Art and antiques news from 2002

In a second attempt to have his price-fixing conviction overturned, former Sotheby’s auction house chairman A. Alfred Taubman has asked an appeals court to reconsider his case, citing errors by the trial judge. “This was not a fair fight,” lawyers for the Bloomfield Hills multimillionaire said when filing the 95-page appeal document on May 21.

THE WILD IRISH GIRL was the novel that made the name of Miss Sydney Owenson, the daughter of a Shrewsbury merchant and mayor who later married Sir Thomas Charles Morgan, surgeon to her Dublin patrons, the Marquess and Lady Abercorn. A self-proclaimed national tale, it weaves Irish history, politics and mythology into a romantic tale but the author’s vision of a politically and religiously united Ireland remains a dream.

THIS wig powderer was made in York in 1817. Described in Michael Clayton’s book The Collector’s Dictionary of Silver & Gold of Great Britain & North America as “a tapering cylinder, from the cover of which rises a tube with a mouth of spherical form,” this type is dated to around 1800.

Fare dodging is a chronic problem on public transport. But in 19th century America it was the passengers who had to keep an eye on the authorities, not the other way around.

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Sir Nicholas Goodison, chairman of the National Art Collections Fund (the Art Fund) since 1986, is to step down from the post at the end of the year.

Rising above all else at the Chichester sales held by Strides (15% buyer’s premium) on April 26 was this 9ft (2.74m) high, c.1800 mahogany longcase clock, right. In a market where decorative clocks are selling better than ever, this piece by Hardeman and Son of Bridge was a timely reminder that large, plain clocks can still do very well if they have an unusual movement.

Painter Albin Burt’s customised copy of an otherwise standard textbook, a two-vol., 1817 edition of Stewart’s Elements of the Natural History of the Animal Kingdom, contains extensive manuscript additions and hundreds of original illustrations to add to the basic 12 engraved plates.

A former chief executive of Vernon’s Pools hit the jackpot at Vectis (10 per cent buyer’s premium) on May 8-9, when the specialist toy auctioneers dispersed just over 2000 lots of his Dinky and Corgi vehicles at their Buckingham salerooms for a total of £350,000.

THIS unrecorded portrait by John Constable, estimated to make up to £80,000, was discovered by East Anglian auctioneer and fine art broker John Vost during a routine valuation at a house on the Suffolk/Norfolk border.

This Chamberlains Worcester yellow ground beaker-shaped vase c.1802, painted with a figure emblematic of Fame and supporting a miniature of Admiral Lord Nelson to commemorate the battle of the Nile, appeared at Law Fine Art on May 22 with an estimate of £4000-6000, having been consigned by a “Middle England” collector.

At the eleventh hour, manuscripts purporting to be undiscovered music and poems by “America’s first native-born composer” were withdrawn from ,b>Freeman’s of Philadelphia May 16 books and manuscripts sale. Why? Evidence had surfaced that the archive was a sophisticated forgery.

Yahoo will close five of its auction sites in Europe and instead promote eBay’s competing auctions as part of an agreement the companies announced on last week.

eBay sellers dealing in collectables are getting lower prices and having fewer successful auctions than a year ago, according to a study by AuctionBytes.com. The results were similar to those found in a separate analysis by TIAS.com.

LONDON antiques centre Antiquarius say they are delighted to have the opportunity to sign up some of the dealers who have quit nearby Bourbon-Hanby in a disagreement over rent rises and lease terms.

Insurance giants AXA and Barclays Private Equity have withdrawn their offers to buy Drouot. In a statement issued on May 13, AXA said that their €82m offer, tabled on March 21, was to be “considered null and void, given the difficulty in obtaining the support of a majority of commissaires-priseurs”.

With the bulk of the 377 lots at the Grantham rooms of Marilyn Swain (15% buyer’s premium) on April 10 being fairly mediocre, the late Victorian mahogany and satinwood Tous Les Louis Exhibition quality kneehole writing desk, right, was always going to shine out.

THE seven medals and insignia right are a stirring memento of one of the greatest moments in British military history. They are the service medals and awards, including the G.C.B and K.C.B of the Order of the Bath, Netherlandish Military Order of William and Russian Order of St Vladimir, presented to General Sir Peregrine Maitland.

Major photograph sales are usually confined to London and New York salerooms, but since selling the Earl Craven family archive of daguerreotypes last year Bearne’s of Exeter (buyer’s premium 15 per cent) are now on the international circuit.

With the bulk of the 377 lots at the Grantham rooms of Marilyn Swain (15% buyer’s premium) on April 10 being fairly mediocre, the late Victorian mahogany and satinwood Tous Les Louis Exhibition quality kneehole writing desk, right, was always going to shine out.