Art and antiques news from 2004

TWO specialist services in the world of tracking stolen art have joined forces to launch a new recovery service.

As in other markets, that of samplers has its peculiarities. While condition and craftsmanship – or rather craftsgirlship – are important they are not always paramount.

ONE of the pleasanter surprises on the fairs front last year was the immediate warm reception the trade gave to the launch of Antiques & Audacity, a new event organised by Gloucester-shire dealer Jan Hicks and staged in the grounds of Arundel Castle, West Sussex.

AS part of their 25th anniversary celebrations, The Cotswolds Antique Dealers Association are holding a selling exhibition from May 21 to 23 at the restored tithe barn in the gardens of Bourton House, Bourton-on-the-Hill, Gloucestershire.

FROM May 17 to 23 inclusive, Adam Woolf of Dome Antiques will offer a genuine 30 per cent discount on all ticket prices on the extensive stock at his warehouse at 40 Queensland Road, London N7.

ALDRIDGE’S (15% buyer's premium) are yet to be convinced of the marketing powers of the Internet (they have no website and no e-mail) but specialist Ivan Street’s belief that “on-line sale catalogues do not improve prices” was given weight when a collector tendered a punchy £7100 for a large Victorian doll’s house with pre-sale hopes of £2000-3000 at their March 30 outing.

ANOTHER 19th century doll’s house was among the more collectable entries at Mallams Cheltenham's (15% buyer's premium) March 25 sale. Previously relegated to the outbuilding of a Welsh house, the Victorian “brick” villa, complete with its original stand, was a large size at 3ft 5in by 4ft 10in (1.04m x1.47m).

INTENSE competition between three bidders on the telephone and two in the room pushed the watercolours of Edward Bawden (1903-1989) into new financial territory when this signed and dated, 1956 composition, right, House at Ironbridge, fetched £10,500 at the Sudbury, Suffolk rooms of Olivers (12.5% buyer’s premium) on April 1.

POLICE are warning the trade to be on the alert after a gang stole £8000 worth of jewellery from Banbury Antique Centre on April 19.

STILL on the bargain front, Hampshire dealers Millers Antiques will slash 20 per cent off all stock to be offered at their annual Open Weekend Exhibition to be held from May 7 to 10 at their extensive premises at Netherbrook House, 86 Christchurch Road, Ringwood.

JACOBEAN London was enthralled by the Overbury Murder case and the subsequent trial of the conspirators.

FOR many collectors, the finest quality 18th century Qing dynasty mark and period porcelain is the holy grail of Chinese ceramics, but connoisseurs have long revered the understated aesthetic and classic simplicity of the Song dynasty’s (960-1279AD) monochrome glazed ceramics.

CHARLES Baldwin’s stock-in-trade as a porcelain artist was swans in flight, but the celebrated Royal Worcester painter did occasionally apply his meticulous technique to other subjects including mammals and other birds. The sale held by Philip Laney (10% buyer’s premium) at the Malvern Auction Centre on April 6 included the impressive vase, top right, decorated by Baldwin with goldfinches.

ANOTHER giant two-day sale on March 25-26 put together by David Lay (15% buyer's premium) saw the familiar rapid selling of two and three-figure lots, the cheaper ones mainly accounting for the unsolds, peppered with lots of more quality and wider interest.

LONDON'S twice-yearly series of Islamic sales can usually be relied upon to produce some dramatic results as the deep-pocketed collectors that dominate this market battle to secure their chosen prizes. The latest Islamic series, featuring sales at Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Bonhams, was no exception, with some huge prices generated at all three houses for tiles, Isnik pottery, daggers and jewelled objects.

LAUNCHED back in 1995, Robert Bailey’s annual fair at Claridge’s has always had its own special, cosy little niche on the London fairs calendar. But would it change when this year it became The LAPADA Fine Art & Antiques Fair at Claridge’s?

MARKETING, advertising and promotion may be a multi-billion pound business globally today, but in the early years of the 20th century it was an industry in its infancy.

Valued at £8000-12,000 in a Sotheby’s sale of May 13 is a copy of the 1787, first and only edition of Alexander Shaw’s Catalogue of different specimens of cloth collected in the three voyages of Captain Cook...

Sold at £5500 in a general antiques sale held by Michael J. Bowman of Newton Abbot on March 13 was a group of six manuscript poems written by Ted Hughes for his neighbour Ronald Yates.

RECENT auctions held by Pacific Book Auctions have tended to be driven to a large extent by absentee bidding and by those using the ‘Real-Time Bidder’ internet option, but for a March 25 sale devoted to one man’s collection of letters, photographs, drawings and other mementoes relating to the life of William Randolph Hearst, those old fashioned habits of turning up in the room or even just picking up a telephone were dusted off.