Furniture

Two well-known former London auction specialists are launching a new enterprise selling English and European antique furniture.

It is not every day you get the chance to own a unique, original piece of the oldest church in England still in use. If that is your desire, on September 24 your prayers will be answered.

An impressive and richly decorated pair of early 17th century gilt bronze and pietre dura inlaid Italian cabinets, which stood in Castle Howard, Yorkshire for two and a half centuries, have been saved for the Nation by the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.

Five pieces of furniture consigned from direct descendants of architect and craftsman Sidney Barnsley (1865-1926) drew bidders’ attention at Woolley & Wallis’ latest Arts and Crafts sale in Salisbury.

Culture Minister Ed Vaizey has placed a temporary export bar on a 17th century Florentine pietre dure table top. It was sold in December at Sotheby’s in London for £3m.

Kraemer Gallery and Didier Aaron & Cie, the two leading members of the Paris trade embroiled in a faking scandal, are expected to be excluded from the forthcoming Biennale des Antiquaires, a source close to the French trade has told ATG.

Two barons of the Paris antiques trade have been questioned in connection with the so-called Affaire Jean Lupu, a growing scandal surrounding fakes.

A Scottish dealer whose stock and business went up in smoke has vowed to carry on with an online venture

The Oval, the international cricket ground at Kennington, south London, which is home to Surrey County Cricket Club, is the location of a new annual fair run by the founders of the Midcentury Modern shows.

Very much the pièce de résistance of Bonhams’ first oak interior sale held in their New Bond Street rooms was the final lot of the day, a 23 x 17in (58.5 x 44.5cm) Tudor oak panel carved in high relief with a portrait of a king holding an orb and sceptre, thought to represent King John.

Sotheby’s are offering 180 lots of English and continental furniture and works of art from the ‘public and private collections’ of Alan Rubin, director of London and Paris dealership Pelham Galleries.

A Russian malachite and ormolu chimney went on show last week at the museum at Cliffe Castle in Keighley more than half a century after it left the property.

Paul Iribe’s ‘Nautile’ armchair is one of the most striking proto-Art Deco designs, with its sleek swept-back lines and low armrests formed as a tight nautilus shell spiral.

Prices for standard English antique furniture fell for the eighth successive year, according to latest figures from the Antique Collectors’ Club’s (ACC) Annual Furniture Index (AFI).

Culture minister Ed Vaizey has placed a temporary export bar on a pair of 17th century Italian ebony, ormolu and hardstone inlaid cabinets in the hope that they can be saved for the nation.

The J Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles has acquired an important collection of 18th century French decorative arts assembled by Dr Horace Wood (Woody) Brock, one of the world’s foremost economists.

A late 18th century bust of the Goddess Diana which was looted from the Royal Lazienki Palace in Warsaw by the Nazis has been returned to Poland after emerging at auction in Vienna.

A bizarre story of an artist who claimed her old studio sold pieces of paint spattered carpet as her original work has appeared in the press recently, drawing attention to the thorny issue of copyright and false attribution.

The highlight of Chorley’s latest two-day sale at Prinknash Abbey was this unusual late 18th century Lombardy escritoire.

This superbly patinated Shona hardwood headrest sold for £23,000 at only the second auction at new Stowmarket saleroom Bishop & Miller.