Auctions

FRANCE: JEAN-BAPTISTE OUDRY brought early Spring smiles to Drouot as his Maison du Jardinier (1739) pictured here, first shown at the Salon of 1740, sold to a French buyer for a world record Fr6.2m (£639,000) under the Le Blanc hammer on March 17.

US: THE object pictured here provided, literally and figuratively, the crowning glory of a highly successful $3.65m sale of Judaica at Sotheby’s New York on March 16.

‘Town’ piece leads field in farmhouse territory UK: AUCTIONEER Richard Harrison describes his rooms as being ‘in the back of beyond’ but the Northern English, Scottish and Irish trade and not a few London dealers can be relied on to make their way to Cumbria for the quarterly sales.

UK: “THE saving grace of the whisky bottle market,” said Alan Blakeman who runs bottle specialists BBR (buyer’s premium 10 per cent) , “is that as soon as the Australians, with their currency problems, started to disappear from the scene, the Americans started to show an interest.”

IT IS not only in their association with The Auction Channel that Bonhams are forging ahead with new technologies; the saleroom recently re-launched its Web-site, which has been redesigned to incorporate a range of new client services.

UK: A contemporary reviewer described a multi-volume study of The American Woods by Romeyn Beck Hough as “one of the most marvellous and instructive books ever made”, but this accolade seems something of an understatement when one considers that this work and a spin-off (or should that be sawn-off) companion work on ...Commercial Woods were illustrated with actual specimens of over 300 species!

Christie’s evening sale of Impressionist and Modern Art in London was led by Claude Monet's Iris Mauves as two telephone bidders battled it out over the £6m-9m estimate until the hammer fell at £9.6m.

HAMPTONS Auctioneers of Godalming will change their name to Dreweatt Neate this month. Having become part of The Fine Art Auction Group earlier this year, the saleroom will be rebranded under the Dreweatt Neate banner in time for the Surrey firm’s April 13 sale.

Sotheby’s evening sale of Contemporary art in New York on November 13 achieved the highest total for any auction in the company’s history.