UK

From the standpoint of manufacturing history, dispersals of any factory collection are always tinged with sadness.

NOT all the market resides in a state of stagnation.

THE strength of this Bearne’s (15/10% buyer's premium) March 2 & 3 Devon outing lay in the 72-lot furniture section, although the fairly routine ceramic selection was also notable for a high take-up by lot and some healthy prices. What turned out to be the two star furniture lots were given cautious catalogue entries and estimates which reflected a knowledge of the current wariness among specialists about the numbers of altered, or overly restored, pieces of furniture peppering the market.

A 100-LOT collection of Meissen, Derby and Cont-inental porcelain figures, together with some furniture and works of art from a local Thanet private vendor, formed the backbone of Canterbury Auction Galleries (15% buyer's premium) February 24 outing which attracted a large number of private buyers, many of whom secured the top ceramic lots.

EVERYONE is aware of how rich a thin stratum of Russians have become in the post-glasnost years. The buying power of Russia’s new rich was amply in evidence on March 23 at Bonhams (19.5/10% buyer’s premium) Bond Street when the spectacular 3ft 1in x 5ft 8 3/4in (94cm x 1.74m) canvas, Nero’s Torches, by Henryk Siemiradzki (1843-1902) sold at £260,000 at an otherwise fairly predictable 19th Century Paintings sale.

BOUGHT for a few pounds at a Surrey church bazaar within the last five years, this James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) pen and ink drawing, right, made a tidy profit for its vendor when it fetched a surprise £26,000 at Rosebery’s (15% buyer’s premium) Quarterly Select Auction in West Norwood, South East London.

THE Fine Art Auction Group are to adopt the Dreweatt Neate Fine Art name for their full network of regional salerooms. The move follows the addition of the Donnington Priory company to the group’s portfolio in November last year.

WHILE Troika ceramics made up the first 150 lots at Burstow & Hewett’s (10% buyer's premium) March 17 sale, there was also more traditional fare on offer, such as this 9in (22cm) diameter pair of mid-18th century English (probably London) delft plates, right, each with a painted design of a cockerel and a flower in blue, green and orange.

A POPULAR breed, a popular artist, plenty of puppies, totally fresh to the market, a come-hither estimate... When it came to dog paintings, this signed Arthur Wardle (1864-1949) canvas of a long-haired Jack Russell terrier with her pups had pretty well everything going for it when it came under the hammer at Wintertons (15% buyer’s premium) of Lichfield on March, estimated at just £2000.

Since the time of Edward II, an ingot of gold weighing one pound has been part of the oblation at a coronation – presented by the monarch to the Archbishop of Canterbury and placed on the altar as instructed in the Liber Regalis and thus “fulfilling the commandment of Him who said ‘Thou shalt not appear empty in the sight of the Lord thy God’”.

AFTER more than 10 years of research by a specially convened group of international scholars, Sotheby’s have revealed to the world’s press what they describe as a “newly-acknowledged” work by Johannes Vermeer (1632-75).

DATES have been announced for the first collectors’ sales to be held at Sotheby’s Olympia by the company’s former in-house specialists, now working independently.

As the most prolific of the 18th century English porcelain-producing factories, there is plenty of scope when it comes to collecting Worcester porcelain. There are few collectors, however, who can match the determination of Jeanne and Milton Zorensky.

This large and important Martin Brothers bird, pictured right and dated 1894, is the main highlight of a diverse sale of ceramics, glass, works on paper, furniture, textiles and metalware, relating to the Arts and Crafts movement inspired by William Morris, to be held at Woolley & Wallis' Salisbury Salerooms on May 26.

THE Little Chelsea Antiques Fair is back under the auspices of London ceramics dealer Carolyn Stoddart Scott, who founded it 25 years ago.

WHATEVER the state of the antique silver market, West Sussex specialist Nicholas Shaw is constantly busy engendering business.

WELL-KNOWN exhibitors at a number of fairs, the Northamptonshire restoration and retail business Aspidistra Antiques are planning to sell their shop in the small country town of Finedon, near Wellingborough, and move to France.

WITH a style, as one writer has put it, “sweetly intensified to a point where the world is reduced to a world of gossamer”, Annie French (1872-1965) was a Glasgow School artist who took the Art Nouveau idiom of Beardsley and Burne-Jones to new decorative extremes.

WITH a name like the Old Picture Palace, the former cinema in Matlock that is the newly acquired saleroom of the Derby auctioneers Bamfords (15% buyer’s premium) should be the sort of venue where the more traditional end of the art market should feel at home.

FOR some years now, the Thames Valley Antique Dealers Association has held two fairs a year, the autumn one at Radley College, Oxford and, for the past six years, the spring one at Reading Bluecoat School, Sonning-on-Thames, Berkshire. The TVADA Spring Antiques Fair will take place at Reading Bluecoat from April 2 to 4 with a record 36 members taking stands.