Around the Auction Houses

Temperatures are usually high in London when the Society of Fine Art Auctioneers and Valuers (SOFAA) hosts its biennial dinner and this year was no exception. The heat outside didn’t dissuade attendees from donning black tie and high heels to the event at the Royal Thames Yacht Club in Knightsbridge on June 30.

Networking is far more than a good chinwag. As Baldwin’s of St James’s medal specialist Mark Smith explains, it can also be good business.

It wasn’t so much a Road to Damascus moment for Edward Crichton but more the road back to Bury St Edmunds, a car journey that provided the Lacy Scott & Knight auctioneer with much-needed think time.

News in brief from around the auction houses...

Just over a year since its launch, Stamford Auction Rooms is staging its first estate sale on May 27.

Lawrences of Crewkerne is co-sponsoring a major new exhibition of works by the Camden Town Group which runs at the Museum of Somerset in Taunton until July 8.

Pinball machines, Francis Bacon paintbrushes and bear skeletons: is Essex ready for an Out of the Ordinary sale? Sworders managing director Guy Schooling believes so. He has just hired former Bonhams and Christie’s specialist Mark Wilkinson to launch a series of specialist sales at the Stansted Mountfitchet auction house.

ATG’s selection of appointments in the art and antiques industry.