News

EXHIBITORS and observers were shocked when Stephanie Dieckvoss, show manager of the Winter Olympia Fine Art & Antiques Fair, left Clarion Events, the show’s owners, just five days after the fair closed on November 18.

ONCE the largest city outside London, Norwich had its own silver assay office during three periods between 1565 and 1702.

It was a headline writer’s dream: an 80-year-old William Crawford & Sons biscuit tin still with its original contents intact sold at auction for a massive £13,000 (plus 20 per cent buyer’s premium). Crumbs! Cookie tin brings a lot of dough (Reuters) was just one of a number of groaning puns.

A Kent dealer has fallen victim to a thief whose practised deception suggests he will strike again.

Woolley & Wallis still hold the record for any item sold at auction in the UK outside London. Now it looks like their chairman, Paul Viney, could also hold the record for the top price raised for a single lot at a charity auction.

Kent auctioneers Hobbs Parker are to close in the New Year. After more than 50 years selling antiques and fine art in Ashford, the parent company have chosen to close the division in the face of rising rent and external competition.

Upwards of 150 people crammed into the top floor of The Texas Embassy restaurant off Pall Mall in London last week for the fourth annual Antiques Trade Pub Quiz.