Art and antiques news from 2002

Vintage Film Posters: For some people there is nothing more enjoyable than watching a late-night horror movie alone in pitch darkness. The fascination with terror extends to the world of vintage film posters where horror is the most sought-after genre.

The Victorian House Book, by Robin Guild pubished by Sheldrake Press. ISBN 1873329393 £30hb

Clocks, Watches and Wristwatches: There was a solid performance for the 288 lots of Clocks, Watches and Wristwatches offered by Sotheby’s Olympia (17.5/10% buyer’s premium) on September 19 marred only by the failure of the potential best seller, the 18th century English musical and automaton clock attributed to James Cox, London.c.1775.

On October 1 – 40 years to the day since he first joined Christie’s to work at their front desk – the company’s international chairman Lord Hindlip, 62, announced his retirement, effective from December 31.

Charles Horner of Halifax: A Celebration of his Life and Work by Tom J Lawson, published by GML Publishing, Leicester, distributed by the Antique Collectors’ Club Ltd., Sandy Lane, Old Martlesham, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 4SD. ISBN 0954235401 £45hb

For those who can’t afford paintings by L.S. Lowry, the Manchester townscapes of Arthur Delaney (1927-87 appear to be becoming an increasingly popular substitute.

Some of the best expressions of the Sixties’ love affair with bold psychedelic patterns and colours can be seen in the fabric designs from that era.

With the antiquities market suffering from high prices and criminal scandals and a shortage of good material, it is no real surprise that collectors have turned to natural, as opposed to man-made, artefacts of greater age and, arguably, equal beauty.

BELGIAN dealer and international interior designer Axel Vervoordt made a big splash in Paris during the 21st Biennale, but although he had a stand at the grand fair his real showstopper was outside in a 44 metre industral barge moored on the opposite bank of the Seine facing the Carrousel du Louvre.

CRAFTS traditionally have not had a very design-led image, smacking more of leather sandals and worthy little woodcarvings than contemporary objects of imagination and flair.

NICOLA Beach, who helped set up Drummond Read Recruitment and Training, has formed her own fine arts recruitment company to specialise in a narrower sector of the market.

A 221-lot auction of Contemporary Ceramics, made up the final instalment of Bonhams’ design week series on September 24. The two most bankable names in this market are Hans Coper and Lucie Rie and their work can usually be relied on to dominate the top price slots.

John Moyr Smith 1839-1912: A Victorian Designer, by Annamarie Stapleton, published by Richard Dennis Publications. ISBN 0903685841 £18sb (ISBN 0903685876 £22hb)

Two copies of Alcoholics Anonymoussigned by the founder of movement, Bill Wilson, were among the more successful lots in an August 15 Pacific Book Auctions sale of ‘Books in all Fields’.

A set of paintings, including two by Flemish master Peter Paul Rubens, have been stolen from a country house in Ireland that has now been targeted four times by thieves, police said.

COMPLEX bureaucracy and form filling are the biggest threat to small business – the backbone of the European art market – says Anthony Browne, chairman of the British Art Market Federation.

York Art Gallery have just scrapped admission charges. The gallery houses 600 years of internationally important British and European works of art including painting by Bellotto, Hockney, Hepworth and York-born William Etty.

Members of the Society of Fine Art Auctioneers are being asked to vote by post this month on far-reaching proposals which could significantly change the nature and power base of the society.

THE Italian painter Pietro Annigoni (1910-1988) is forever associated in English minds with his dramatic 1955 portrait of The Queen, which now hangs in The National Portrait Gallery and which still has plenty of admirers, including HM herself.

Fishermen’s tales are usually too tall to swallow, and the following account of a frenzied struggle on a Dorset riverbank in May 1912 would be scarcely credible were it not for the stuffed and cased evidence, right.