Art and antiques news from 2005

NEW York’s Asia Week wrapped up towards the end of last week and fair exhibitors and dealers hosting Manhattan selling shows are collating just how successful the enterprise proved.

The regular sales of costume and textiles at Christie’s South Kensington (20/12% buyer’s premium) occasionally produce surprises. What seemed to be a sleeper in their March 15 sale was the mid-late 18th century linen court petticoat shown here. It was made from four oval split cane wooden hoops and half hoops on the hips for extra width, suggesting that it was intended for the most formal occasions.

CERAMICS SALES IN FRANCE £1 = €1.44A collection of drink-related objects and another devoted to Italian Renaissance maiolica were two very different single-owner properties on offer on the same day at the Paris auction house ArtCurial (17.5/10% buyer’s premium) last month.

THE famous Bermondsey Square Antiques Market has traded in the square since 1948. This August, Southwark Council and developers Urban Catalyst will start work on the 18-month redevelopment of the square, during which it will be business as usual for the Friday antiques market. Or as near as possible given the immense upheaval for the traders.

“Perhaps the last collection from a commissioning family that is likely to come onto the market” was how Berkshire auctioneer Mark Law of Law Fine Art described the remarkable sale of the Andrew Keith Collection conducted at Littlecote House, Hungerford on April 5.

Maryland auction house Hantman’s will sell personal artefacts and archival material relating to Pierre August Renoir at auction on May 14.

THE added tax burden of Droit de Suite, which comes in at the beginning of next year, could be far worse than feared.

The mixed feelings felt by the trade towards television boiled over last week as David Dickinson became involved in a very public altercation with a dealer at the spring NEC fair.

Key trade issues raised in this week’s news pages will be addressed at the Art of Dealing conference at Earls Court on May 16.

LAPADA are to target young dealers in a membership drive after their latest survey shows hardly any existing members are aged under 35.

Police have announced two dates for a roadshow of objects recovered from what is thought to be a £30m art theft spree.

For obvious reasons the Royal Doulton 'Norfolk' pattern is avidly collected in East Anglia.

A SMALL Renoir portrait painted in 1913, with an estimated value of €170,000-200,000 (£120,000-140,000), was stolen from the Tajan premises in Paris shortly before it was to be offered at a sale on March 31.

THE antiques trade is mourning the loss of two of the leading figures of their generation. Maurice Turpin (1928-2005), the Mayfair dealer in fine period furniture and objects and David Sanctuary Howard (1928-2005), Chinese export porcelain connoisseur, both died, aged 77, last week.

TWO long-term directors of auctioneers Rosebery's are to leave southeast London to pursue a career offering antiques themed breaks from a Pyrenean château.

Right: this handsome reticulated porcelain vase and cover by George Owen was the highlight of a private and local collection of Royal Worcester porcelain sold by Glasgow auctioneers McTear’s on March 25.

TATE Britain has acquired an important painting by Richard Parkes Bonnington (1802-1828) thanks to grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Art Fund.

HE HAS suffered a few knocks to his character in his 110-year history, but when Golly’s life began over a century ago, it was hard to find anything not to love about him.

THE trade are being warned of a new internet scam that risks involving innocent dealers in money laundering – and can leave them with large bills to pay.

IT is every auctioneer’s dream to find a treasure in a box of odds and ends. How much more exciting it must be when that treasure also proves to be of academic importance, a candidate for the title of the earliest figure in English blue and white porcelain.