Christie's

Sales at the Hôtel Drouot in Paris rose by 15 per cent to €230m (£153m) in the first half of 2005.

Personnel changes are afoot in the silver departments of two of London’s major auction houses.

Two pieces of Yuan dynasty blue and white porcelain smashed coveted auction records in the UK salerooms last week.

CLASS-action legal specialists Garden City Group (GCG) believe compensation cheques linked to the Sotheby’s/Christie’s collusion case will be sent out by August.

The July sales of Asian art will be notable for bringing two newly discovered pieces to the market, one in London and the other in Salisbury.

London turned up the heat in the market for Contemporary art when both Sotheby’s and Christie’s achieved outstanding results at their June evening sales.

The natural desire of a woman to wear the dress of her dreams on her wedding day may be an element of vanity even a Quaker bride cannot completely suppress.

THE undoubted high point of Christie’s King Street’s (20/12% buyer’s premium) single-owner sale on April 22 was the Italian equestrian bronze group of Carlo Emanuele I, Duke of Savoy pictured right.

Christie’s New York are selling the Bibliotheca Bibliographica Breslaueriana in three portions.

Christie’s South Kensington (20/12% buyer’s premium) : Art Nouveau and Art DecoThis two-day, all-Continental offering really was a sale of two halves.

François Pinault, the French business tycoon who owns Christie’s, has abandoned his plans to build a £100m museum near Paris to house his Contemporary art collection.

THE scientific tests stacked up. The catalogue description was fair. The buyer got what she paid for. But somehow Christie’s still managed to lose the High Court action brought by special client Taylor Lynne Thomson.

Regular readers of ATG saleroom reports will be all too aware of the recent price explosion of Minton’s pâte sur pâte ceramics. This highly distinctive, almost cameo-like form of carved slip decoration was perfected by Louis-Marc Solon who had his own special iconography of nymphs and putti engaged in a bewildering array of quirky pursuits.

Bird in Space, right, an unrecorded marble version of one of Constantin Brancusi’s most celebrated and iconic subjects, was the toast of Christie’s $126.8m Impressionist and Modern art sale last week in New York.

Christie's New York (10/12% Buyer's premium)SNUFF bottles vary enormously in quality and price but the J&J collection has to rank as one of the world’s foremost specialist holdings. Although these exquisitely made and highly decorative vessels have a following of strong international collectors, inevitably there are limited buyers for top-end imperial quality works.

Christie’s King StreetFaces from the Ancient WorldPATCHY interest for the small Greek and Roman bronzes and other academic material held down the selling rate at Christie’s single owner sale to less than three-quarters by volume. But outside of these entries, buyers paid a premium for the best quality provenanced works.

The colourful stylish pottery produced by the Italian firm Lenci (and its competitor Essevi) is on something of a roll these days. The strength of this particular market was demonstrated at Christie’s South Kensington last week by this 21in (53cm) high figure designed by Sandro Vacchetti.

Christies South Kensington (20/12% buyer’s premium)ARGUABLY the strongest performance in the scientific instruments section of Christie’s South Kensington’s sale was provided by this pearwood table compass by John Harrison (1693-1776) pictured right.

The beginning of the end is in sight to the lengthy compensation payment process in the ‘international’ tranche of the Sotheby’s-Christie’s price-fixing case.

Christie’s have joined the throng of western companies opening offices in Dubai.