Art and antiques news from 2005

The Cultural Property Advisory Committee will meet next week to consider the request from the People's Republic of China to seek restrictions on Chinese works of art imported to America.

At first glance, this 7ft 6in x 5ft 7in (2.28 x 1.70m) canvas, right, of the Temptation of Adam by the French artist Jean-Baptiste Santerre (1651-1717) might seem to be a fairly standard, if unusually large, depiction of one of the most hackneyed religious themes in Western art.

Appearing at Frank R. Marshall’s (15% buyer’s premium) sale at Knutsford, Cheshire on January 11 and selling at £720, was this 10 x 7in (25 x 18cm) oil-on-canvas, right, by Augustus Edwin Mulready (fl1863-1880 d.1886). Framed, mounted and indistinctly signed, it showed a characteristic subject for the artist, and was estimated at £200-300.

Following the lead of The Fine Art Auction Group, Fernhurst auctioneers John Nicholson are to increase their buyer’s premium from 15 to 17.5 per cent.

NO more the enfant terrible of the Brit-Art world, shark man Damien Hirst is quite at home in salubrious Knightsbridge, especially after he walked away with £11m from his famous Pharmacy sale at Sotheby’s.

Edinburgh dealer John Dixon of Georgian Antiques has joined the LAPADA board of directors.

Mallams, Cheltenham. January 6 - Buyer’s premium: 15 per cent WILD animals and ferocious reptiles were major features at this 430-lot Gloucestershire sale.

AFTER almost five years in the heart of London’s West End, one of our top dealers, Kevin Smith of Windsor House Antiques, has decided Mayfair is not for him.

Franz Xavier Messerschmidt (1736-83) was one of the most extraordinary figures in the history of Western art.

If one wanted to view in miniature the issues experienced by the antiques trade as a whole, one could do worse than to look to the golfiana market.

THE first afternoon session of a January 20-21 antiques sale held by Lawrences of Crewkerne presented more than 400 lots of books, amongst them a good collection of private press books featuring the wood-engraved illustrations of David Jones.

The final Dix Noonan Webb (15% buyer’s premium) 2004 sale in London, on December 14, was a massive 1610-lot affair with a diversity of offerings. The total hammer take was £282,905.

TO the non-specialist, a cracked and chipped blue and white 18th century delft plate might have seemed reasonably estimated at £60-100 in the January 5 sale held by Brightwells (15% buyer’s premium).

The £1.7m price tag needed to keep the Macclesfield Psalter in the UK has been found.

Business as usual was the message from Camden Stables following the sale of the north London market to the clothing tycoon Richard Caring. A price of £40m was quoted in the financial press.

Centre Exhibitions, best known as the organisers of the Antiques For Everyone fairs at the NEC in Birmingham, have announced the cancellation of this year’s equivalent event at Earl’s Court.

The student section of the British Antique Furniture Restorers’ Association will hold their annual conference at Oxford and Cherwell College, Oxpens Road, Oxford on March 14.

Thomson Roddick & Medcalf. Buyer’s premium: 15 per centTWO large private consignments accounted for half the lots at Thomson Roddick & Medcalf’s Edinburgh sale and had the predictable effect of pulling in bidders from south of the Border.

PICTURES which belong to a very specific collecting area are frequently in much greater demand than those of comparable quality that lack esoteric appeal.

For the third year running, prices for standard pieces of antique furniture have failed to keep pace with the property market, according the Antique Collectors’ Club’s annual index.