Events and conferences

The recent British Antiques and Collectables Awards did not have a category for ‘best gallery catalogue’ (sponsors, please note); however, if there had been, Elizabeth Harvey-Lee (1 West Cottages, Middle Aston Road, North Aston, Oxon OX25 5QB. Tel: 01869 347164) would surely have been on the shortlist.

THE British Antiques and Collectables Awards were presented at a packed ceremony at the Dorchester Hotel in London’s Park Lane on June 19.

UK: THE contenders for the British Antiques and Collectables Awards were announced last week in an impressive list which includes a cross-section of familiar and less well known names from town and country.

Exhibitions of desirable items from exotic locations at affordable prices has become the hallmark of the Gordon Reece Gallery, 16 Clifford Street, London W1 and this applies to the current exhibition of Antique Chinese Classical Furniture which continues until May 12.

TO commemorate the centenary of Queen Victoria’s death the V&A’s major spring exhibition is Inventing New Britain: The Victorian Vision, from April 5 to July 29. Co-curated by Paul Atterbury, the exhibition takes as its themes how a modern Britain emerged during the Queen’s all-powerful reign, and the way in which the Victorians have shaped our lives. Three books have been published by V&A Publications to accompany the exhibition.

US: HIGHLIGHT of Asia week in New York was this 2ft 1in (63cm) high bronze ritual wine vessel of the late Shang/early Western Zhou period offered at Christie’s on March 20, where it became the most expensive oriental work of art ever sold at auction.

“Is the live auction dead?” was the challenging question before a panel discussion at the annual conference of the Appraisers Association of America in New York in which four major regional auction houses took part.

As chairman of a discussion panel at the annual conference of the Appraisers Association of America in New York, MARK BRIDGE, found that the Internet is not the villain it was painted a year ago. He reports on the current attitudes to on-line valuation in the USA and the views of auctioneers experimenting with online bidding.

UK: ART & Antiques on the Internet is the title of a one-day conference being staged at the Royal Institution on Thursday October 26 by the Institute of Art and Law and the RICS

FRANCE: RARELY can so many leading lights in the international art and antiques business have been gathered in the same room as happened at the luxurious George V hotel in Paris on Tuesday, October 3.

USA: SKINNER’S auctioneers of Boston have set up a new contemporary art gallery which could do for American artists what Maurice Saatchi has done for Damien Hirst and others.

SOTHEBY’S Holdings have announced their nominees for the firm’s board of directors, with shareholders due to vote on them at the delayed Annual Meeting in New York on August 3.

THE Booker, the Baftas, the Brits, and now the Baca; the inaugural British Antiques and Collectables Awards finally joined the ranks of other UK arts prize-giving bashes with applause and aplomb at Grosvenor House on June 20.

UK: PRICE GUIDE publishers Miller’s have issued a shortlist of contenders for the British Antiques and Collectables Awards, a new scheme which is being run for the first time this year, in association with the BBC Homes & Antiques Magazine.

UK: LEADING representatives of the trade have given evidence before the Culture Select Committee which is considering whether Britain should introduce new laws to tackle art theft and trade in illegally exported antiques.

UK: PLACES for the one-day conference on Internet Options for the Auctioneer at Southampton Institute on February 7 are almost fully booked, and organisers Drummond Read are already planning a follow-up event for next year.

UK: A SECURITY device which promises to revolutionise the handling and mobility of large antiques – in particular garden statuary – has just come onto the market after winning the London International Inventions Fair Invention of the Year Award.

UK: A MAJOR loan exhibition of Dutch and Flemish cabinet pictures opens at Richard Green’s gallery at 33 New Bond Street, London W1 this week.