Art and antiques news from 2004

SHIP portraits are, as one might expect, popular with bidders at Eldred’s East Dennis auction galleries on Cape Cod.

HERTFORDSHIRE organiser Paul Bishop, who founded Oxbridge Fairs to mount specialist glass events, holds his fourth Cambridge Glass Fair at Chilford Hall Vineyard, Linton, Cambridgeshire this Sunday (September 12) and, with 100 tables, it is fully booked.

SOLD for £3000 to David Stone in an Y Gelli sale of July 23 was a first edition set of Bernard de Montfaucon’s L’Antique Expliquee... of 1719-57, comprising ten vols. (in 15) including supplement.

FOUNDED in 1950, and still one of the capital’s most familiar antiques events, The Chelsea Antiques Fair has marked the beginning of the autumn anti-ques season for decades, as it will again when from September 17 to 26 it runs at its usual venue, Chelsea Old Town Hall in the King’s Road, London SW3.

MIDDLESBROUGH specialist in Moorcroft, Carlton Ware and Linthorpe pottery Jim Shaw, better known as Appleton Antiques, has given up his stands at the Red House Antiques Centre, York and The Ginnel, Harrogate, although he keeps a toehold in the latter, renting a cabinet.

THE biggest surprise in the July 17 sale held by Skinners of Boston was provided by a pair of Chinese chairs, but the pair of 3 7/8in (10cm) high, Wedgwood & Bentley blue jasper portrait medallions of c.1779 right, depicting William Penn & Benjamin Franklin, also did well.

LEADING specialist in early country furniture and distinctive period objects Robert Hirschhorn holds his fifth annual At Home selling exhibition at his Georgian house and showrooms in London’s Camberwell from September 16 to 19.

“END of an era? No, it’s the start of a new one,” said Geoffrey Boyes Korkis – an admirably sanguine comment from a fifth generation dealer as he plans to close the doors of his central London business after over a century and a half in the area.

DEVON, with its old wealth and influx of well-heeled retired couples, can provide a rich hinterland, but summer can still mean a bit of a scramble to find enough quality material to offer at Bearne’s (15/10% buyer's preimum) fine quarterly sales at Exeter.

GOOD standard furniture sold well enough at Mitchell's (15% buyer's premium) July 15-16 sale and included a locally made Jacobean piece.

RIGHT: this suite of Victorian silver gentleman’s dressing table bottles is among 200 lots donated from Dorset homes that will be sold for charity at auction on September 18.

EXCEPTIONAL golfing collectables can still command exceptional prices.

Victorian China Fairings: The Collectors’ Guide by Derek H. Jordan, published by the Antique Collectors’ Club, ISBN 1851494464, £35hb. WITH a book dedication by the author to “all my non-collecting friends who I have bored silly over the years”, Derek Jordan has a massive private collection of these little Victorian/Edwardian china ornaments with their droll comments on life, buying his first three fairings at the Folkestone Antiques Fair.

WE’VE long had a thing about toast, that peculiarly British way of serving bread and a primary comfort food. Think Marmite soldiers dunked into soft-boiled eggs and wintry afternoons toasting bread over an open fire.

A QUALITY furniture grouping and a small, but strong, Oriental section contributed to the upbeat performance of Halls (15% buyer's premium) 258-lot sale on July 14, the top lot of which, a £24,000 George III mahogany longcase, was illustrated on the front cover of Antiques Trade Gazette No. 1650 dated July 31 and August 7.

Victorian China Fairings: The Collectors’ Guide by Derek H. Jordan, published by the Antique Collectors’ Club, ISBN 1851494464, £35hb. WITH a book dedication by the author to “all my non-collecting friends who I have bored silly over the years”, Derek Jordan has a massive private collection of these little Victorian/Edwardian china ornaments with their droll comments on life, buying his first three fairings at the Folkestone Antiques Fair.

CHANNELLING more routine furniture through their Bicester auctions, the Oxford base of Mallams (15% buyer's premium) has been able to focus on selling more unusual, decorative and commercial entries, much to auctioneer Ben Lloyd’s satisfaction.

A RELATIVELY quiet day for S.J. Hales (15% buyer's premium) who specialise in English ceramics, but the August 4 sale still attracted plenty of Staffordshire specialists as usual.

RIGHT: although an undeniably rare beast, the super-cute sleeping Wemyss piglet, just 6 1/2in (16.5cm) long, has made a number of appearances at Sotheby's Gleneagles over the years.

THIS year’s RICS art and antiques conference promises three days of tours, talks and enjoyment in and around Leeds.