Auctioneers

Like tea caddies in furniture sales, teapots have their own following in ceramics sales like the one at Phillips Leeds, where the 51/2in (14cm) Minton majolica Japanese Actor model, above right, date-coded 1874, made a within-estimate £1100 which took into account some damage to finial and spout.

SOTHEBY’S Holdings Inc, the auction house’s parent company, have announced third quarter revenues for 2001 of $38.4m and a net loss for the period of $33m.

With the purchase of Spink’s furniture restoration department on November 5 by its director Peter Holmes, all eyes are now looking to see what the future holds for the remaining departments at London’s oldest antique dealer.

FORMER Christie’s managing director Christopher Davidge has told the jury in the Alfred Taubman trial that Sotheby’s ex-chairman was involved in the illegal price-fixing between the two auction houses.

To prove the point, Christie’s have held their first ever ‘Transatlantic’ wine auction. Dubbed the International Burgundy Sale, this 973-lot auction of the region’s most prestigious wines was offered in two legs, the first 303 lots in an afternoon session at Zachy’s/Christie’s (10% buyer’s premium) in New York on October 30, the remaining 670 the following evening at Christie’s (10% buyer’s premium) King Street on November 1.

Of greater general interest was Baldwin’s sale of Ancient and Modern coins that occupied October 9. There were 1403 lots looking for a new owner. This included the 322 lots devoted to the working library of the late Patrick Finn.

PORTRAIT miniatures are one field that has been performing strongly in recent seasons, an area of the market where the private buyer is very much in evidence.

THE new football season brought fears in the sports pages that the game’s financial bubble was about to burst and auctioneers may have had worries too.

A 1926 first, limited edition copy of Winnie the Pooh, signed by both Milne and Shepard, that came for sale in these Rendells Devon auction rooms on 12 October was in the original binding but dampstained to the front board, causing some loss of the paper. It sold at £950.

THIS WAS a very mixed sale at Bloomsbury Book Auctions on 11 October, containing plenty of job lots and much ex-library material, but little of outstanding interest or high value.

THE Top lot in this North Yorkshire sale at Tennants on 18 October appeared very early on in the proceedings, when, as part of the opening art and architecture section of the sale, a copy of Humphrey Repton’s Sketches and Hints on Landscape Gardening was sold for £6000.

As Sotheby’s ex-boss Alfred Taubman faced a New York jury last week on criminal charges of fixing vendors premiums with Christie’s, there was still no sign of money owed to dealers in the related civil law suit that was settled in April. The reason? Two US appeals.

THIS 619-lot ceramic and clock sale at Phillips Chester did not boast such a high take-up as Phillips’ Bury St Edmunds auction but the 60 per cent that did manage to get away sold to the tune of £73,170.

“In light of the current situation...” this is, understandably, now a well-worn phrase in provincial salerooms and Roger Williams was yet another auctioneer to utter them after his October sale on 10-11 October at Brightwells, Leominster.

Just like the following week’s 20th Century Italian sales, Sotheby’s (20/15/10% buyer’s premium) October 18 inaugural theme sale exclusively devoted to Greek art notched up selling rates that belied the pessimism prevailing in so many other sectors of the market.

Four of the six lots of antique silver from Her Majesty’s Treasury due to be sold by Bonhams & Brooks on October 30 were withdrawn from auction the day before the sale.

USA: Swann Galleries will hold their inaugural auction of Contemporary Art on the evening of Tuesday, November 13 at their 104 East 25th Street New York premises. The sale comprises about 170 examples of photo-based artworks, paintings, prints and drawings as well as mixed media pieces and multiples by late 20th century artists.

Early Qing imperial porcelain has long been the darling of the Hong Kong Chinese auctions so when a Qianlong (1736-95) mark and period dragon vase with a previously unpublished pattern came up at Sotheby’s (20/15/10% buyer’s premium), Hong Kong on October 29, sparks flew and an auction record was set for a piece of Qianlong porcelain.

Christie’s are to make 23 staff redundant in Los Angeles, their second largest saleroom in America. The decision is part of an ongoing, worldwide cost-cutting programme undertaken by the company following the settlement of the $256m lawsuit over commissions and the downturn in the art market this year.