Features

The art market is coming to grips with a new regime of stricter regulation which forces auction houses and dealers to know a lot more about their customers than ever before. The new anti-money laundering regulation came into force on January 10 but the market has been awaiting a document of guidance that will help them steer through this complex new regulations. Here art market lawyer Tom Christopherson, one of the BAMF team reviewing the new guidance, runs through the 109-page document to help explain some of the most complicated elements.

A selection of upcoming entertainment lots at auctions ranging from the Fab Four in New York to James Bond in London and Tommy Cooper in Stockport.

The market for both film and music posters is booming but original artwork for such designs can also be a very collectable option for buyers.

Concert posters from the earliest days of bands that later became famous are particulary sought-after at auction. Leading this selection from recent sales is a five-figure example from 1964 which promotes one of the first Rolling Stones tour performances, but many others are available at a lower price range announcing appearances at venues with evocative names such as Bridlington Spa Hall, Basildon Locarno Ballroom and Barnston Women’s Institute.

Not all the posters making four figures at auction fall into the usual Star Wars/James Bond/Hammer/early horror bracket.

A record take of £48m and a one-third increase in the number of lots available to bidders – ATG reviews a healthy 2019 for London numismatic saleroom

This gold solidus struck in Constantinople features the double portrait of Irene of Athens (c.752-803) who from 797-802 became the first empress regnant of the Byzantine empire.

A UK auction record for a copper coin was set on September 24 when a rare Edward VIII 1937 pattern penny sold at Spink for £111,000 (plus 20% buyer’s premium). The coin was made as a trial, ahead of the king’s abdication in December 1936, and was never released for circulation.

Judith Howard (1945-2019), collector, part-time dealer, museum curator, author, TV expert and lecturer, was a self-confessed ‘maximalist’. Every shelf and wall space in her Wiltshire end-of-terrace was there to be filled. Dusting was a chore reserved for just one day a year.

Spink (20% buyer’s premium) offered the only Victoria Cross group to appear at auction in 2019.

The opening lot of the Five Centuries sale at Lyon & Turnbull (25% buyer’s premium) in Edinburgh on February 5 was this previously unrecorded maiolica handled and spouted wet drug jar.

This silver half crown proof from 1839 sold for £6000 at London Coin Auctions (20% buyer’s premium).

A sizeable helping of English and Continental ceramics featured in the large auction titled Mario Buatta: Prince of Interiors held by Sotheby’s New York (25/20/13.9% buyer’s premium).

One of the highest prices of 2019 achieved by French auction house Beaussant Lefèvre (27% buyer’s premium inc VAT) was the €310,000 (£262,710) paid for this impressively tall 4ft 1in (1.25m) high pair of gilt bronze mounted, footed and covered vases.

This silver denarius from 43BC is struck to one side with a youthful male of Quintus Arrius, who was praetor in 72BC and propraetor in 71BC.

Caughley Porcelain was founded in Shropshire (at Broseley) so it is hardly surprising that local saleroom Halls has been offering its fair share of consignments from this 18th century factory whose wares rivalled those of the Staffordshire potteries and Worcester in particular.

This ‘superb’ rose ryal, produced during the third coinage of James I in 1619-20, sold for £34,000 at Baldwin’s of St James (20% buyer’s premium).

Found in a newly ploughed field close to a Roman road near Dover early in 2019, this gold aureus is one of just 24 recognised from the brief reign of Allectus (293-296AD).

On March 2 in Thurcroft, Rotherham, Paul Beighton will offer the second instalment of the Rowley collection of Rockingham pottery and porcelain produced locally in nearby Swinton in the first half of the 19th century. The collection was some 20 years in the making and comprised just over 120 pieces in total.

If the story of the sinking of the Bismarck in 1941 is well known, the fate of sister ship the Tirpitz is less familiar.