Print Edition

MADAM – Are people aware of the compensation that the UK Government paid out when the handgun ban came into force after the Dunblane massacre in 1996?

Fellows is now the leading UK regional auctioneer by hammer total after recording overall sales of £17m in 2017.

Coin-grading firm The Certified Collectibles Group (CCG) has expanded again in the UK and will open an office in London in April on the third floor of dealership Spink’s headquarters.

The long-term future of the historic London Silver Vaults is uncertain as the landlord weighs up options for the building.

Australian bookseller Sally Burdon has been elected president of the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB). She succeeds Gonzalo F Pontes who was president from 2016-18.

A country house library in south-west Scotland was the source of an album of 19th century photographs of India that provided a Valentine’s Day surprise at Lyon & Turnbull in Edinburgh.

Britain’s major banks are continuing to crack down on the sale of Persian works of art in the face of ongoing US sanctions against Iran.

A selection of highlights of the lots sold in leading regional salerooms during 2017.

Another classic piece of English furniture to go well above expectations was a Regency mahogany window seat in the style of George Bullock offered by the Cumbrian firm 1818 Auctioneers (17/12% buyer’s premium).

Experimental work by the Czech Expressionist Ernest Neuschul (1895-1968) chimed with current tastes in a sell-out studio sale in Somerset.

Kate and Mike Button of Black Dog Antiques in the market town of Halesworth in Suffolk, also run the monthly Halesworth Brocante which they launched two years ago in the town’s Old Print Works.

MADAM – Although I think that the BADA certification programme goes some way to pacifying the waters, the conservationists have very strong support even if they are blind to the past as seen in the story about wildlife charity Born Free launching an ivory ‘amnesty’ (ATG No 2329).

MADAM – With the plethora of antiques-related shows on television, may I suggest that perhaps you could use your influence to have a specialist present a show on the subject of ivory in art.

With several months to go before the next edition of The Art & Antiques Fair Olympia opens, fair director Mary Claire Boyd says that 2018’s event will feature a different format from past years and anticipates around 30,000 visitors to attend the revamped event.

This late 19th century ‘natural history’ specimen purports to be the mummified body of a creature that was half mammal and half fish.

As with the overall market, Dutch furniture is much less popular than it once was and the 18th century walnut, floral marquetry and ivory-inlaid bombé bureau cabinet, below, had a couple of condition problems for bidders at Andrew Smith (19% buyer’s premium).

This oil painting of the RMS Queen Mary, below, by marine painter William McDowell (1888-1950) was taken to a multi-estimate £12,000 at Surrey saleroom John Nicholson’s (24% buyer’s premium).

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships

Look around at any edition of the Decorative Antiques and Textiles Fair and there will be dealers hastily rehanging and restocking empty spaces on their stands.

Silver dealer Alastair Dickenson had a blast from the past when he flicked through the pages of ATG recently.