News

This 17th century wrought iron Armada chest had stood unopened in the attic of an English country house for 180 years until it was finally unsealed earlier this year and found to contain a mass of papers relating to Dr William Harvey and his brother Eliab which had been deposited there by his descendants in 1821.

Art and Outrage (ISBN 074531354X) £15.99 and Art in the Age of Mass Media by John A Walker (ISBN 0745317448) £14.99, both pb and published by Pluto Press

Nothing is more certain to draw buyers in their droves than modestly estimated works from private collections. A single textile entry and two conservatively estimated porcelain collections did just that at Sotheby’s Olympia (17.5/10% buyer’s premium) inaugural Chinese Works of Art on November 16.

AUCTIONEERS Sotheby’s (20/15/10% buyer’s premium) combined with New York dealers Stacks to auction the Dallas Bank collection of United States coins on October 29-30.

Somerset auctioneers Lawrence Fine Art will close their Taunton salerooms on December 21 and stop holding monthly sales at Crewkerne.

The long-awaited opening of the new British Galleries at the V&A last week has restored to the museum and its visitors many of its finest and best loved exhibits in an appropriate yet innovative environment.

Alexander Knox, edited by Dr Stephen A Martin, published by ArtMedia Press Ltd ISBN 1902889029 £55hb