South-east England

A THIEF who used a key to get into a display cabinet and avoided being filmed on CCTV has made off with two unusual artefacts from a museum in Surrey.

On March 15 Dreweatt Neate are pioneering a live auction online with a difference at their Donnington Priory salerooms near Newbury.

DROIT de Suite, the much-dreaded Artist’s Resale Right, faced an early test at a Godalming picture sale last week, and slipped into the world of UK provincial auctions with barely a murmur.

THE Thames Valley Antique Dealers Association has cancelled its Spring TVADA Fair scheduled for March 31 to April 2 at The Reading Blue Coat School, Sonning on Thames, Berkshire.

As reported in ATG No 1724, January 28, Kent Auction Galleries (15% buyer’s premium) of Folkestone were selling this mid-18th century organ by John Sneltzer on February 11 on behalf of The Caldecott Foundation, a charitable organisation.

Establishing a new landmark for a picture lot sold at auction outside London, two portraits by Jean Baptiste Greuze (1725-1805) took £900,000 at Dreweatt Neate’s Donnington Priory salerooms last week.

An antiques dealer from Heathfield in Sussex has become the first British woman to complete the punishing Dakar Rally. The appropriately named Patsy Quick, owner of Toad Hall Antiques, set off on the 16-day trek on January 1 in Portugal, crossing Spain and Africa in the 5600-mile trip to Dakar, Senegal. She crossed the finish line on her motorbike one place ahead of her partner, Clive Town.

The tripod table is among the selection of Early Mahogany furniture that contributes to the ACC Antique Furniture Price Index. The sector recorded a 6% fall in 2005 – with tripod tables of routine quality dropping in price – but better examples of any form will buck the general trend.

THE giant RAF Swinderby fair will ditch Sunday trading and move to a Monday to Wednesday slot in the run-up to Newark from January.

On December 1 South Downs Auctioneers opened a new office and showroom at Gosdens Heath Barn, two and a half miles east of Midhurst, towards Petworth on the A272.

IT has stood for just over a century as a tribute to one of the leading figures in English Victorian art. But now the fabric of the Watts Gallery building, which houses a unique 200-piece collection, has deteriorated so much that £10m is needed to repair it and secure its future.

Police in Hartley Wintney, Hampshire, are investigating a series of thefts from antiques shops and galleries in the area over the last month, which officers believe are linked.

Setting a new house record for Holloways of Banbury, this enigmatic alabaster urn shot to £170,000 (plus 15% buyer’s premium) on October 18.

POLICE are warning antiques dealers to look out for the two men, pictured left, who they believe are professional thieves targeting antiques centres and shops.

TWO lots stood out among the 600 lots offered at Hampshire. One was an 18th century matched pair of brass barrelled flintlock pistols signed Burnford, London, which, because of a missing ramrod and broken trigger mechanism were catalogued a/f but sold to a collector at a quadruple estimate £1600.

Surrey auctioneers Ewbank are now offering a live online bidding service and held their first such sale on July 7.

NEWLY refurbished rooms at Send in Surrey mean that Ewbanks will now be able to hold two general sales a month (on the first and third Thursdays) with quarterly sales of fine art and antiques.

Following the decision of Thames Valley estate agents Simmons and Son to concentrate upon their core business, a new firm of fine art auctioneers and valuers has been established in Watlington.

NEXT month The Country Seat turn the spotlight for the second time on fin de siècle pioneering lighting designer W.A.S. Benson, when they mount an exhibition, The Talented Mr Benson, at their picturesque medieval tithe barn at Huntercombe off the A4130 near Henley on Thames in Oxfordshire.

SPECIAL Auction Services, the West Berkshire auctioneers best known for regular sales of commemoratives and pot lids, are themselves on the market.