Art and antiques news from 2001

Judith Miller: Antiques Hunter’s Guide to Europe. ISBN 1840283343. £16.99

The mixed medley that constitutes Christie’s South Kensington’s (17.5/10% buyer’s premium) periodic sales of mechanical music and technical apparatus can regularly be expected to include a selection of sewing machines, typewriters, phonographs, gramophones and various incarnations of musical boxes.

UK: Potential clash with summer Olympia - Date changes at two of next year’s Antiques For Everyone fairs have thrown the early summer fairs schedule of a number of dealers into disarray.

A sporting treble of Cricket, Boxing and Tennis made up the 311-lot sale held at Christie’s South Kensington back on June 22. This early tilt- headed lawn tennis racket which made one of the highest prices in the tennis section had the double distinction of being an early piece of equipment with a provenance to a pioneer champion of the sport.

Sometimes the most famous names can be found in the unlikeliest places. Biddle & Webb auctioneer Nicholas Davies had been called out to view a Georgian drop leaf table in a local property but noticed this early trefid spoon, pictured, in a small box of cutlery.

Members of the trade still looking for a suitable holiday destination could do worse than consider Pirate’s Cove on Cocos Island, the subject of this Montague Dawson oil on canvas, 3ft 4in by 4ft 2in, which appeared at Christie’s Maritime sale in New York on July 31.

ANY aspirant outlaw should know that in order to ensure a special place in folk tradition it is no good just killing and robbing, you have to acquire an idiosyncrasy or two that will add gloss to the flyposters and newspaper reports, and keep storytellers exciting children for generations to come.

Sotheby’s (20/15/10% buyer’s premium) offered buyers two sporting sales last month, on July 18 and 19, with the first day devoted to a large golfing section plus a mix of other sports, while the subsequent session comprised 200 lots of pictures, objects and ephemera devoted to equestrian sports.

Today’s national cricket teams jet around the world to their Test series by plane, but back in the early 20th century the cruise liner was the chosen mode of transport.

UK: THE Antiques Trade Gazette has been given an exclusive preview of Sotheby’s new saleroom at Olympia. With 120 men a day working onsite to meet the September 3 deadline, prior to the first sale on September 18, one can see it is going to be very impressive indeed.

Minton’s majolica is currently riding high with collectors who appreciate its bright colours and distinctive, often quirkily clever designs. But there is much more to Minton than its majolica, as a loan exhibition currently on show at Phillips New Bond Street rooms aims to show.

FRANCE: THE make-up of the Conseil des Ventes, the new auction watchdog to vet all companies wishing to stage auctions in France, has been announced far quicker than expected.

June saw the fourth and final episode in the dispersal of the Ken Smith Collection of Staffordshire pot lids and Prattware by Reading auctioneers Special Auction Services (15% buyer’s premium inc. vat). The 240 lots from the collection, mainly four items per lot, formed part of the 1000-lot event over the weekend of June 9 & 10 and contributed £47,400 to the hammer total of £207,500 for the whole collection of which only a remarkable 23 lots failed to get away.

Illustrated right are three of the 215 lots that made up the collection formed by Bob Scoales, a member of the Japan Society sold at Dominic Winter, Swindon on June 20-21. • Though many of the books naturally refer to Japan’s earlier history, most were written in the wake of Perry’s US naval expedition of 1850-52 and the opening up of the country to foreigners, but one notable exception was a Narrative of My Captivity in Japan in the Years 1811-13 by Captain V.M. Golownin.

The demand for the best of Louis Comfort Tiffany’s studio glass continued apace at Christie’s (17.5/10% buyer’s premium) 86-lot Important 20th century Decorative Arts including Works by Tiffany Studios, June 7.

ARMS and toys are specialities of Lewes auctioneers Wallis & Wallis (15% buyer’s premium) and on June 11 their 285 lots of toys included die-cast tinplate toys, toy soldiers and the Mirylees Collection of Dolls’ Houses and dolls.

ESSEX organiser Robert Bailey holds his main South of England summer fair at, appropriately, Sotheby’s South, one mile north of Billingshurst in West Sussex, from August 17 to 19.

Tiffany Favrile glass brought the biggest money at Sotheby’s (20/15/10% buyer’s premium) 407-lot 20th Century Works of Art, June 5. Foremost was a privately consigned Favrile glass and bronze dogwood cone chandelier, 3ft 4in (1m), with chains, ceiling cap and verdigris patina.

UK: Sotheby’s horological sales always incorporate a section on mechanical music. Their latest event featured material from a well known, leading figure in this trade: the late Jack Donovan, the Portobello Road dealer in tinplate toys, automata and musical boxes, who died in 1998.

FRANCE: FRENCH auction law reform should finally be introduced on October 1, although it could take months after that date before overseas auctioneers will be allowed to hold sales.