Fine Art

WITH the bicentenary of the Battle of Trafalgar beckoning next year, and market-fresh, unrestored marine pictures in ever-dwindling supply, it was hardly surprising to see this exceptionally well-preserved Panorama of Portsmouth Harbour, right, by Thomas Elliott (fl. 1790-1800) inspire intense, multiple-estimate bidding at Christie’s South Kensington’s (19.5/12% buyer’s premium) May 26 Maritime Sale.

THE emphasis in two photograph auctions held last month was very much on 20th century material, although at both events the big money spinner came from their smaller 19th century sections in the form of collections of anthropological interest.

THE catalogue at Hampton and Littlewood’s (15% buyer's premium) April 28-29 sale may have been a model of its kind but even Homer nods… and Mr Hampton did so while “late-night cataloguing” this sentimental little group, right.

CHRISTIE’S have announced that as well as appointing Old Master dealers Hall and Knight as international directors, they have also acquired the firm’s New York galleries.

THE West Midlands auctioneers Fieldings (12.5% buyer’s premium) are making something of a habit of getting impressive prices for market-fresh watercolours by the Newlyn School painter Walter Langley (1852-1922).

MAYFAIR antiquities dealer Rupert Wace is mounting possibly the most captivating June selling exhibition when, as one of the participants of the first London Sculpture Week, he presents Pharaoh’s Creatures: Animals from Ancient Egypt, at 14 Old Bond Street, London W1.

I CAN almost hear the grinding as dozens of art critics hone their sabres – it must be time for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition!

ALTHOUGH many of the items on offer by the nine dealers taking part in London Sculpture Week (June 10-18) are antique, with some dating back more than 5000 years, there will be a few contemporary pieces.

INCREASINGLY, London is showing its teeth as one of the world’s nuclei for international Contemporary art. And, with last week’s opening of two substantial commercial art galleries, its status is going only one way – upwards.

WITH London’s Master Drawings week looming in July, specialist dealers were predictably out in force to contest this long-lost François Boucher (1703-1770) drawing which re-emerged at the Oxford rooms of Mallams (15% buyer’s premium) on May 7.

INSURERS Axa Art have promised to settle claims linked to art lost in last week’s fire at Momart’s London warehouse as soon as possible.

NOW in its sixth year artLONDON has proved a popular and worthy addition to the roster of June fairs. Indeed, in this relatively short time it has become as much a part of the London summer scene as its much more venerable and mainstream stablemates, such as Grosvenor House and Olympia.

ON The Wall is the name of a new fair aimed at the contemporary art market which will be launched from September 29 to October 3 at the Grand Hall, Olympia.

RECENTLY renamed and relocated, Bloomsbury Auctions have launched an Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary art department.

Right: among the highlights of the three-day on-the-premises house sale conducted by Woolley & Wallis at Ashley Manor, near Stockbridge, Hampshire from May 18-20 was this 11 1/2in (29cm) high bronze cast of a winsome puppy by Dame Elizabeth Frink (1930-1993).

TO mount six major selling exhibitions in the space of eight years of paintings by iconic British 20th century artist L.S. Lowry (1887-1976) is, by any standards, impressive. Nonetheless, this is exactly what New Bond Street dealer Richard Green has done. His latest Lowry showcase opens this Wednesday, May 19.

THE first quarter of 2004 was good news for Sotheby’s, with several major stepping stones to putting their bottom line back on the straight and narrow.

A travel sale held by Christie’s South Kensington on April 29 was a mix of books, prints and pictures and seen here are two items from a section of that sale devoted to the Alpine regions.

THE Seven Works of Mercy by Pieter Brueghel the Younger, painted on a panel measuring 17 x 22in (42 x 56cm), raised €450,000 (£300,000) at the sale held by Van Ham (22% buyer’s premium) in Cologne on April 3. It had been estimated at €260,000.

THIS Sunday May 16, the second London Photograph Fair of the year will take place in Bloomsbury at the Bonnington Hotel in Southampton Row.