2011

RÉNÉ Lalique is most widely known today for his inter-War glass vases, a field that he moved into after his Art Nouveau jewellery. But he also used glass to create a smaller number of furnishings and interior decors for specific clients.

“EUROPE certainly shouldn’t be creating new burdens,” said Chancellor George Osborne as he dismissed plans for a financial transaction tax on the City as “a bullet aimed at the heart of London”.

MASTERPIECE London has secured planning permission for the third edition of the lavish marquee fair next year.

SOTHEBY’S are to change the format of their sculpture works of art sales in London.

THE Birmingham Assay Office is launching a new one-day course, Buying Scrap Gold and Silver, on January.

SCAM guides have struck yet again, but finally the European Commission has launched an investigation and wants to hear from victims about their plight.

A new auction record for a medieval work of art was established at Christie's Paris

It may look like a textbook early 19th century silver teaset, but this unprepossessing three-piece service seen at Tennants of Leyburn, North Yorkshire on November 17-19 carried marks later identified as those of the early Australian silversmith Alexander Dick (c.1791-1843).

Lowestoft porcelain specialist and Suffolk auctioneer Russell Sprake marked 50 years in the auction business last month with perhaps his finest ever sale – and a record price for the factory at auction.

THE days of informal scrapping of precious metals such as gold and silver could well be numbered after a new Bill was put before Parliament on November 15 to tackle theft.

SPINK have acquired Hong Kong-based Phila China, a philatelic auction house founded by Anna Lee.

TWO years since it launched, the jewellery trade’s anti-crime alert network, SaferGems, has been helping to forge stronger links between the UK’s 43 different police forces.

ONE SaferGems alert featured two men wanted in connection with a jewellery theft at a discount jewellery shop in Spring Bank, Hull. During the incident one offender distracted the jeweller while the other stole jewellery to the value of £2300.

IN a world where instant electronic communication and exchange of information is available to all, two lengths of original Morse code ticker-tape seem akin to tele-antiquities.

COMPETITION between major collectors and new players in the market for L.S. Lowry saw a host of dramatic prices in London last week as Christie's offered 14 works from the collection of the late hotel magnate Lord Forte.

RAMRAIDERS have smashed their way into the Court Barn Museum, home to the Guild of Handicrafts collection, and stolen unique pieces of silver.

ESTABLISHING a satisfactory relationship with a bank appears to be one of the major difficulties facing art and antiques dealers in the current economic climate.

SOTHEBY’S latest set of results showed the sustained resilience of the global art market against the backdrop of general economic turmoil.

ALL things Asian were in the spotlight in London last week as the capital celebrated Asian Art in London, with a raft of dealers' shows and specialist auctions.

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