Art and antiques news from 2003

London 1753 by Sheila O’Connell, published by The British Museum Press. ISBN 0714126314 £24.99sb

WELL-known London dealer in all things quirky and decorative, Daniel Mankowitz, has just finished his stint at Olympia and returns to the Battersea gallery he has just opened at Studio F1, The Imperial Laundry, 71 Warriner Gardens, London SW11 4XW (Tel: 0207 498 0000).

To you and me it’s just a 1950s enamel station sign but to railwayana enthusiasts – and to Gloucestershire Worcestershire Railwayana Auctions who are currently selling it at their first private treaty auction – this is quite simply the most desirable ‘totem’ ever to come on the market. So what’s all the fuss about?

New European Union regulations regarding the collection of VAT on digital services mean that eBay will begin collecting VAT on seller fees from July 1.

The Scottish Tourist Board has given Rait Antiques Centre a much-coveted three-star Tourist Shop Award under the Board’s Visitor Attraction Grading Scheme.

The combination of a single-owner collection in a specialist niche corner of the market with a not over-large and mostly market-fresh selection of realistically estimated material were the keys to the warm reception that greeted Sotheby’s (20/12% buyer’s premium) sale of Scientific instruments in their Olympia rooms on May 28. All bar 15 of the 155 lots, just short of 90 per cent (92 per cent by value) changed hands for a total of £262,350.

WHEN he died tragically in a walking accident in Vermont last October, John Stewart Parry was still in full flow as a collector. A former advertising executive who lived in Gloucestershire, he began to buy antiques in the 1980s first for his home, Abnash House in Stroud, and then for an investment trust of which he was the primary advisor.

November’s Asian Art in London series will again include an Award for Asian Art presented by AXA Art Insurance, the sponsors of the event for the third time. Dealers and auction houses participating in Asian Art in London are invited to enter two separate categories of the award – best two-dimensional object and best three-dimensional object – designed to reward excellence in the selling of Asian Art.

The future of the Barbican Antiques Centre in Plymouth seems all but secure with the current manager of the 50-dealer shop eager to take over when the freehold of the building is sold.

Lack of Americans hits top dealers. As American buyers stayed away, sales by 400 of Britain’s top art and antiques dealers fell by almost a tenth last year. This was one of the key findings of the fourteenth annual British Antique Dealers’ Association survey covering trading in 2001-02, completed by 58 per cent of members including well-known names such as Richard Green, Mallett and S.J. Phillips.

The University of Central Lancashire is to offer a Master of Arts in antiques via the Internet. The new e-MA in antiques is intended for beginners who want to develop their interest in an area of antiques, pictures, and collectables, without the necessity of on-campus attendance.

Russian Works of Art: Alongside the sale of Russian paintings in their Bond Street rooms on May 21, Sotheby’s also followed on the next day with a sale of Russian works of art at their Olympia rooms.

A NEW association has been launched in Scotland in the hope of providing a united voice for dealers north of the border. The Scottish Antique & Fine Art Dealers Association is the brainchild of Sandra Patterson (the wife of an Ayrshire dealer) who hopes to address the unique challenges faced by Scottish dealers.

Waddesdon Manor, the French chateau-style house built for the Rothschild banking family near Aylesbury, lost a group of around 100 gold boxes and other precious objects from its world-famous collections following a break-in in the early hours of the morning of June 10.

Casting aside one of the last vestiges of the old Phillips, the former New York headquarters of the auction house has been sold. The saleroom located at 406 East 79th Street on Manhattan's East Side was acquired during Phillips’ expansion in the United States in the 1990s and was retained by the company when LVMH bought into Phillips in 1999 and when Simon de Pury and Daniella Luxembourg took majority control in 2002.

WHEN he died tragically in a walking accident in Vermont last October, John Stewart Parry was still in full flow as a collector. A former advertising executive who lived in Gloucestershire, he began to buy antiques in the 1980s first for his home, Abnash House in Stroud, and then for an investment trust of which he was the primary advisor.

BRITISH pottery specialist John Howard, whose particular enthusiasm is Staffordshire, is a familiar figure at quality fairs and when I caught up with him last week on his stand at Olympia he told me that there had been some changes on the home front.

HARROGATE-based organisers Galloway Fairs do not have to leave their home county of North Yorkshire for the summer staging of The Duncombe Park Antiques Fair, which will be held this weekend from June 13 to 15 at the home of Lord and Lady Feversham at Duncombe Park, Helmsley.

VENERABLE top Mayfair dealers Partridge hold an exhibition of French clocks at their gallery at 144-146 New Bond Street, London W1 from June 12 to 28.

DURING the 19th century, flowers played a far greater role in everyday social life than they do today, with each flower being ascribed a particular meaning and messages being passed (particularly from men to women) via blooms.