South-east England

FINCHCOCKS, a Georgian mansion near Goudhurst in Kent, now the Finchcocks Music Museum, is home to owner and pianist Richard Burnett’s collection of more than 100 historic keyboard instruments, many in full playing condition.

This early George III kingwood parquetry and marquetry commode attributed to Pierre Langlois proved the highlight of the £812,413 Bolney Lodge collection sold by West Sussex auctioneers Toovey’s on September 20.

In conjunction with the Nottingham-based sporting memorabilia specialists Trevor Vennett-Smith, Dreweatt Neate sold the Keith Crump Collection of Cricket Memorabilia at Donnington Priory on September 26.

On September 18 the Dreweatt Neate team decamped to Boarsney House, a 16th century property near Robertsbridge in East Sussex to sell the property of Judith Hamilton, a collector of oak and country furniture and effects for 45 years.

The missing element in a rare series of vases by a celebrated Arts & Crafts designer has now been located for a Cheshire country house after it was spotted in an ATG advertisement.

In major league baseball, the favourite sport of the worldÕs richest nation, there is an annual tradition of honouring the player in the league who has contributed most to the success of their team. It is known as the Most Valuable Player Award or the M.V.P.

The formal state carriage from the family of the Marquess of Londonderry scheduled to be sold by Thimbleby & Shorland on September 6 has been withdrawn from sale by the vendor.

A long-standing member of both the British Antique Dealers’ Association and the vetting committee at the Grosvenor House Art & Antiques Fair, the late Polly de Courcy-Ireland, who died last year, was without doubt one of the country’s leading authorities on treen. First opened in 1972, her shop in Alresford, Hampshire was a favourite with collectors for over 30 years.

THE spectacular and enigmatic spiralling tooth that grows from the upper jaw of the male monodon monoceros, long gave credence to the existence of the unicorn.

In the family of the Marquess of Londonderry since it was built sometime in the latter quarter of the 19th century, this formal state carriage is deemed the finest to appear at auction for a generation.

Thieves broke into Goldsworth Books & Prints some time between 5pm on Saturday and 9am on Sunday July 29-30, stealing books, maps and prints to the value of over £30,000.

M1, one of the most sought-after UK registration numbers, set a new world record price for a car number plate when it sold for £300,000 at Bonhams’ Goodwood Festival of Speed sale of Sports, Competition and Collectors’ Motor Cars and Automobilia on July 7.

Southampton Solent University will officially launch their new Art, Design and Society Scheme on Friday June 23.

AN unseen and apparently unique collection of photographs, letters and maps that illuminates the campaigns of Field Marshall Montgomery in the Second World War has emerged at Kent auctioneers Watermans.

The vendor of this handsome Chinese brush pot or bidong did not hold it in high regard. An heirloom from a grandfather who had spent some time in the Far East, the 6in (15.5cm) vessel had been relegated to the potting shed as a useful receptacle for garden tools and potting compost.

New degree demands a higher entry qualification in bid to win RICS backing

BONHAMS have brokered a last-minute deal to save the unrivalled Jonathan Minns Collection of Industrial Archaeological Artefacts from being split up.

Long-time Kent auctioneer Mervyn Carey is to retire after more than four decades in the business. He held his last sale at the church hall in Tenterden last Wednesday.

MUSSOLINI’s son-in-law and foreign minister, Count Galeazzo Ciano, would have done well to heed the imagery of this black glazed terracotta head when another version of it came into his possession.

When Buckingham auctioneer John Dickins sold an ebony mantel clock by the pioneering British designer C.F.A. Voysey in September 2004 for £72,000 (see ATG No 1658, October 2, 2004) he was naturally delighted. These highly desirable icons of arts and crafts horology are very scarce (only half a dozen in aluminium, oak or painted oak had been recorded at that point) so a new addition to the canon was noteworthy.