Art and antiques news from 2001

FRANCE: Sotheby’s and Paris auctioneers Maîtres Hervé Poulain and Rémy Le Fur have announced today an association to conduct three important sales in Paris on June 27, 28-29 and July 5, 2001.

IS it a toy? Is it a joke? For the uninitiated the world of Masonic-style fraternities and lodges remains an enigma, but it is full of weird and wonderful opportunities for collectors who understand what they are looking at.

UK: A number of auctioneers have remarked on a rather flat silver market of late but the Surrey auctioneers Crow's saw no such reluctance among buyers with a number of offerings going well above estimate.

HY. Duke & Son of Dorchester have been brought in at very short notice to sell major pieces by John Makepeace on the premises at Parnham House in Dorset on May 26.

UK: Nineteenth century brown furniture under £2500 was the trade staple of this monthly sale at Phillips' Sevenoaks in Kent, where the fiercest bidding contest was joined for a 20th century set of 22 mahogany balloon back dining chairs.

UK: Chillingham Castle, Northumberland, is the usual venue for Jim Railton's, Gosforth, spring sale, but the predations of Foot and Mouth meant that it had to be relocated to one of the smarter districts of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

Miller’s Collectables Price Guide 2001/2, edited by Madeleine Marsh

Internet auction giant EBay Inc. is to follow Yahoo in banning the sale of artefacts from Nazi Germany, in the hope of avoiding legal problems in other countries.

Salvo Guide 2000, by Thornton Kay

UK: Sotheby’s has strongly denied newspaper claims that its New Bond Street headquarters are up for sale, but a senior executive did confirm that the company has valued its other property in preparation for the move to Olympia this September.

UK: Salvaged from the potting shed of a local farmhouse, this George II giltwood and marble topped console table attracted fierce bidding at Philip Serrell’s Malvern salerooms on May 10.

An 8th/9th century Syrian alabaster column capital provided the highest price for an object in London's spring Islamic series of sales.

Last updated 12 June 2001

USA: IT involves a rather longer trip than to North Yorkshire, but among the world’s top events celebrating ethnographic arts and crafts The New York International Tribal Antiques Show will run at the Seventh Regiment Armory, Park Avenue and 67th St, from May 20 to 23 with a $75 evening benefit preview on Saturday May 19.

Such is the ubiquity of lamp bases that have been converted from vases that rarely does one encounter a genuine collector’s item in this field, but this abstracted stoneware example produced for the Atlantis range of Poole pottery in the early 1970s, was a refreshing discovery. consigned to the Applied Arts sale at Sotheby’s South (15/10 per cent buyer’s premium) near Billingshurst on March 27.

USA: Fears that the recent slowdown in the US economy would drastically affect the top end of the art market were to some extent realised at New York’s Impressionist and Modern sales last week.

USA: Florida-based organiser David Lester has abandoned plans to launch his inaugural America’s International Fine Art Fair at Westchester County, New York State, this October and has postponed the debut until October 11 to 20, 2002.

Dennis Tito is evidently not the only American millionaire with a fascination for space exploration.

UK: Moroccan textiles were the strong suit in Christie’s South Kensington’s May 4 sale of Islamic and Indian textiles, none more so than this impressive 2ft 3in x 8ft x6in (70cm x 2.6m) silk-embroidered linen ceremonial panel dated to the 18th century and worked with striking abstract designs.

Work to transform and modernise the Hôtel Drouot has been delayed for a third time due to “technical and material constraints” and will now begin in March/April 2002 and last until September next year.