London

NOW in its sixth year artLONDON has proved a popular and worthy addition to the roster of June fairs. Indeed, in this relatively short time it has become as much a part of the London summer scene as its much more venerable and mainstream stablemates, such as Grosvenor House and Olympia.

MAYFAIR dealers in things tribal, unusual and exotic, the Gordon Reece Gallery, are currently holding one of their periodic selling exhibitions of antique Chinese furniture at 16 Clifford Street, W1.

AT its seventh staging, the popular Hali fair at Olympia is undergoing some major changes, not the least of which is a name change. The event is now titled The Hali Fair: Carpets, Textiles and Tribal Art. The duration of the fair has been extended from four to 10 days and it will take place in the National Hall Gallery at Olympia from June 3 to 13, at the same time as the summer Fine Art & Antiques Fair. The fairs will be linked allowing easy access between the two.

SALES of Victoria Cross groups continue to set new auction records.

IN this busy spring season – the busiest for some years – Spink’s have been batting hard. March 31 saw a fine sale which netted £626,750. But, not content with that, they fielded another 632-lot sale a fortnight later, on April 15. Again this sale referred mainly to British and related coins. However, the first 131 lots were devoted to the ancient world.

ON The Wall is the name of a new fair aimed at the contemporary art market which will be launched from September 29 to October 3 at the Grand Hall, Olympia.

RECENTLY renamed and relocated, Bloomsbury Auctions have launched an Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary art department.

APPEAL Court judges have lifted the punishment given to a London dealer convicted of handling £1.5m worth of stolen silver after hearing how he had committed the crimes in order to pay for his wife’s cancer treatment.

Islamic works of art have not just been wowing collectors in the auction rooms, the museum- and exhibition-going public have also plainly found it a big and topical attraction.

SALES of antique and decorative carpets traditionally accompany London’s Islamic series and all three participating salerooms offered selections last month. Christie’s King Street had the biggest and most expensive sale: a 269-lot gathering on April 29 that netted £1.78m. It also recorded the highest selling rates, although at 68 per cent by volume and 81 by value, they were not quite as strong as for the works of art offering two days earlier.

PIMLICO dealer Appley Hoare unveils her new stock of antique garden items and associated antiques at her eponymous shop at 30 Pimlico Road, London SW1 on the evening of May 24; her selling Summer Garden Exhibition will continue at the gallery well into the summer.

TWO of the biggest names in British art will mastermind this year’s Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, which will run at the Academy’s galleries on London’s Piccadilly from June 8 to 16.

AFTER 25 years mounting monthly fairs at Chelsea Town Hall in the King’s Road, London SW3, Hove-based Cindy Mainwaring, of Mainwaring Antiques Fairs, is introducing a new dimension.

TO mount six major selling exhibitions in the space of eight years of paintings by iconic British 20th century artist L.S. Lowry (1887-1976) is, by any standards, impressive. Nonetheless, this is exactly what New Bond Street dealer Richard Green has done. His latest Lowry showcase opens this Wednesday, May 19.

A travel sale held by Christie’s South Kensington on April 29 was a mix of books, prints and pictures and seen here are two items from a section of that sale devoted to the Alpine regions.

ATTENDANCE figures of 4243 at The 9th Annual Chelsea Art Fair, a Caroline Penman event at Chelsea Old Town Hall, were slightly up on last year, as were items sold (435), with many of the 45 exhibitors reporting reasonable sales.

THE Earls Court and Olympia exhibition complexes are now under new ownership following a £245m deal which was completed last week.

Illustrated right is part of a group of fragmentary Greek and Coptic papyri, dating from the 4th-9th century AD and comprising mainly Coptic accounts, lists of names, literary fragments and two Greek biblical extracts, together with three narrow linen bandages inscribed in ink in late hieratic with spells from the Book of the Dead, c.3rd-1st century BC – offered as a single lot in a Christie’s antiquities sale, of April 27.

SOMETIMES the significance of important commemorative pieces, which must have been so obvious at the time of their manufacture, remains something of a mystery to modern day collectors.

IF the hallmark of the perfect evening is the correct blend of food, wine, company and entertainment, now is the time to book tickets for the the RICS Grand Summer Dinner, scheduled for June 30.