London

THE success of Christie`s marines sale in New York will no doubt be heartening news for Bonhams (19.5/10% buyer’s premium) who have been holding specialist marine picture sales for the last 20 years and whose latest offering, the second so far this year, is due to be held at their Bond Street rooms on September 16.

WE frequently comment on the way in which successful dealers have to chase business wherever it may be and a case in point is Mayfair dealer Alistair Sampson who will not be seeing much of his Mount Street, London W1 showrooms once autumn is upon us.

A biscuit box is probably not every young child’s idea of an exciting toy, but to collectors of tins, advertising and tinplate, the Huntley & Palmers Tribeck lorry tin, 1937, 83/4in (22cm), in Bonhams Knightsbridge’s (17.5/10% buyer’s premium) trains, toys and diecast sale on July 15 was the most coveted entry.

Hawk-eyed dealers scouring the London rooms in July for Asian sleepers would have been rewarded by a trip to Christie’s South Kensington’s (17.5/10% buyer’s premium) Asian Decorative Arts 586-lot sale on July 10.

LAST year was not a good year for Partridge Fine Art – in fact according to John Partridge, the firm, founded in 1905, suffered their worst set of results in his 46-year chairmanship. Now, however, a change in business direction is helping the Bond Street dealership – one of the capital’s most venerable and traditional – to turn their fortunes around.

NOW in its fourth year The Original London Textiles,Vintage Fashion and Accessories Fair continues to make its mark attracting a different crowd to most fairs, many of them from the fashion industry.

ONE of the most provocative icons of the British Pop Art movement is Allen Jones’ (b.1937) Table. The original 1969 version of this work – listed in Volker Kahmen’s Eroticism in Contemporary Art as being in the Collection Ludwig, Aachen – was an uncompromising fetish object showing the life-size model naked apart from her leather boots, gloves and bodice gazing at herself in a mirror.

TWO months ago in our Decoration and Design column we reported the launch of the Metal Gallery in Mayfair, a new showcase for contemporary metalwork of all kinds.

It is one of the best known moments in sport. Donald Bradman, batsman without peer, arrives at the crease in his final test match at the Oval on August 14 1948, requiring just four runs for a Test career average of 100.

In terms of ‘Old Masters’ in their strictest sense, the July 9 sale sale at Bonhams (19.5/10% buyer’s premium) Knightsbridge might have been conspicuously short of quality, but the presence of this fine George Stubbs (1724-1806) canvas of a dark bay in a landscape. right, gave proceedings a lift when it sold at £1.75m to an American collector represented by London dealer Ray Waterhouse in the room.

“Art Deco may be the movement of the moment, but the French have received more than their fair share of praise,” says seasoned Deco dealer Eccles Jerome, who is determined to redress the balance and put English furniture from the Deco era firmly on the design map.

Dollar rate deters American teddy bear enthusiasts: Daniel Agnew, the teddy bear specialist at Christie’s South Kensington (17.5/10% buyer’s premium), felt the market was a bit softer than usual for the first of his bi-annual teddy sales on June 10.

TO celebrate the National Art Collection Fund’s centenary, the National Film Theatre in London is to host a six-week season of films this autumn about art and artists.

THERE was a greater concentration of Chinese Export porcelain at Christie’s King Street (19.5/12% buyer’s premium) than at either of the other two houses with a single- owner collection of European-subject Export ware offered in a separate catalogue on June 17 and a private collection of famille verte porcelain in mixed condition that was 99 per cent sold by lot and by value, included in their mixed-owner sale on the same day.

NOW into its fourth year and an established favourite with very much its own following, The Original London Textiles, Vintage Fashion and Accessories Fair will be held this Sunday July 13 at Hammersmith Town Hall, King Street, London W6.

Many in the art world will know of Professor E. T. ‘Teddy’ Hall through his work in archaeometry, the science used to establish the age and origins of much of the world’s ancient art and artefacts, using tests such as thermoluminescence.

FROM August 21 to October 26, The Wallace Collection in Manchester Square will host what they bill as the first ever exhibition in London devoted entirely to Regency and Victorian glass.

LOOKING for the next big thing in art? You can choose from over 350 hand-picked artists, in a variety of media, whose wares are on show this month at Fresh Art, at the Business Design Centre in Islington, London N1.

JUDGING by the sales of photographic images at the recent artLONDON, the public appears to be warming to the genre as a serious art form. A further test of its acceptability may be gleaned until July 26 at Cork Street’s Hirschl Contemporary Art, with the showing of 10 or so photographs (£1000-1800) by Sian Bonnell, whose work is represented in the V&A and Houston’s Museum of Fine Art.

Lisa Watson is one of the young silversmiths featured in Silver Sparks, an exhibition of 47 examples of cutting-edge silver and jewellery made by students and former students of the Bishopsland Workshops in Oxfordshire that are on show at the Gilbert Collection in Somerset House, London WC2 until August 31. Her silver and felt jewellery and accessories can be seen at the show but like several of the other participants, examples of her work can also be bought at the Gilbert Collection Shop.