Art and antiques news from 2001

UK: BEARING 12 battle honours to unhappy, if topical, Afghanistan, this piece of splendidly confident Victorian headwear, led the way among the 570 lots of militaria on offer at Lewes based arms and armour specialists Wallis & Wallis (15 per cent buyer’s premium) on February 13.

UK: THREE more selections from the Ronald Segal library which was auctioned off in Sotheby’s English Literature & History sale held on December 19.

UK: COINCIDING with the recent recovery of Donald Campbell’s boat from Coniston Water, photographs and ephemera relating to Campbell’s famous father Sir Malcolm attracted extra interest at this Devon sale.

Irish Botanical Illustrators and Flower Painters by Patricia Butler, published by the Antique Collectors’ Club. ISBN 1851493573. £25

UK: THREE more selections from the Ronald Segal library which was auctioned off in Sotheby’s English Literature & History sale held on December 19.

UK: THE best-seller of Phillips’ 19th century sale came from the selection of sculpture in the shape of this 20in (52cm) high bronze of a crouching nude by the French sculptor Aimé Jules Dalou. Dalou, a fierce Republican, who spent a period of exile in England in the 1870s, is as well known for his terracottas as for his bronzes, both executed in highly naturalistic style.

UK: A POTENT combination of nostalgia and rarity lay behind the £12,000 paid for the poster pictured here in Christie’s South Kensington’s (17.5/10 per cent buyer’s premium) annual ski poster sale on February 22.

UK: A TYPICAL mammoth offering of 1463 lots at the Norfolk rooms’ collectors’ sale included something for just about anyone buying on a modest budget – and, as usual, a few unexpected bidding battles.

INVALUABLE have secured a £1m injection of capital from an ethical investment fund to help develop their stolen database services further.

UK: DOROTHY L. SAYERS, with the able assistance of Lord Peter Wimsey, established herself as one of the foremost figures in what is now termed the ‘Golden Age’ of detective stories, but she was also a remarkably versatile and wide-ranging playwright, a Christian thinker, an essayist and translator, and an accomplished scholar in the field of European medieval literature.

UK: THE Staffordshire auctioneers are the latest to introduce a Decorative Arts section to their sales to catch the current market trend and, although in this case, these largely comprised the sort of 20th century ceramics seen in most rooms, giving them their own section appeared to pay off.

UK: DETECTIVE fiction is the theme of the first of my much-delayed reports on the English Literature & History sale held by Sotheby’s on December 19 – though there have been several cross-references to items from this sale in earlier issues – and it takes the form of a largely pictorial selection of books from the relevant section of the Ronald Segal library.

Two weeks ago (Issue No. 1478) we reported the sale of Sigmar Polke’s re-discovered 1963-64 Untitled Doppel portrat, above left, at a record £1.05m at Sotheby’s February 7 Contemporary Art Sale in London to the German collector Friedrich ‘Mick’ Flick.

How a trade veteran fixed rate for his estate left to charity... UK: THE great question that every dealer must address when death approaches is what to do with all those antiques accumulated in the home after a lifetime of business.

UK: THE market for Sir William Russell Flint (1880-1969) may have dropped somewhat in recent years – to no noticeable sorrow among the more avant garde – and only 61 of the 101 prints and watercolours got away at Bonhams & Brooks’ (15 per cent buyer’s premium) in London on February 28 .

DRAMATIC swings in the prices of precious metals over the past week have seen platinum rise by 13p per gram while silver has fallen by 9p an ounce.

UK: THE current strength of the market for anything by L.S. Lowry (1887-1976) has often been reported in these pages. On February 23 it was the turn of Chichester auctioneers Strides (15 per cent buyer’s premium) to experience the lure of the Salford-born artist when Old houses, the 15 by 19in (38 x 48cm) oil on plywood shown here, came under the hammer.

UK: TALES of the glory of Swedish feats of arms have faded somewhat since the days of Gustavus Adolphus and Charles XII but the Swedes went on producing quality armaments and armour as was shown this unusual offering, right, at the January 31 sale held by Birmingham specialists Weller & Dufty (15 per cent buyer’s premium).

ITALY: THIS quasi-Roman coin (34mm) of Hadrian – actually a ‘cabinet piece’ made in 16th century Padua (the main centre for this type of replica) for the more romantic type of collector – made Li500,000 (£170).

CRITICISM of this column that it deals with auction results as opposed to private treaty deals is perhaps justified. The difficulty is that one is not privy to private treaty details and nor should we be.