Print Edition

What is selling well in the clocks and watches world? Dealer Warren Wilkinson, who has been collecting and repairing clocks and watches for 40 years and who is a regular standholder at Love Fairs events, is a good man to answer that very question.

MADAM – Payments to auctioneers, be it for objects or postage and packing, seem to be mired in mystery and confusion.

A number of the French auction rooms have released their sales figures for the first half of the year, with Christie’s Paris operation taking the top slot.

In ATG No 2292, I noted as a record the £13,000 sale of a copy of Thomas Wright’s Original theory… of the universe… (1750), as part of the Christie’s April 26 sale of the Beltrame library.

West London‘s Chiswick Auctions is to open a new showroom in South Kensington manned by at least eight former Christie’s staff.

A pair of lions from the funerary monument of Charles V of France was the toast of Christie’s Exceptional sale in London on July 6.

A new auction house is to open in London hoping to find a gap in the market for cameras, scientific and medical instruments.

The latest Old Master sales in London put in a solid performance with the overall total from last week’s auction series running at £115m (including premium) with one day sale still to take place at the time of going to press.

Another work by CRW Nevinson (1889-1946) in the form of an aerial wartime print was offered in Gorringe’s (23% buyer’s premium) June 27 sale.

Andreas Vesalius’ De humani corporis fabrica is one of those rare epoch-making works, a publication that changes everything in its field and sets a standard for others to emulate.

ATG’s weekly selection of items on sale at auctions and dealerships.

At the Drouot auction centre in June around 3000 items of Asian art went under the hammer in a series of 20 auctions that were either dedicated sales or featured substantial Asian sections.

The Fine Art Society in Edinburgh’s next pair of exhibitions from July 21-August 28 features works of the birds and the boys.

Rowena Morgan-Cox and Sara Terzi have been appointed to the board of directors of The Fine Art Society (London and Edinburgh).

Two opposing views on the big questions facing the trade… Artist and restorer Amy Douglas recently unveiled 'The Unfortunate Souvenirs of Our Time' – an exhibition using broken Staffordshire figures to create new artworks. So this week we ask, is it ever okay to repurpose antiques to create new objects?

ATG’s selection of auction lots bought by internet bidders on thesaleroom.com from the period June 29-July 5, 2017. This includes both the highest prices over estimate and the top prices paid online.

While many in the trade believe the future lies in specialisation, Gloucestershire auction house Dominic Winter (20% buyer’s premium) is making significant inroads into the general market beyond its renown as expert in books, maps and other works on paper.

The Dublin-born journalist Abraham ‘Bram’ Stoker’s first book, The Duties of Clerks of Petty Sessions in Ireland, a handbook of legal administration in Ireland, hit the streets in 1879.

MADAM – All of us who have been involved in the trade for a number of years, perhaps even decades, will know the feeling of pleasure at unexpectedly seeing an image of an ‘old friend’ in the pages of the ATG.

MADAM – Your most recent 'Soapbox' debated an interesting topic that’s currently generating letters, namely should auctioneers be qualified and presumably a member of a trade organisation or not (ATG No 2298).