Dorset

The top regional Asian art price at auction this season was reached by Duke’s of Dorchester on May 18 when Wu Guanzhong’s (1919-2010) scroll painting White Birches on Mount Chang Bai (Zhangbai) sold at £500,000 (plus buyer's premium).

A new antiques centre is to open in Dorset and is on the hunt for dealers to join the premises.

“I am not a number, I am a free man,” was the cry of Patrick McGoohan in TV series The Prisoner. The important number at the Charterhouse auction house on February 12 is £20,000-25,000 - the estimate for a 1963 Lotus Super Seven S2, the model made famous by appearing in that 1960s cult favourite show.

A family row over a large collection of 17th century Chinese porcelain escalated this week after Art Fund trustee Caroline Butler hired Christie’s to value the collection.

Bridport saleroom Busby’s will offer ‘unseen’ works by members of the Bloomsbury group on October 20.

Adam Schoon has joined Duke's in Dorchester to head its Asian art department.

A large collection of 17th century Chinese porcelain could be broken up and sold after a family feud among the heirs of Sir Michael Butler, a former aide to Margaret Thatcher.

A Fijian cannibal fork was sold at Duke’s in Dorchester for £7500 on September 16.

The original artwork for the cover of The Mighty Thor, published by Marvel Comics in 1968, sold for £36,000 at a recent auction at Charterhouse in Sherborne, Dorset.

The primary draw to the regions – rather than London – during last week’s glut of Asian works of art sales was the auction titled ‘In Pursuit of the Scholar’s Spirit’ conducted by Duke’s of Dorchester.

A bomb disposal team were called to Whittons Auctioneers in Honiton last week to remove several potentially dangerous wartime bombs.