News topics

In the flourishing market of British studio ceramics, a raft of new names is gaining traction.

MADAM – No amount of banning the sale of the millions of items containing antique ivory will stop the wholesale slaughter of elephants in Africa.

Pretty, petite and French – a seductive combination which won admirers of this kingwood and floral marquetry escritoire at Mallams’ (20% buyer’s premium) Oxford rooms.

Olivier Malingue launched his eponymous New Bond Street gallery in 2016 and has devoted its business to bringing older pieces into contemporary frameworks.

MADAM – Are people aware of the compensation that the UK Government paid out when the handgun ban came into force after the Dunblane massacre in 1996?

ATG’s selection of auction lots bought by internet bidders on thesaleroom.com from the period February 15-21, 2018. This includes both the highest prices over estimate and the top prices paid online.

Skilfully designed to catch salmon, fishing flies and lures hooked enthusiasts at Shropshire sporting specialist Mullock’s (20% buyer’s premium) fishing sale which included the work of two great names in the angling lexicon.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

BAMF chairman and new chief executive address LAPADA conference

The contribution of Britain’s ‘regional’ salerooms – defined here as those outside the big London four of Sotheby’s, Christie’s, Bonhams and Phillips – is frequently overlooked when figures demonstrating the size of the UK auction market for art and antiques are created.

Made in Switzerland for the Turkish market, in the late 19th century this zarf (coffee cup), below, had endured some rough treatment over the years before appearing at the Shropshire rooms of Trevanion & Dean (19% buyer’s premium).

A fascinating archive of designs for Brunel’s Thames Tunnel sold at Bonhams was bought by a museum dedicated to the pioneering structure to form the centrepiece of a £4.5m expansion, it has been revealed.

The TEFAF Art Symposium 2018 will focus on collecting in the 21st century.

When it comes to the business of selling middle-market collections, the big London salerooms are particularly adept at cherry-picking the best and rejecting the rest.

Auction Technology Group (ATG) – owner of Antiques Trade Gazette and thesaleroom. com – has merged with German art and antiques portal Lot-tissimo.com.

Over a period of four decades, from the 1930s-‘60s, the Italian artist Marino Marini (1901-80) returned again and again to the subject of horse and rider.

MADAM – Gavin Littaur’s comment (Letters, ATG No 2329) that “BAMF’s definition of ‘museum quality’ is exceedingly unhelpful” pulls its punches too much.

Topographical watercolours may not be the hottest area of the art market, but they can still pack a punch in the saleroom.

MADAM – The proper aim of all right-minded persons is to end ivory poaching. The irrelevant ‘ivory bill’ will not help.

A hitherto unrecorded teapot attributed to a pioneering North American porcelain factory sold last week for a remarkable £460,000 (plus premium) at Woolley & Wallis in Salisbury.