London

PHILLIPS de Pury look to have taken another step to increase their influence as a major player in London’s contemporary art market by forming a new partnership with The Saatchi Gallery.

TRACEY Emin, who recently launched a scathing attack on Tower Hamlets Council after it granted a licence for a controversial three-month “city beach bar” in a car park yards from her Spitalfields home, is a regular visitor to Spitalfields Antiques Market, most recently looking for a tiara to wear to charity balls.

MARKS, one of London’s best-known silver dealerships, are to refocus their operations, moving out of costly showrooms in Mayfair’s Mount Street.

FOR the third time this year, a dealers’ survey has highlighted the unpopularity of the Artist’s Resale Right in the trade and the indifference of a majority artists to the ruling.

One of the quirkier and more unusual offerings to feature in Christie’s £3.7m sale of English furniture and works of art on June 7 was this rare Elizabethan map fragment, one of the first tapestries ever produced in England.

In the 1950s, a farmer in Ingatestone, Essex found a tiny silver tag measuring just 3/4in (1.8cm) long on his farm. Shaped like a shield with a ring, one side was engraved LORD RICH above a stylised bird and the other featured a family crest.

THIS year's Grosvenor House Art & Antiques Fair, held from June 14 to 20, was thought by many to have the highest quality stock seen at the event for some time.

THIRTY-six stallholders from Portobello Road made their way to Madrid at the end of June where the London street market was recreated for a day in the Spanish capital.

It’s doubtful that the average person associates car boot sales with burlesque dancers, but that’s the combination you’ll find at the Art Car Boot Fair 2007 in London’s Brick Lane.

On June 12, John Still, a private collector from Edinburgh, walked along a deserted Bond Street to arrive at the doors of the Fine Art Society at 6am, just a minute ahead of a second enthusiastic collector.

THE market for early English portrait miniatures received a sizeable fillip in London last week. The auction record was broken twice within the space of 24 hours with the sale of two iconic images of major figures in British history and this was backed up by a crop of other strong prices for top flight examples from the 16th and 17th centuries.

A futuristic helicopter, an armchair you can’t get out of, vibrating disco shoes, a collapsible bicycle wheel and a jacket that reduces jet lag.

Adrian and Irena, Count and Countess Csàky, have been collectors and dealers of early furniture and works of art for 40 years, trading for three decades from their shop Csàky Antiques on Pimlico Road.

The Victoria and Albert Museum have secured the funds to acquire this spectacular early 18th century French silver ewer and basin commissioned by John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough.

Among the many unique and important pieces of English pewter in the David Little Collection sold by Christie’s in King Street on May 1 was this mid 17th century broad-rimmed pewter charger.

Auctioneers make commitment to future of South Kensington salerooms

Rock and pop memorabilia auctioneers Cooper Owen are now under the sole ownership of Louise Cooper who founded the business in 2005.

One of the highlights of the recent Islamic sale series in London was this 2ft 4in (74cm) high, mid-19th century signed white marble bust of Maharajah Duleep Singh by John Gibson RA.

The future of Christie’s South Kensington’s collectibles department is currently under discussion.

Ealing Council’s Pitzhanger Manor-House has been forced to close its exhibition of Martin Brothers pottery following a burglary – the second to hit the collection in two years.