Letters to the Editor

MADAM – Re: ‘Priest or for a press gang perhaps’, Letters, ATG No 2432.

MADAM – As I understand it, the recent government legislation regarding anti-money laundering requires all buyers, established and new, to provide photographic ID and proof of address. This will then be stored on the auction houses’ databases.

MADAM – Re: Hornby Castle Chair in the Bonhams Oak Interior sale (ATG No 2431). I have just returned from holiday to see ‘my’ old armchair staring out at me from the ATG front page. I thought you might be interested in a bit of its missing history.

MADAM – On May 5, 1821, the extraordinary life of Napoleon Bonaparte came to its tragic conclusion in Longwood house St Helena.

MADAM – I was intrigued by your two-page spread on money laundering (ATG No 2430).

MADAM – I feel sure that the auction house Andrew Smith & Son has a fine reputation. An established reputation attractive enough for the owner of the fine antiques depicted on your Letters & Opinion page to send the photograph for appraisal (ATG No 2431).

MADAM – I wonder if any ATG reader could identify this curiosity which I bought at a fair recently?

MADAM – I was pleased to see a report of the Hansons Moorcroft sale (ATG No 2430), and mention of the large and rare 18in exhibition Tiger Lily flambé vase in particular, as to my knowledge and awareness one last appeared on the market 29 years ago at Hartleys in Ilkley.

MADAM – Re: A Lawyer Writes, ATG No 2431.

MADAM – As auctioneers, we are regularly in receipt of email images of items from hopeful vendors and we are, on most occasions, able to provide a reasonably workable estimate of value.

MADAM – I note your recent correspondence regarding ‘firm price’ labels.

MADAM – I was greatly saddened to hear of the death of Reuben Reubens (Obituary, ATG No 2429) who was a customer of mine over the last 40 years.

MADAM – Reading about the unfortunate theft of a Handley & Moore bracket clock from the shop of Patrick Sandberg on Kensington Church Street on February 3 (ATG No 2429) reminded me of the clock (pictured below) that had sadly been stolen from my parents’ home in Burford, Oxfordshire, in 1984.

MADAM – I was browsing in an upmarket antiques centre in Oxfordshire recently and saw something very unfamiliar to me as a regular buyer from dealers in shops as well as at fairs.

MADAM – Regarding your Art Detective feature in ATG No 2426, I would note the following: the tight bodice does suggest a dating c.1740-50.

MADAM – I’ve just read your report about the record-breaking £1m sale of the 1937 ‘abdication’ sovereign (News Digest, ATG No 2426).

MADAM – In your article in Fairs & Markets, ATG No 2425, you stated that Enys House was near St Ives which is on the north coast.

MADAM – On reading Andrew Hutchinson’s letter 'How charging a lot for packing could cost you much more in the long term' in ATG No 2426, we felt compelled to reply.

Follow-up on the mystery covered in ATG No 2422:

In the latest feature on mystery works the Art UK charity is seeking help to identify, we focus on a portrait of Anne Clive, the honourable Mrs George Sempill.