Art and antiques news from 2003

Cameras: A 100 per cent sell-out is something to crow about these days and Christie’s South Kensington were certainly pleased to chalk up a complete success for their sale of Jim Barron’s collection of British Cameras on December 11.

BONHAMS have appointed Jon Baddeley, pictured right, to the new role of group head of the Collectors’ department with effect from Monday, February 3.

The Gart der Gesundheit is one of the giants in the field. The most important herbal of the 15th century, it contained the finest illustrations of the incunable period and was unsurpassed until the appearance of the first edition of the Brunfels herbal in 1530.

19th century cameo glass was the strong suit in Sotheby’s sale of European glass from the Hida Takayama Museum of Art in Japan, held in their Bond Street rooms on December 19. Amongst a number of pieces that were particularly keenly contested by the room and the telephones was this 16in (41cm) high Thomas Webb vase which sold to a private buyer for £95,000 (plus 19.5/10% premium) after bidding first from the room then a battle between two telephones.

Ceramics: November/December saw a whole slew of ceramics sales take place in the London rooms either devoted entirely to British or to Continental material or a mix of the two. One of the last to take place was Bonhams’ indigenous selection offered in their Bond Street rooms on December 11.

Patrick Bogue has been holding successful poster sales at specialist collectables auctioneers Onslows since 1984 and his latest was a reminder that Christie’s South Kensington do not have a monopoly on this active market.

Tajan, who have made cartoons and comic strips into a saleroom speciality, claimed a saleroom first on November 30: a pioneering opportunity for fans of Lucky Luke, the self-styled “poor lonesome cowboy”, to buy an original plate by his artist Morris.

Sotheby’s claimed a world record price for a printed French book on December 5 when a 1931 edition of Balzac’s Le Chef d’Oeuvre Inconnu, illustrated by Picasso, sold just short of estimate for €550,000 (£353,000).

AFTER 18 years of setting rather than following trends with their Decorative Antiques and Textiles Fairs, organisers Patricia and Ralph Harvey know their field well, and no doubt the 100 or so exhibitors at the first of the thrice-yearly decorative fairs, to be held in Battersea Park from January 14 to 19, hope the formula proves successful yet again.

Continental Furniture: Christie’s offered a concentration of furnishings from Continental Europe on December 12, kicking off with a select 114-lot, separately catalogued morning session devoted entirely to French furniture, with a larger 240-odd lots drawn from across the European spectrum in the afternoon.

European Works of Art: There was no real surprise about the star lot in Sotheby’s December 10 works of art sale. The piece that attracted plenty of attention at the pre-sale viewing and made far and away the highest price in the 177-lot gathering was this c.1520-25 terracotta bust of the Virgin and Child by Il Riccio, which, at £3m, singlehandedly accounted for two thirds of the auction’s entire £4.47m total.

A selection from one of the least known public collections in the country is going on exhibition in London for the first time. Eighty of the best pieces from the birthplace museum, Gainsborough’s House in Sudbury, are being lent to the art dealers, Agnew’s in London.

Unsigned Arts & Crafts metalwork has lately been getting the sort of high prices normally reserved for attributable material and this copper-mounted mirror, right, was no exception – the sleeper of Bonhams’ (17.5/10% buyer’s premium) sale of Decorative Arts at Glasgow School of Arts on November 28.

THE Tate Gallery has launched a campaign to raise £12.5m to acquire Sir Joshua Reynolds’ celebrated portrait of Omai, the South Sea Islander who took London Society by storm in the 18th century.

Does the fine arts business warrant professional qualifications? What form should the education take? Should there be only one body representing the profession or several representing different aspects?

BONHAMS will call their newly merged American company Bonhams and Butterfields from January 1 and are sending out group managing director Malcolm Barber from London to San Francisco to run it.

THE National Arts Collection Fund have announced a raft of new grants to celebrate the start of their centenary year. First up is a grant of £33,000 towards the £132,000 needed by the Glasgow Museums to acquire Harry Clarke’s stained glass window depicting the Coronation of the Virgin.

Deal clears way for leaseback of building: Sotheby's will be able to clear up to $100m of debt – including their recent $20m European Commission fine – by selling their York Avenue headquarters in New York.

A VENDOR who believes an auctioneer’s negligence cost him hundreds of thousands of pounds says he will sue despite leading experts dismissing the disputed piece as a 20th century reproduction.

Coming up in Galashiels... The Yorkshire Arts and Crafts cabinetmaker Robert ‘Mouseman’ Thompson hardly needs an introduction. His distinctive adzed oak furniture, each piece relief-carved with a small mouse, proved so successful that a menagerie of imitators sprang up in the 1950s and ’60s.