• The large anthropomorphic crab is valued at £217,250 and is the earliest large sculpture by the brothers
• Martin Brothers’ works were highly original and they can be considered the first studio potters in Britain

Arts Minister, Rebecca Pow has placed an export bar on one of the earliest pieces of sculptural art pottery in the country in a bid to keep it in the UK.

The work, a large anthropomorphic crab made by Robert Wallace Martin and his brothers, is at risk of being lost abroad unless a buyer can be found to match the £217,250 + VAT of £43,450 asking price.

The Martin Brothers were independent pottery manufacturers in London in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century who produced a distinct type of ceramic sculpture and pottery inspired by gothic art and the natural world.

The brothers were among the earliest British art potters and developed a unique influential style. Their methods of working were unique in the 19th century and a precursor to the studio pottery movement of the 20th century.

The salt-glazed stoneware crab was made in 1880. It is a striking example of Robert Wallace Martin’s grotesque sculpture, where he used his traditional training in new and unconventional ways. The crab is one of the earliest known pieces of sculptural Martinware and its recent sale broke the record price for one of their works.

Arts Minister Rebecca Pow said:

The Martin Brothers are famous for creating unique and unusual works that are entertaining yet at the same time unsettling, which makes the crab with teeth such a whimsical and eclectic treasure. I hope that a buyer can be found so we can keep this work in this country to inspire future generations of potters.

Sir Hayden Phillips, the Chairman of the Reviewing Committee, said:

This idiosyncratic sculptural crab, large and grinning, by Robert Wallace Martin, was featured in the Pall Mall Gazette in 1890, ten years after its creation. It then disappeared only to resurface in 1980. The Committee considered it was of outstanding importance for the study of late-Victorian art pottery and the work of the Martin brothers.

A truly grotesque creature, it represents the pinnacle of their work, and we also concluded that it was of outstanding aesthetic importance reflecting the fact that this criterion does not necessarily imply that an object has to be beautiful to pass that test. This crab is of a quality and scale lacking in UK public collections and I hope one of them will come forward to give it a good home so it does not disappear again.

The Minister’s decision follows the advice of Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest (RCEWA). The Committee noted that the crab was an extraordinary object that exemplified remarkable technical control of stoneware and was a major piece of Victorian art.

The RCEWA made its recommendation on the grounds of the crab’s outstanding aesthetic importance and its significant interest for the study of late Victorian art pottery, the work of the Martin Brothers and of Robert Wallace Martin in particular.

The decision on the export licence applications for the crab will be deferred until 16 September 2019. This may be extended until 16 December 2019 if a serious intention to raise funds to purchase it is made at the recommended price of £217,250 plus VAT of £43,450.

Offers from public bodies for less than the recommended price through the private treaty sale arrangements, where appropriate, may also be considered. Such purchases frequently offer substantial financial benefits to a public institution wishing to acquire.

Notes to editors

Organisations or individuals interested in purchasing the crab should contact the RCEWA on 0845 300 6200.

Details of the crab are as follows:

• Sculpture of a large anthropomorphic crab, 1880 Salt-glazed stoneware
• 21 x 48.5 x 41.5cm by the Martin Brothers, sculpted by Robert Wallace Martin (1843-1923)

Provenance:

• Private collection, UK
• Richard Dennis Gallery, London
• John S. M. Scott, Esq., London, 1985
• The Fine Art Society, London
• Sinai and Sons, London, 2014
• Acquired from the above.

The Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest is an independent body, serviced by The Arts Council, which advises the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport on whether a cultural object, intended for export, is of national importance under specified criteria.

The Arts Council champions, develops and invests in artistic and cultural experiences that enrich people’s lives. It supports a range of activities across the arts, museums and libraries – from theatre to digital art, reading to dance, music to literature, and crafts to collections. www.artscouncil.org.uk.

• tenth UK-China Economic and Financial Dialogue (EFD) held in London today
• major economic milestones in areas including finance, trade and investment
• EFDs have helped treble investment between the UK and China

The tenth Economic and Financial Dialogue (EFD) between the UK and China took place in London today, with the Chancellor hosting Vice Premier Hu Chunhua and a Chinese delegation for a series of events to discuss economic issues, financial services cooperation, and trade and investment.

Major milestones that have emerged from the dialogue include UK-listed companies being the first foreign companies in the world to be able to sell shares in mainland China; widening market access for British beef and pork; and a new private sector fund, worth up to £1 billion, to help UK firms expand into Chinese markets.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, said:

Today is the tenth time we have held these meetings between our two nations.

This year we are enhancing our financial cooperation, launching the ground-breaking London-Shanghai Stock Connect, and agreeing a new £1 billion fund to support trailblazing UK businesses. We are also supporting our Great British food industry, with China now opening up its markets to British beef and pork.

Through these dialogues we have achieved real successes, trebling the investment between our two nations, boosting our economies and increasing prosperity for all of our citizens.

Major milestones announced during the dialogue include:

• the launch of the London-Shanghai Stock Connect, allowing UK-listed companies to sell shares in China – the first time any foreign company has been able to do so in mainland China
• agreement to widen market access for British beef and pork, which will boost our economy and create jobs
• a new UK-China Fund, targeting £1 billion, delivered in partnership by Charterhouse, CIC and HSBC to invest in UK SMEs with growth plans linked to China
• deepening cooperation on infrastructure projects that meet international standards agreed by the G20, including establishing a new emerging markets infrastructure platform to create a pipeline of bankable projects for UK firms to engage with
• the first ever green loan facility from a Chinese bank – Industrial and Commercial Bank of China – which complies with the Green Loan Principles, to be managed from London by BNP Paribas and HSBC and worth up to $400 million
• a new digital payments platform, worth £100 million, to be developed by Multipass and UnionPay International to expand the acceptance of China’s UnionPay branded cards outside mainland China, creating over 100 jobs in the UK
• commercial agreements, worth over £500 million, in vital areas like tech, education and financial services

The dialogue is one of several EFDs that take place with other countries, including Brazil and India. The last UK-China EFD took place in December 2017 in Beijing.

Since the first EFD in 2008, trade in goods and services between the UK and China has more than doubled from £32 billion to a record £69 billion, with investment between our two countries having almost trebled. In the last six years alone, there has been over 700 new investments, creating nearly 16,000 new jobs and safeguarding around 13,000 more.

Well the one thing I wasn’t going to cancel in my day is coming to join you. Because this is a project which gives me so much pride in what the international community is doing or governments like the Government of Angola are doing, what our great friends and partners the United States Government are doing.

And above all what wonderful British charities such as HALO and Mine Action and others are doing to deal with something which isn’t actually fundamentally something that we normally think of in terms of development, but something that is about humanity. It’s about our definition of what kind of world we want to live in. Of what we believe morally is or is not acceptable.

And for me, as for most people in the room, the question of mines is something that touches me like you personally, like many people in this room. I have seen what happens when somebody steps on a mine. I have worked very closely with people who survived stepping on a mine, in fact I employed people who survived stepping on a mine. My father I remember very clearly looking at the large chunk out of his leg from explosive ordnance as a child, and wondering at his huge gash in his thigh which remained even when he was in his seventies. By the time he was in his early nineties the wound had begun to go, but it was there 50 years after the impact.

And of course many people that I employed in Afghanistan were missing limbs from mines. I also feel this very strongly because I want to pay tribute to the people who work in this field. Many of the most talented people that I was lucky enough work with in my life have ended up working in Mine Action.

What shows me whatever we say about the statistics and I can stand here and talk about the amazing number of hectares that have been cleared and the percentage that have been cleared and all that means for economic development and livelihoods and agriculture indeed national partners and so much else. But the real thing that tells me it’s a good thing to do is the quality of the human beings that I know are dedicating their life to it.

That begins in my life with my friend General James Cowan who was my adjutant when I was a very young and incompetent 19-year-old officer in the Black Watch, but it goes on also to the extraordinary people who worked for me when I was running an NGO in Kabul in Afghanistan for three years that I lost three of my most talented employees to go off to work for HALO and they were some of the toughest bravest smartest people I knew and indeed one of them popped up in Angola.

So for me this has woven all the way through my earliest memories of the wound of my father’s thigh through myself shuffling around on a rainy parade ground as a young officer at the age of 19, through my whole life in Afghanistan and I think the thing that brings it together for me and the reason I’ve been so proud in a small way as originally a DFID minister to put my small part of the budget into supporting this was that I felt we had lost a trick in international development.

The point about international development isn’t simply about development with the capital ‘D’. In other words it is not just about the question of how you raise incomes, although that is very important for me, and we have a huge obligation for the poorest people in the world. But it isn’t just the what, it’s the how, what we feel is acceptable and what we don’t feel is acceptable. And these particular weapons are so brutal, so indiscriminate, so hidden, so non-lasting in their impact, represent something which should fill us all with a sense of ethical abhorrence.

And I’m very very proud about the work that we do in international development – we think not just about incomes, but about protection. And that might be protection of the climate. That might be protection of environment. That might be protection of human rights.

But above all today and the reason that I was so proud to partner with these wonderful organisations two and a half years ago to put more money from public international development in is because of this issue: The protection of people from a weapon that we should have never invented. A weapon that we should have never laid in the grounds and a weapon that I wish to work with all of you to eliminate from the world.

The Stockbury roundabout, where the M2 meets the A249 near Sittingbourne in Kent will be replaced with a new free flowing junction providing uninterrupted journeys for drivers on the M2 and the A249 and a new enlarged roundabout for drivers changing roads at the junction.

The plans that have been published add detail to the announcement of the preferred option for the upgrade last May and follow an earlier public consultation in 2017.

Highways England’s project manager Camelia Lichtl said:

Having announced our preferred options for this important investment last year this is now a further opportunity for everyone to help us shape the detail of the individual scheme before we submit firm and final proposals to the planning authorities.

We’d urge anyone with an interest in the improvements to let us know their views. This is an important investment in one of the most important routes in the South East

The improvements form part of the current £15 billion government investment in motorways and major A roads and are a vital element of Highways England’s support to unlock the potential for new homes and jobs by tackling congestion

The M2 is a key route linking London with Rochester and Faversham with the Port of Dover. The interchange between the M2 and the A249 at junction 5 is currently heavily congested with tens of thousands of vehicles using the junction every day. Local Authority plans for additional housing in the area will also have a significant impact on a junction which is already experiencing congestion.

The new proposals include: an enlarged roundabout, with a new through route for A249 traffic; there will also be new dedicated left turn filter lanes for traffic traveling between the M2 and the A249; a new single lane slip road from the M2 east bound to the A249 northbound to avoid the Stockbury roundabout altogether, and measures to improve facilities for people using the junction on foot.

A statutory consultation on the improved proposals started on 13 Jun. The deadline for receipt of all comments or objections is 25 July 2019 at midnight.

The plans have been published on our website and are also available at council offices and libraries across the area.

General enquiries

Members of the public should contact the Highways England customer contact centre on 0300 123 5000.

Media enquiries

Journalists should contact the Highways England press office on 0844 693 1448 and use the menu to speak to the most appropriate press officer.

Learn more about planned improvements and construction work that is taking place as part of Exmouth’s £12m project to reduce tidal flood risk

Exmouth residents and businesses are invited to catch up with the progress that has been made on the Exmouth tidal defence scheme at a public exhibition at Exmouth Town Hall on 28 June from 3.30pm to 7.30pm.

The project, which is being jointly undertaken by the Environment Agency and East Devon District Council, includes new flood walls, ground raising, flood gates and property flood resilience measures along the sea front and estuary-side. The scheme is due to be completed by 2021.

Planning permission for the Exmouth tidal defence scheme was granted by East Devon District Council in January 2019. This was a hybrid application that included outline planning submissions for Morton Crescent and Alexandra Terrace Junction.

On 11 June 2019, full planning permission was granted for Morton Crescent, allowing access to this site for the construction of a new flood wall (on the line of the existing wall) as well as pedestrian flood gates and landscaping.

Everyone is welcome to come and see the planned improvements, including details of the Alexandra Terrace Junction planning application – which involves simplifying the road layout by reducing access to one lane and adding a traffic island to make it easier for pedestrians to cross. These changes will allow this route to be closed off in storms with flood gates so that lower lying properties inland are better protected from coastal flooding.

Information will also be available about the construction work that has already begun on the Exmouth tidal defence scheme. This includes a new tidal defence wall, which is being built alongside Royal Avenue, together with ground raising within the nature reserve to the north.

Work is due to start in June on strengthening the existing sea wall on the Esplanade as well as new tidal defences in the Camperdown Terrace area.

Ben Johnstone, Environment Agency flood and coastal risk manager for Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, said:

We are very pleased to see our contractors starting work.The start of construction is a really important step on the way to reducing tidal flood risk from the Exe Estuary in Exmouth.

We would like to thank residents and businesses for their patience and understanding while we carry out this important project.

Cllr Geoff Jung, East Devon District Council portfolio holder for Environment, said:

It’s great to working together with the Environment Agency and local community to manage the risk to Exmouth from climate change, and invest in the future of the town.

The £12 million Exmouth Tidal Defence project will reduce flood risk for 1,800 properties currently at risk of flooding. It will reduce flood risk from the current 4 per cent chance of happening in any year to a 0.5 per cent chance of happening in any year. The scheme design takes into account the impacts of climate change and sea level rise so the defence can be improved in future years as needed.

The Exmouth scheme is part of the Environment Agency’s programme of £2.6 billion investment into flood defences across the country.

Along with flood defences and flood risk management schemes, knowing your flood risk is also important when protecting your family and property from flooding. People can check their risk and register to receive free flood warnings by visiting www.gov.uk/prepare-for-a-flood or calling Floodline on 0345 988 1188.