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AFTER 32 years in business, Peter Heraty of Andwells Antiques, Hartley Witney, Hampshire, tells me that on June 28 he “will lock the door for the last time”, a couple of weeks before his 66th birthday.

INTEREST in modern design gathers apace and is reflected in the loan exhibition chosen for the first Antiques For Everyone – London fair, to be launched at Earls Court from August 14 to 17. The display showcases 1950s, ’60s and ’70s furniture and is mounted by Sevenoaks, Kent collector Michael Marks, who deals in modernist furniture as 20th Century Marks.

EXPECT around 45 dealers at Cooper Antiques Fairs’ popular Cheshire County Antiques Fair this weekend from June 20 to 22. This is Somerset-based organiser Sue Ede’s premier Northern fixture and is held three times a year at Arley Hall, near Knutsford.

What A Bobby Dazzler, by David Dickinson, published by BBC Books. ISBN 0563487240 £14.99hb

FRANCE: Knitting was a great leveller in the 18th century, it seems. An ivory pair of knitting needles, said to have once belonged to Marie-Antoinette, sold for €26,000 at Piasa (17.94% buyer’s premium) sale or royal memorabilia in Paris on May 21.

AS AT London auctioneers’ themed events, nationalist bidding also underpins demand at sales in Ireland and Scotland. The Edinburgh auctioneers Lyon & Turnbull (17.5/10% buyer’s premium) report having “lots of private buyers and underbidders” at their May 23 Fine Paintings sale, despite the quantity of material being down on the equivalent sale last year owing to the gathering period conciding with the war in Iraq.

David Rogers Jones has sold a lot of Welsh dressers in his 44 years as an auctioneer in the principality but only two of this rare form incorporating a grandfather clock. Peculiar to the mid-Wales county of Merionethshire, the form, c.1810, is well-known in the reference books but this is the first the auctioneer has seen since he sold another 15-20 years ago. And it’s a great example.