London

THREE of London’s longest established antiques centres have changed hands following the acquisition of Atlantic Properties Ltd by London & Associated Properties PLC.

IN an unusual trade initative, three London dealers have combined forces to buy and sell one of the largest silver collections in private hands and one of the biggest for sheer numbers ever to be offered in the trade.

Christie’s are to merge their British and Old Master pictures departments in London.

THE Whitewebbs Museum of Transport is holding its annual antique and collectors’ fair at the museum in Whitewebbs Road, Enfield on Sunday October 22.

Assay Office London will hold their next Fakes and Forgeries seminar at Goldsmiths’ Hall on Wednesday, January 24.

LAST week's fire at the Royal Academy building at 6 Burlington Gardens is unlikely to affect the fairs scheduled to be held at the premises next year.

First there was Phillips Reunited, now there is the Bonhams Chelsea Reunion.

Phillips de Pury & Company will raise the curtain on their new London headquarters with a Contemporary Art and Design Art sale on October 14.

The third reunion of former staff of Phillips auctioneers will take place on Tuesday September 12 at the London Rowing Club, Embankment, Putney from 6pm.

CLARION Arts, the owners and organisers of the three annual Olympia fairs in West London, have reaffirmed their commitment to the Spring Olympia and appointed a dedicated show manager for that troubled event.

Clarion Arts have announced that this year’s Winter Fine Art & Antiques Fair at Olympia will be held in association with both of the UK trade associations.

A new auction company is set to start trading in Hampstead, North London this autumn.

Underscoring a strength of demand for rhinoceros horn pieces seen in the recent specialist Asian sales, Chiswick Auctions achieved a house record on July 18 when this rhinoceros horn libation cup carved with carp feeding on a waterlily sold to a Taiwanese dealer at £46,000 (plus 15 per cent buyer’s premium). The 18th or possibly 17th century vessel was discovered by auctioneer William Rouse on the sideboard of a modest home in Hanwell, one of West London’s less fashionable suburbs.

The fourth annual ATG-sponsored football match between the Dealers and the Auctioneers will take place at the Bank of England sports ground in Roehampton on Friday, September 1.

IT set a British auction record for a Shakespeare First Folio and made the highest price ever seen for a printed book at Sotheby’s London (20/12% buyer’s premium) – but hushed voices at the back of the saleroom were suggesting that the £2.5m hammer price represented pretty good value for a near-perfect copy of the most important book in English literature.

THIS summer's Kensington Church Street Open Evening on June 29 proved a notable success for the many visitors who enjoyed the hospitality and company of the street's many dealers.

There was nothing dull or predictable about the coin sale at Spink on June 29 when an expectant crowd gathered to witness the sale of one of the rarest of English Medieval coins: the gold Double Leopard florin of Edward III which was minted for only a few months in 1344.

More suited to the wall than the bed and more a piece of social history than a functional textile, this 19th century appliqué felt coverlet reaped the rewards when it sold for £24,000 (plus premium) at Kerry Taylor auctions in association with Sotheby's on June 26.

Record turnover at London flagship sales but the buzz of the 1980s has gone

Compiled in the second half of the 15th century, the Fechtbuch of Hans Talhoffer (fl. 1435-82), the most celebrated and experienced fighting-master of the age, is a veritable encyclopaedia of medieval combat.