Art and antiques news from 2004

THE first quarter of 2004 was good news for Sotheby’s, with several major stepping stones to putting their bottom line back on the straight and narrow.

LIKE a number of provincial houses, Surrey auctioneers Hamptons (15% buyer's premium) have adjusted to the increasingly polarised and selective buyers’ market by cherry-picking the most commercial consignments for their triannual fine sales.

THERE were few exceptional entries at McTear's (15% buyer's premium) March 19 sale but take-up was steady with 88 per cent of the 473 lots getting away.

A travel sale held by Christie’s South Kensington on April 29 was a mix of books, prints and pictures and seen here are two items from a section of that sale devoted to the Alpine regions.

THE Seven Works of Mercy by Pieter Brueghel the Younger, painted on a panel measuring 17 x 22in (42 x 56cm), raised €450,000 (£300,000) at the sale held by Van Ham (22% buyer’s premium) in Cologne on April 3. It had been estimated at €260,000.

FURTHER delays look likely before those promised redress following the Sotheby’s and Christie’s price fixing settlement receive compensation.

ALTHOUGH they were one of three auctioneers forced to withdraw pre-Columbian works of art from sale last year over questions of provenance, Christie’s will continue to offer early South American items for auction in Paris.

KEYS (10% buyer's premium) of Aylsham maintain the format of mammoth offerings – 1556 lots offered over two days (April 20-21) in this case – and, although only 60 per cent of them got away, there was plenty of material for budget-conscious collectors of such favourites as Royal Doulton character jugs and figures as well as Beswick Beatrix Potter and animal models.

THE Seven Works of Mercy by Pieter Brueghel the Younger, painted on a panel measuring 17 x 22in (42 x 56cm), raised €450,000 (£300,000) at the sale held by Van Ham (22% buyer’s premium) in Cologne on April 3. It had been estimated at €260,000.

THE first part of the Maurice F. Neville collection of modern literature, which sold for a premium-inclusive $5.22m (£2.95m) at Sotheby’s New York on April 13, was primarily but certainly not wholly focused on the work of American writers. Seen here are two of the English books that brought strong results.

ATTENDANCE figures of 4243 at The 9th Annual Chelsea Art Fair, a Caroline Penman event at Chelsea Old Town Hall, were slightly up on last year, as were items sold (435), with many of the 45 exhibitors reporting reasonable sales.

A Prince’s Passion: The Life of the Royal Pavilion by Jessica Rutherford, published by the Royal Pavilion, Libraries & Museums. ISBN 0948723548 £14.99hb and available only from the Royal Pavilion shop in Brighton on 01273 292792. THIS is a delicious new history of Brighton’s Royal Pavilion, a monument of staggering self-indulgence built by George IV, the first son of the 15 children born to King George III and Queen Charlotte.

THE Earls Court and Olympia exhibition complexes are now under new ownership following a £245m deal which was completed last week.

OUTSTANDING single pieces may have been fairly thin on the ground in recent months at Mallams (15% buyer's premium), but a steady take-up of lots throughout the year, coupled with an increase in the volume of consignments and number of sales, meant that the Oxfordshire group as a whole posted a 24 per cent increase in turnover for the year ending March 2004.

ATTENDANCE figures of 4243 at The 9th Annual Chelsea Art Fair, a Caroline Penman event at Chelsea Old Town Hall, were slightly up on last year, as were items sold (435), with many of the 45 exhibitors reporting reasonable sales.

THE gang targeting antiques centres in the south-midlands appear to have struck again, this time walking away with £4000 worth of carriage clocks.

BILLED as a regular Victorian sale, the main attractions of Abbots Auction Rooms' (10% buyer's premium) March 29 sale were in a 129-lot specialist decorative arts section – in particular two pieces of René Lalique glass.

THE quality-guaranteeing stamp of London cabinet-makers and retailers Edwards & Roberts was the key to the top seller at the 890-lot March 25-26 sale at Scarborough Perry Fine Arts (15% buyer's premium) that totalled £89,000.

Illustrated right is part of a group of fragmentary Greek and Coptic papyri, dating from the 4th-9th century AD and comprising mainly Coptic accounts, lists of names, literary fragments and two Greek biblical extracts, together with three narrow linen bandages inscribed in ink in late hieratic with spells from the Book of the Dead, c.3rd-1st century BC – offered as a single lot in a Christie’s antiquities sale, of April 27.

A SELECT group of 22 dealers from seven countries, including a number of Maastricht veterans, will take part in Russia’s first ever international antiques fair, the Moscow World Fine Art Fair, from May 31-June 7.