Education and Training

BY ALEX CAPON NEW techniques for the scientific ‘fingerprinting’ of ceramics may soon become more practical for the trade to use.

SCIENTISTS in Australia have developed a new method of identifying of ancient Chinese ceramics which could play a major role in the battle against fakes.

Places are still available for this October on the MA course in Decorative Arts and Historic Interiors, based at the Wallace Collection.

New student admissions to the BA (Hons) Fine Arts Valuation degree course are being suspended for at least a year as the Southampton Institute conducts an extensive internal review of its Faculty of Media, Arts and Society.

SOUTHAMPTON Institute has two reasons to celebrate this week: its newly adopted status as a university college, granted on November 1, and the awarding of a number of prizes to its fine arts valuation students.

BUYING and selling art and antiques is one thing, but what about transporting it from the place of sale to its destination?

FOR the first time conservation specialists will participate in the Dorking Street Festival.

WITHERS and Devonshires Solicitors, law firms who specialise in art market issues, are sponsoring two seminars: one on art loans and the risks involved, the other on art and the police.

AN instrument maker from Manchester, who switched careers four years ago to become a clockmaker, has won a £13,250 Queen Elizabeth Scholarship to attend a specialist clock restoration course.

FOLLOWING the well-received introduction of master classes to their events last year, DMG Antiques Fairs, the UK’s biggest organiser of the biggest fairs, will be repeating the initiative at 12 of their summer fixtures. Mike Turner, marketing controller at the fairs, says: “The master classes are designed to appeal to both experienced and amateur collectors which is why we hold them during general entry times.”

Coins of England and the United Kingdom published by Spink. ISBN 1902040562 £18 hb

Hand and Machine by Robert Welch, published by Robert Welch, ISBN 0951085506 £20hb, and available from Robert Welch, Lower High Street, Chipping Campden, Glos. GL55 6DY. Tel: 01386 840522.

The Story of the Golf Ball by Kevin McGimpsey, published by Kevin McGimpsey in association with Philip Wilson Publishers. ISBN 0856675661 £49hb

The Great Exhibition of 1851: A Nation on Display by Jeffrey A. Auerbach, published by Yale University Press. ISBN 0300080077 £35hb

Gothic Art for England 1400-1547, edited by Richard Marks and Paul Williamson, published by V&A Publications. ISBN 1851774017. £45 hb

Automata: The Golden Age 1848-1914 by Christian Bailly, new edition published by Robert Hale. ISBN 0709074034 £100hb

Antique Boxes, Tea Caddies & Society 1700-1880 by Antigone Clarke & Joseph 0’Kelly, published by Schiffer Publishing Ltd, distributed by Bushwood Books, 6 Marksbury Avenue, Kew Gardens, Surrey TW9 4JF. ISBN 0764316885 £69.95hb

Echoing Voices: More Memories of a Country House Snooper by John Harris, published by John Murray. ISBN 0179564921 £8.99sb

To Have and to Hold: An Intimate History of Collectors and Collecting by Philipp Blom, published by Penguin. ISBN 0140294805 £8.99pb

Burleigh: The Story of a Pottery by Julie McKeown, published by Richard Dennis Publications. ISBN 0903685809 £45hb