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Topping a very successful sale by Reading specialists Special Auction Services ( 15% buyer’s premium) on March 12 was this rare brown stoneware spirit flask, left, by Oldfield & Co. Date c.1835 and depicting the then Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne. The 9 1/4in (23.5cm) flask sold on its mid-estimate £3000.

WHILE Maastricht was, in the main, a showcase of Western art, the mood for all things Asian goes from strength to strength in New York and British experts are making the most of it.

ILLUSTRATED top right is William Hole’s engraved title page for The Iliads from a copy of George Chapman’s first English translation of The Iliads of Homer, Prince of Poets and The Odysses.

ATTEMPTS by Sotheby’s (20/12% buyer’s premium) to breathe new life into the traditional British picture market by creating the category of British & Edwardian Art met with mixed success on the afternoon of March 10.

Gilding’s, Market Harborough, March 8, Buyer’s premium: 12.5 per centTHE decision by Leicestershire auctioneers Gilding’s to cut back their fine sales from six a year to quarterly events is perhaps a sign of the times, but the 510 lots offered in March appeared to signal that the shires are weathering the depression.

AS Easter approaches life is picking up apace on the provincial fairs scene.

“YOU have to wait until June at the earliest to assess just how Maastricht went,” said one veteran of the world’s top fair. Other exhibitors maintain you do not really know just how successful Maastricht was until a year after its close.