Art and antiques news from 2003

A BASIC clerical error seems certain to delay compensation payments linked to the Sotheby’s/Christie’s price fixing settlement, it has emerged. At least in some cases, the figures quoted in forms sent out notifying claimants of their entitlements have been transcribed in dollars rather than in sterling.

The strong collecting base for miniatures has cushioned this market from the wider economic vagaries that have affected other more trade-dependent fields such as furniture and silver. Bonhams Bond Street (19.5/10% buyer’s premium) specialist Emma Rutherford reckoned around 80 per cent of entries sold privately in their 193-lot routine miniature and silhouettes sale back on July 1. “Our buyers tend to be retired and tend to have their money readily accessible,” she said.

One weekend every summer, this quiet South Yorkshire village is overwhelmed by enthusiasts, collectors and dealers of antique bottles, pot lids and advertising, who converge to participate in the collector’s fair, Elsecar National, and to bid in BBR auction’s major sale hosted on an adjacent site.

Twice a year Russian silver and icons are included in Christie’s South Kensington’s (17.5/10% buyer’s premium) routine miniature and vertu sales and it was the 44-lot Russian silver section that saw some of the most consistent bidding in this 587-lot July 15 outing.

SYDNEY-based auction house Goodmans have joined the growing Bonhams empire in a bid to dominate the Australian auction scene. Bonhams & Goodman, to be run by Goodmans managing director Tim Goodman, will look to source goods from all over Australasia in direct competition with Sotheby’s and Christie’s.

THE fascinating pocket sundial, right, dated to 1585 and attributed to the Elizabethan mapmaker Augustine Ryther (1550-93) is to be offered on September 25 at the Lincoln rooms of Thomas Mawer & Sons. Although Ryther was better known for his map engraving, he also created a number of high quality brass instruments, of which only two have so far been documented.

A grant of £25,095 from the National Art Collections Fund has helped the British Library acquire an album of evocative memories of 19th-century Delhi – Reminiscences of Imperial Delhi.

Buckles come in all shapes, sizes and materials and are small, decorative and cheap. The earliest examples date to medieval times and their rise and fall in fashion mirrors movements in social history. Buckles come in all shapes, sizes and materials and are small, decorative and cheap. The earliest examples date to medieval times and their rise and fall in fashion mirrors movements in social history.

Halls Fine Art of Shrewsbury discovered this ornate carved oak sideboard, valued at up to £35,000, at a home in the Welshpool area and will offer it at auction on September 24. The sideboard was commissioned by John Naylor for the dining room at Leighton Hall, near Welshpool and made by famous furniture makers J. D. Crace after a design by Pugin. 

IRELAND: IRISH pictures for many years flew off the rostrum with both a strong private market in Ireland and the money of Irish-Americans to fuel the enthusiasm. Irish art still, of course, sells, but there is no doubt that collectors are becoming more selective.

THE mighty Phillips auction house may no longer be around, but former employees are still thriving. Now some of them have decided that they would like to catch up with ex-colleagues and have formed Phillips Reunited to do just that.

THE success of Christie`s marines sale in New York will no doubt be heartening news for Bonhams (19.5/10% buyer’s premium) who have been holding specialist marine picture sales for the last 20 years and whose latest offering, the second so far this year, is due to be held at their Bond Street rooms on September 16.

HAMPTONS re-open their Marlborough salerooms this week after a refurbishment that has taken the best part of a year. John Haycraft, formerly of Phillips, will head up the team there and will be assisted by Sarah Eames, who comes from outside of the industry.

The Somerset-based restoration and conservation specialists Everett Fine Art Ltd will launch what they believe is the first emergency service for art and antiques this month.

SCOTTISH provincial silver is one of the only consistently strong areas of the silver market and, if recent sales in Edinburgh are anything to go by, Banff silver is what everyone wants.

There is always a premium placed upon unrestored Georgian walnut. There is equally a premium to be paid for miniature pieces. Combine the two and it explains the level of competition achieved for this 18th century miniature bureau at Woolley & Wallis’s July 15 furniture sale.

Italian Medals – c.1530-1600 by Philip Attwood, British Museum Press. £250 hb, two volumes. ISBN 01741 08618. Available from Oxbow (+ 44 [0]1865 241249) or Thomas Heneage Art Books, 42 Duke Street, London SW1 6DJ (+ 44 [0]20 7930 9223.

THE word from Ireland is that autumn could be hard work – judging by results at the antiques fair staged as part of the Royal Dublin Society Horse Show from August 6 to 10. The Horse Show is a prime event in the city’s social calendar and the idea of the antiques fair – organised in the past by veteran Irish promoter Louis O’ Sullivan but this year by the RDS itself – is to put the 25 exhibitors in a potentially profitable ambience.

Last summer Sotheby’s took a bid of £36,000 on a copy of the 1937 first edition of The Hobbit inscribed in October of that year to Tolkien’s Aunt Jane; this summer they raised £40,000 for a copy that he had inscribed at the time of publication.

AS autumn approaches, dealers are marking their diaries for some familiar calls and a favourite entry for the Home Counties trade will be The Petersfield Antiques Fair at The Festival Hall of the Hampshire town from September 5 to 7.