Art and antiques news from 2003

ISLINGTON specialists in Arts and Crafts The Antique Trader move forward a few decades from November 5 to 23 for a selling exhibition of the hottest commodity of the moment, Art Deco. Called simply Art Deco, the show at The Millinery Works Gallery, 85/87 Southgate Road, London N1 brings together 180 exhibits from that period of immense creativity marked midway by the 1925 Paris exhibition of the decorative arts.

TEXTILES are currently a popular commodity and Wimbledon organiser Paola Francia-Gardiner, who operates as P&A Antiques, has two fairs next month catering for this still expanding market.

MIDDLESEX organiser Carl Barnes has found much favour over the years with his specialist clock fairs, so he was dismayed recently when fire destroyed the National Motorcycle Museum, long the venue for his Midland Clock & Watch Fair.

IN 1992 Norfolk dealer Liz Allport-Lomax formed Lomax Antiques Fairs to launch the East Anglian Antique Dealers Fair at Langley Park School, Loddon, Norfolk. Now she is arguably East Anglia’s top organiser with four annual events, each with a waiting list.

CHANGES are afoot over the next few months at the popular Malvern International Antiques & Collectors Fair, held every month at Worcestershire’s Three Counties Showground.

MOROCCO’s nascent attempts to establish a reputation as an international auction venue were given fresh impetus by the 200-lot sale staged in Casablanca on September 20 by the Compagnie Marocaine des Oeuvres & Objets d’Art (18/16/14% buyer’s premium).

HERE is a tale of good luck from Julian Tatham-Losh, who owns and deals out of Top Banana Antiques Mall, Tetbury, Gloucestershire. On returning to his car at the Chatou fair in France recently, Julian lost a money belt containing some £4000 in cash.

A REMINDER that there is still some time to catch the 18 special exhibitions mounted by members of The Cotswolds Antique Dealers Association as part of their annual exhibitions fortnight, and this year to celebrate the association’s 25th anniversary. The shows are scheduled to close on October 25, but I am sure there will still be some exhibition items on sale after that date.

Ethelbert White (1891-1972): Painter Printmaker by Hilary Chapman, published by Primrose Hill Press Ltd, Stratton Audley Park, Bicester, Oxon OX27 9AB ISBN 190264834 6 £29.85 hb

Included amongst the more venerable 18th century flutes, 19th century hurdy gurdies and 17th century harpsicords and spinets that make up the l03-lot sale of early musical instruments to be held at Sotheby’s Bond Street on November 25, is this unusual piece of more recent vintage.

This 10in (25cm) Burleigh Ware pottery wall plate, by Charlotte Rhead established a new auction record for the industrial ceramicist when it sold for £2900 (plus 10 per cent buyer’s premium) at Andrew Hartley Fine Arts on October 8. Consigned to the Ilkley rooms via a local house clearance, the vibrantly-coloured plaque carried the pattern number 4350, a design previously known only from pattern books dated to c.1928-29.

Historians of the craft of fish carving currently believe that the Scotsman John B. Russell (1819/20-1893) was the first professional maker of such models. Working with carver John Tully at the Fochabers Studio, which made models for Farlow & Co. into the 1930s, Russell is known to have been producing these fine trophies from around 1880, although the early date to the example pictured here suggests some rewriting of the literature might be required.

Bonhams weren’t the only London salerooms to be offering a good selection of antique glasswares. On October 9, just a week after the Harvey’s dispersal, Christie’s South Kensington (17.5/10% per cent buyer’s premium) had a mixed-owner 280-lot selection of British and Continental glass to offer as part of their monthly At Home series.

Fontainebleau auctioneer Jean-Pierre Osenat, 57, has replaced ArtCurial’s Hervé Poulain as head of France’s auctioneers’ association, the Syndicat National des Maisons de Ventes Volontaires (SYMEV).

LAPADA chief executive John Newgas has set out to reassure his association’s members that their interests are being looked after following criticism over the way recent developments have been handled.

London has shed its reputation as the world’s only major art market centre without a major contemporary fair with the inaugural Frieze Art Fair in Regent’s Park.

AXA Art are holding a one-day seminar on protecting and conserving art on October 28 at the Royal Society of Arts, London. Before Art Falls Apart: Achieving Consensus on Care, Protection and Value will look at the changing role of dealers, curators, collectors, legal and academic experts, brokers and insurers in this field.

Sad news. The drunken rats and the two-faced lamb have finally parted company.

RUNNING at the racetrack since 1988, Caroline Penman’s Chester Antiques & Fine Art Show is a favourite with both local collectors and the 60 or so dealers who regularly exhibit. It will be held, as usual, at the County Grandstand, Chester Racecourse from October 23 to 25 and, also as usual at this event, most stock will be pre-1920.

AUSTRALIA: Today there is no love lost in any Ashes series between England and Australia. It is a hard-fought duel which engenders at best a grudging respect, but a silver presentation tray which will be offered by the Australian auctioneers Lawson Menzies on October 19 is a reminder that the original Ashes series was played in a rather more convivial spirit and ended in a true love match.