Auctions

ART, antiques and some family silver from Chevening, the Foreign Secretary's official hide- away near Sevenoaks, Kent, are are to be sold there on Monday (10am). The surplus furniture, pictures, carpets, clocks, scientific instruments and household bric-a-brac, include a two-seater brougham, est pounds 3,000- pounds 4,000. Beware of the big-house factor: heavy sentimental buying. Sotheby's (071-408 5263).

Silhouettes - profiles of head and shoulders painted in black or cut from paper - were the poor man's portraits in pre-photography days. They have a devoted following and prices are firming up. A single-owner collection of more than 100 silhouettes is expected to raise over pounds 40,000, Wednesday (10.30am) at Christie's South Kensington.

TELLY VISION

First test at auction of vintage television values since publication last month of the definitive collectors' guide by Michael Bennett-Levy. (The book has prompted a report that a pre-war projection set, thought to be extinct, is lurking in the vaults of the V & A). Phillips is auctioning four sets, Tuesday (12 noon), including a 1937 HMV Model 900 cabinet television-radio with mirror lid, est pounds 800- pounds 1,000.

WEASEL WARES

The pop memorabilia market is a tough one. Phillips caught a cold last month when it tried to sell the entire stock of the defunct London Trocadero pop exhibition, including a Lennon- owned guitar (est pounds 30,000- pounds 35,000) with parts that did not exist in 1962, the year claimed by the catalogue. Only 67 per cent sold by lot, a mere 30 per cent by value. On Friday (10.30am) Christie's South Kensington's Carey Wallace offers another 'greatest hits' guitar: the D-18 Martin whose twangs shot Elvis Presley to stardom in 1954 with the double-hit That's all Right and Blue Moon of Kentucky. More than pounds 100,000 is expected, potentially an Elvis memorabilia price record. The sale includes a school photograph of 1956 showing Paul McCartney and signed by him, est pounds 500- pounds 700.

SMASH HITS

Venini glass is fetching high prices at Christie's South Kensington. A 32cm-high oval vase is est pounds 500- pounds 700 in the continental decorative arts sale Thursday (2pm). Latest tat to transmogrify into deco: wall masks. An Austrian Goldscheider terracotta wallmask of a woman with flowing hair is est pounds 200- pounds 300. If this makes your toes curl, go for the plentiful Lalique.