South-east England

This gold and peacock blue enamel necklace designed by Archibald Knox sold for £31,000 at Mallams in Oxford.

The art and antiques trade is mourning the loss of prints dealer Justin Skrebowski, who was murdered in what appears to have been a random knife attack in Abingdon.

An antiques shop owner in Kent has removed a blackamoor sign from outside her shop after social media users claimed it was offensive.

A 1940s Rolex wristwatch whose RAF owner was murdered by the SS after the Great Escape has sold for £165,000 in Buckinghamshire.

International Antiques and Collectors Fairs (IACF) have announced a change of venue and format for their Newbury event.

A major fire has caused significant damage to Bourne Mill Antiques Centre, home to about 70 dealers in Farnham, Surrey.

Police are investigating the theft of a distinctive painting from a house in the Old Town, Hastings.

Many who viewed a Barkentin and Krall chalice at JS Auctions in Bodicote, Oxfordshire will have hoped to win it close to its £300-500 estimate.

Staff at The Swan at Tetsworth say it is ‘business as usual’ despite the dramatic ram-raid at the Oxfordshire antiques centre last weekend.

Estimated at £2000-3000 in the printed catalogue, this Italian casket drew such pre-sale interest that it was quickly upgraded in the online catalogue to £5000-7000.

West Sussex auctioneers Bellmans enjoyed considerable success on August 5, with a single-owner collection of around 30 Indian and Tibetan bronzes collected by a private vendor in the 1960s.

Following the success of last year’s Oxford conference for art and antiques professionals, Jeremy Lamond of Halls and Rupert Toovey of Toovey’s have announced the 2015 event will be held on Friday and Saturday, September 11-12.

A large marine painting by Charles Napier Hemy (1841-1917) showing oyster fishing off the Exmoor coast has been bought by The Museum of Somerset.

The 2015 NAVA Auctioneer of the Year competition takes place on September 23 at the Oxford Belfry.

A silver medal awarded to a lifeboatman who rescued sailors from a sinking ship in hurricane-force winds off the Kent coast in 1891 is to be sold at Canterbury Auction Galleries.

Following the closure of Bonhams toy department, two senior specialists have signed up with an ambitious Kent auction house.

Six paintings consigned to Gorringes of Lewes, East Sussex, have been returned to the Amsterdam Museum after being identified as those stolen from the Dutch institution over 40 years ago.

An oil on panel by Franz Sedlacek (1891-1945), an Austrian artist prominent in the Vienna Secession group of painters, drew international bidding at Toovey’s of Washington, West Sussex.

In the 1984 book ‘The Late Paintings and Drawings of John Constable’ by Graham Reynolds, a pencil drawing of the back and shoulders of the artist’s wife Mrs Maria Constable (nee Bicknell) is described as ‘whereabouts unknown’.

Bonhams are to close their Oxfordshire salerooms and move more merchandise to London as part of a further review of their regional operations.