Art and antiques news from 2002

NEWS from Cologne, one of the contemporary art capitals of the world, is that installations are as trendy as ever. At Art Cologne 2002, to run from October 30 to November 3 at Kolnmesse, half of the 20 international artists selected for the fair’s promotional programme, whereby young artists are sponsored with free stands to encourage new work, are into installations.

Shot by a sniper when aboard HMS Victory at the crowning moment of his career, Admiral Lord Nelson is without doubt Britain’s finest maritime hero. When news of his death, after triumping at the Battle of Trafalgar, reached London George III made the decision to break with tradition and give Nelson a state funeral.

BRINGING a welcome change of climate into English salerooms from North Italy, this 18th century cassone, right, led what auctioneer Ben Gamble described as a day when “everything seemed to be selling well” at South & Stubbs (10% buyer’s premium) on September 27 at their Penkridge, Staffordshire salerooms.

THREE well-known and energetic dealerships whose trade is mainly with the trade have combined to form a major new outlet in the Midlands.

THE Haughtons’ International is not the only fair in town in mid-October and very well worth a visit is the Gramercy Park Antiques Show from October 18 to 20 at the downtown 69th Regiment Armory on Lexington Avenue at 26th Street.

LAPADA, the UK’s largest dealer association, have launched the LAPADA Wedding Present Service in a bid to boost business for their more than 700 members.

THERE were cows aplenty, but only one beef, at Sotheby’s Olympia on Thursday night, when 60 bovine belles did their bit for charity. The high-profile heifers, whom you may have seen grazing the streets of London through the summer, were the first tranche of the Cow Parade sale – another 90 are due to be offered soon on the Internet.

ST James’s dealer John Bly is the latest of an increasing number establishing a presence in the United States. He starts from December 10 to 14 with a selling exhibition with lectures, for which he will take over The Versailles Suite at New York’s famous Carlyle Hotel.

WITH the backing of 65 per cent of a PayPal shareholders vote, eBay have completed their acquisition of the leading online payments company. Despite the overwhelming approval of the merger, some shareholders did object to it, suing eBay and PayPal in an attempt to block the acquisition.

Sotheby’s break mould in bid to lure Germans: A little piece of history was made on October 8 and 9 when Sotheby’s four-part dispersal of the Beck Collection of 20th Century German and Austrian art became the first major sale ever to be conducted in euros in a London auction room.

After the spectacular HK$37m (£3,394,495) price bid for the Yongzheng (1723-35) peach vase in Sotheby’s Hong Kong May 7 sale, their New York rooms had high hopes for this yellow ground famille rose double gourd vase, Qianlong period (1736-95), consigned by the same private US vendor, in their Chinese outing on September 19. They were not disappointed by the outcome.

“A fine and rare Märklin gauge III spirit fired live steam locomotive with tender and two hand-painted coaches... presented to the Tsar Nicholas II on the occasion of the Russian royal family’s state visit to Paris in 1905...complete with unpublished photograph of the Tsar and Tsarevich in the hotel”.

Asian Biennale: Running alongside the main Biennale for six days last month and providing an alternative Asian focus to the glitter of French furniture, jewels and Art Deco at the Carrousel du Louvre was a new venture. The Biennale des Arts Asiatiques, organised by the Association des Specialistes d’Art Asiatiques, was a Salon of 22 specialist dealers set in a marquee at the other end of the Tuileries Gardens, which ran from September 21-25.

The extensive press coverage given over to the conflict in Afghanistan may have helped re-focus collectors’ attentions on the magnificent Gandharan sculpture produced in this troubled region in the second and third centuries AD.

Chinese Classic Furniture – The Dr S.Y. Yip Collection: It may come as a surprise to some to learn that the Ming dynasty’s minimalist huanghuali furniture has traditionally been more prized in the West than it has been in the East.

Bligh relics sold as part of the Travel Week at Christie’s, attracted national media headlines, but the most successful of this series of four sales was the Freycinet Collection, which on September 26 raised a premium-inclusive total of £1.57m.

FANS of television’s Sharpe will be well acquainted with the tough life of the trooper during the Peninsula War, and also with the grander life of the officers who managed to dine elegantly in their tents on the eve of battle.

UNTIL November 30 Vienna dealers Michaela and Wolfgang Bauer hold their autumn selling exhibition at their gallery Bel Etage at Mahlerstrasse 15.

Novelty pieces and collector’s items like this Art Nouveau enamelled silver double-photograph locket, right, were the pieces mainly in demand at the silver and jewellery sale held by Fellows (15% buyer’s premium) at Birmingham on September 5.

RAYMOND CHANDLER’S Philip Marlowe first appeared in The Big Sleep of 1939, and the copy seen above right, in a slightly chipped and torn jacket, sold for $8000 (£5160) in Pt. II of the ‘Detective Fiction Library of Richard M.Lackritz’, sold by Christie’s New York on September 24, but Chandler was not the writer who enjoyed the greatest success.