Art and antiques news from 2009

A “ONCE-in-a-century” discovery of Renaissance silver has been bought by the French State for 1.4m euros – less than a week before it was due to go on sale at Sotheby’s in Paris.

LONDON-based organisers Brian and Anna Haughton are first off the mark in announcing top names who have signed up for one of the numerous events vying for exhibitors in June 2010.

SOTHEBY’S staged a white-glove sale in London last week as 50 works from the collection of Lord and Lady Attenborough all found buyers.

THE latest series of contemporary art auctions in New York provided some further evidence of confidence returning at the top end of the market.

ITALIAN auctioneers Finarte have announced that they will no longer make their auction results public because of complaints from both consignors and buyers.

HAS the top end of the art market bounced back? This was the opinion ventured by some commentators after the flagship sales of Impressionist and Modern art in New York last week.

CECIL Court, the pedestrian thoroughfare in the West End of London that is home to around 20 antiquarian book dealers, has become the focus of a wider political debate on business rates.

DAMIEN Hirst and juggled dates have severely skewed Sotheby’s third quarter results for 2009, contributing to a fall in revenue of 41 per cent year-on-year to $44.9m.

IN a bid to boost pre-Christmas trade at Friday's Bermondsey Antiques Market, Southwark Council have waived the usual stand charge of £30 and only the £10 stall rental charge for a 9 x 3ft stall will apply. This offer applies for November 20 only.

JUST as Asian Art in London got underway, a surprise regional highlight emerged in Devon. A pair of 18th century Chinese Export pheasants were consigned for sale at Plymouth Auction Rooms by a local vendor, whose family had owned the birds for at least three generations.

THE troubled Toronto-based auctioneers Ritchies have finally closed after they were declared bankrupt by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.

ALAN Shelley has decided that he can no longer continue as Antiquarian Booksellers Association president owing to illness.

ON December 9, Morton and Eden are to offer what is possibly the most important collection of Renaissance medals to come onto the market in decades.

DUDLEY Council are to scrap plans to close the Broadfield House Glass Museum and relocate the renowned glass collections to the nearby Cone site.

EIGHT UK salerooms have been short-listed for the ATG Online Auctioneer of the Year award.

Politically correct it is not, but the ‘Negro Cricketer’ pattern, produced for just one year in 1907, certainly ranks among the rarest and most desirable of Royal Doulton series wares.

FOLLOWING on from his magnum opus on the Welsh dresser, Carmarthenshire dealer Richard Bebb has turned his attention to the history of another quintessentially Welsh form, the ceremonial bardic chairs traditionally awarded to the winning poets at an Eisteddfod.

ESTIMATED at £800-1200, this Victorian silver ewer modelled as a kangaroo sold for £24,000 at Chorley's of Prinknash Abbey, Gloucestershire on October 22 to a London dealer on the telephone who saw off competition from Australia and France.

ROYAL Mail have lost another court case over their promise to cover losses under their special delivery services, and face further legal action. Yet they will still not change the terms and conditions that landed them in court.

GUERNSEY auctioneers Martel Maides look set to become the latest UK regional firm to benefit from the rise and rise of Chinese mark and period porcelain after three Yongzheng period (1723-1735) famille rose bowls were consigned by a Channel Islands family who have owned them for at least 80 years.