Front Page and News

In the third multi-million-pound sale this year of a rediscovered Old Master at a provincial French auction house, a late Gothic panel offered at Cortot & Associés of Dijon brought a dramatic competition late last month.

This rare piece of Cork silver of Irish Republican interest sold for £4000 (plus 23% premium) at Sworders latest sale.

After a 17-minute bidding battle, a Chinese blue and white bottle vase with a Daoguang (1820-50) six-character seal mark was hammered down for £270,000 at Gorringe’s in Lewes, East Sussex.

The next staging of the venerable Art & Antiques Fair Olympia will run longer to incorporate two weekends.

Two recently restituted panels by Sienese artist Giovanni di Paolo (c.1399-1482) lifted the latest series of Old Master auctions in London.

An autograph painting by German artist Anton Raphael Mengs (1728-79) was one of the stand-out sales during London Art Week (LAW).

Edward Baldwin, fourth generation and the last of the Baldwin clan to work for coin and medal dealership AH Baldwin & Sons has retired from the firm.

Ashley Gray, dealer in post-war fashion illustration, and clock dealer Howard Walwyn have joined BADA’s ruling council.

The UK’s largest antiques fair organiser, International Antiques & Collectors Fairs (IACF), is switching from plastic to recyclable bags which will be handed out at its 40 fairs around the country, writes Noelle McElhatton.

A new website founded by two dealers aims to offer a “user-friendly” hub for buying and selling art and antiques.

Adam Partridge Auctioneers & Valuers has opened its third saleroom in the north-west and hired new staff to target consignments from the Lancashire and Lake District areas.

London’s Russian week of auctions put in a consistent performance last week with the sales at four salerooms generating a combined £37.5m with fees. This compared to £39.2m for the equivalent series last year and the £35.8m raised at the June series.

A print fair is being launched within next year’s Firsts London rare book fair.

Although Charles Dickens is often credited with creating the ‘modern’ Christmas, some of the recognition should go to John Leech.

Collectors who missed out on a rare late 19th century cabin trunk at auction last week have the chance to buy another in West Sussex this coming Friday.

This rare sampler, just 6in (15cm) across, was completed by a girl from the Queens Orphan School in Van Diemen’s Land (the island of Tasmania) in 1838.