Decorative Ceramics’, or at least that is the way it looked at Christie's South Kensington (15/10 per cent buyer’s premium) back on March 3. They dominated this event to the extent that they accounted for four-fifths of the 419-lot auction.