THE magic of the January sale still exists in the auction world. Traditionally there is little business done from about the second week of December until the new year, and then the feeding frenzy starts.

The antiques trade traditionally kick-starts back into action at this time of year and dealers are desperate to get fresh stock to offer to a market that has effectively been closed down for three to four weeks.

My January sales have always been well supported with prices seeming higher than at other times of the year. The turn of this year was no different to previous years except that activity was a little more frenzied than has been the norm. Indeed, had we not even opened our doors on the sale day, or had anyone turn up, we'd still have been able to conduct a very successful sale such were the number of commission bids left on the book (these are bids left by clients unable to attend the sale) and telephone lines booked prior to the sale day from buyers throughout the country and around the world.

It really is amazing how much the business has changed with the growth of the internet.

When I first started, 30 years ago, the bulk of our saleroom buyers came from within a 50-mile radius of the saleroom. Our buyers are now international, ranging from a dentist in Japan, a builder in Australia and an avid Worcester Porcelain collector in Illinois, USA.

The world is literally our market place, and now that we are more likely to be in direct contact with the end buyer' those higher prices can be achieved, which is good news for our vendors. It would seem that there is an ever-increasing demand from armchair buyers' for the auctioneer to provide them with numerous e-mail images of lots, detailed condition reports, bid on their behalf, and then be asked to arrange for the wrapping, packing and delivery of their purchases to their door.

The influence of television is also huge. The endless screening of antiques and auction programmes on daytime TV has, without doubt, encouraged copious numbers of amateur collectors of the popular Beswick ornaments, Clarice Cliff and Troika pottery, and we have seen prices rocket in recent years.

I can't understand it. In my view, you can't compare the quality and scarcity value attached to, say, an 18th Century hand-painted Worcester tea bowl which only makes a few tens of pounds. But, we can only respond to what the public want, but it's my experience in life that what goes up will come down - the trick is knowing when.

I have always been fascinated by items with a local interest and this particular sale included an oil painting by David Bates of Rydall Water. Clearly not a local view, but Bates in my view was a fascinating local man who was not only a decorator, specialising in roses, working at the Worcester Porcelain Factory at the end of the 19th Century, but was also an accomplished landscape painter, whose works are now highly prized.

Interestingly, his son, John Noel Bates, was also an artist whose works are collectable, but to avoid confusion with his father's works, signed his work J B Noel. Again, to perpetuate the local connection, a number of Worcestershire collectors bid on this lot before it sold for an encouraging £2,400.

I recently received a letter from a lady asking me to call and see her to value a collection of bums'. I was keen to oblige but had to admit I had no idea what she was talking about. I gave it thought and came to the conclusion that bums must be a technical term of which I was completely ignorant. Perhaps it was a slang term for some work of art that was produced out of the waste from a porcelain kiln that was used to fire the glaze on a vase.

Imagine my surprise when I viewed her bums' in the front room of her house - they were a collection of paintings showing attractive ladies with particular emphasis on their derrieres. Perhaps a little research into the artists who painted the subjects could reveal that, rather than the bottom dropping out of the market, it could be quite firm.

In forthcoming columns I shall be answering readers' questions about antiques and auctions, so for those of you who always wanted to know but were too afraid to ask', now is your opportunity.