Art and antiques news from 2002

US auction house Dargate will be put up for auction on March 30 without reserve. The decision follows the failure of the first attempt on September 7 last year, when the starting bid for the fixed assets, ongoing business, goodwill, Website, mailing list and other holdings was set at $500,000.

Mallet, one of London’s most famous and venerable antiques dealerships, are opening prestigious new permanent galleries on New York’s Upper East Side.

Bonhams increased the buyer’s premium on their lower price tier for purchases this month. From March 1 a new rate applies of 17.5 per cent (plus VAT) on the first £30,000 and 10 per cent thereafter.

CHRISTIE’S led worldwide auction sales in 2001, with a total of £1.242bn compared to Sotheby’s £1.14bn for the same period.

Phillips-Selkirk, the St Louis, Missouri auction house owned by Phillips de Pury Luxembourg, has a new name and a new owner.

A DOSSIER of evidence put together by the Antiques Trade Gazette over several years of investigation has led to the directors of an Essex freight firm being banned from running limited companies.

THERE are no datelines at TEFAF Maastricht, which runs in the Dutch city until March 17, but Old Masters and top quality antiques are the stock that springs immediately to mind.

Though not so credited, this coloured lithograph, Grand Prix de l’A.C.F. 1913 (Motocyclettes) has a very Gamy/Montaut look about it. In the literature section of a motoring sale held by Bonhams at the RAF Museum, Hendon, on February 25, it sold at £250.

THE Roberts Holy Land offered in the 120-lot book section of this Kent sale at Mervyn Carey on 20 February, a six-vol. 1855 quarto edition, had been kept in a barn and had virtually disintegrated over the years.

Christie’s (20.93/11.96% buyer’s premium) staged their first Automobile sale in Paris on February 12 at the Rétromobile vintage car show, which attracts 100,000 visitors every year.

“…a show, not a place to live,” was how Lord Gowrie summed up David Sylvester’s approach to decorating his homes in a tribute previewing Sotheby’s sale of the art critic and curator’s collection last month.

Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire, designed by Robert Adam and James Paine, is one of Britain’s best known neo-classical stately homes. It has been home to the Curzons for centuries and although its principal contents were long ago gifted to the National Trust, the family still occupy a substantial wing and they have instructed Nottingham auctioneers Neales to hold an attic sale of their possessions this month on the premises.

BETTER known for its polo club than its fine art, Cowdray Park in Midhurst, Sussex nevertheless provided Hampshire auctioneers Jacobs & Hunt with some talking points among a quantity of the “surplus to requirements” chattels the owners of the country pile had decided to get rid of.

NEW YORK: MARINE paintings are a specialist area which have received plenty of attention from auction houses eager to tap into the wealth of those rich enough to enjoy mucking around in boats.

A £70,000 REWARD is being offered after five paintings worth more than £1.7m were stolen from an antiques fair in Sweden.

Perfect conditions were required for the production of 18th century soft paste porcelain, but work only began on this rare group, right, after three ships laden with 44 factory staff and 88 tons of equipment had been ferried from Italy to Spain.

THE conventions of attribution for paintings are safe after a High Court judge ruled in favour of Mayfair art dealers Agnew’s in a £1.5m claim by a disgruntled customer.

VICTORIA Borwick, until last autumn director of the Olympia Fine Art and Antiques Fairs, has joined Florida-based IFAE (International Fine Art Expositions) as a fair director.

THE new survey of the European art market commissioned by The European Fine Art Federation makes for grim reading.

THE Taunton rooms of Greenslade Taylor Hunt (10 per cent buyer’s premium) were graced with the presence of a “minor media celebrity”, on St. Valentine’s day when this rare Steiff rod-jointed teddy bear, right, known as Percy, made an appearance.