East of England

Around 260 people attended a champagne reception on Thursday, May 8 to mark the official opening of Sworders new saleroom in the presence of HRH Princess Michael of Kent.

Sworders moved into their much-lauded new environmentally friendly saleroom on March 31.

A pre-War fire pump and trailer were among items stolen from a collector at Great Totham, near Maldon, Essex sometime between Monday, January 28 and Friday, February 8.

POLICE are on the look-out for a man who has used cheques to obtain goods from antiques dealers in East Anglia.

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

North west Essex auctioneers Mullocks Wells are to close by the end of the year. Their Monday, November 19 sale of fine art and antiques will go ahead as planned but is likely to be the last at the Dunmow Sale and Auction Rooms.

COOPER Antique Fairs have a new venue for their latest antiques fair: The Royal Masonic School for Girls, Chorleywood, Hertfordshire.

Cambridgeshire saleroom Grounds & Co has changed its name to Clifford Cross Auctions.

Cambridge auctioneers Cheffins are to offer a recently rediscovered archive of slides that depict the daredevil Malcolm Campbell in his pomp.

“WE’VE got 1700 exhibitors at our March fair at the East of England Showground and we’ve been fully booked for six weeks now, with 1100 stallholders inside three large halls – including the Cambridge Suite with fine quality pieces – and marquees, and 600 dealers outside,” said Chris Hart of Bob Evans Fairs , the organiser of the twice-yearly Peterborough Festival of Antiques.

SPECIAL FOCUS: ST ALBANS ANTIQUES CENTREST ALBANS’ last remaining shop selling antiques may be forced out of business if a planning application for its change of use to a restaurant is approved.

THE imminent smoking ban and the government’s attempts to tackle binge drinking wouldn’t have gone down too well with the Reffley Brethren.

DAN Godfrey is opening an antiques and collectables centre at the Grade 2 Listed late-18th century watermill at Barton Le Clay, north of Luton in Bedfordshire.

MISSING Book Fairs, named after the fairs’ eponymous organiser, Chris Missing, are moving one of their six events from one stately home to another.

The highlight of the Lowestoft porcelain sale conducted by enthusiast Russell H. Sprake at The Beaconsfield Club, Lowestoft on the evening of October 27 was this rare blue and white birth tablet.

OPENED on August 26 by Tim Wonnacott is the new £1.2m Peterfield Antique Village in Gosfield, Essex where £20,000 of trade was done on the day by the 236 dealers working at the centre’s 12 shops and from the cabinets.

It’s not difficult to see how Dunhill ‘fish tank’ lighters got their name. Not only do these 1950s perspex and electroplated lighters resemble miniature aquariums, but most were decorated with aquatic subjects.

In June 1941 an 18-year-old apprentice cabinetmaker, L.F. Gillet of Stratford-on-Avon, won first prize in the prestigious Amalgamated Society of Woodworkers annual competition. The prize was a dovetailed steel and rosewood rebating mitre the ASW had specially commissioned from the Norris factory.

THIS year's RICS conference will be in Cambridge from Friday to Sunday, September 15-17. More details to follow, but block out the dates in your diaries now.

EAST Anglia's top fairs circuit, Lomax Antiques Fairs, has been sold to John Harbottle, a regular exhibitor at Lomax events.