London

Above right: the ‘Library’ portion of the Ken Paul Collection, a three-day sale of ‘antique’ film props that raised £1.5m at Sotheby’s last month was not large and was dispersed in eight job lots, but someone will doubtless have fun sorting through this collection of several hundred deeds, wills, leases, probates, transfers etc., mostly on vellum and largely 19th century, but including a few made-up props.

In the week when the death was announced of Kenneth Wolstenholme – the man whose legendary utterance “They think it’s all over... it is now!” capped England’s 1966 World Cup win – what could have been more appropriate than a world record for a football shirt at auction.

The brutality and horror of everyday life in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp can be seen in a collection of pen, ink and watercolour sketches to be offered on April 16 at Bonhams, New Bond Street’s sale of topographical pictures.

The children’s books section of a Bloomsbury Book Auctions sale of March 7 amounted to no more than a dozen lots, but included several good things and a few interesting results.

The March 13 sale held by Dix Noonan Webb (17.625 per cent buyer’s premium) was one of the best general sales for quite some years. There is a general shortage of interesting material and the clientele is clearly well aware of this. The room was packed, there was hardly a seat for latecomers and prices were accordingly buoyant. This is very good news for the trade as a whole.

VINTAGE FILM POSTERS: Cult film classics such as Flash Gordon, The Mummy and Dr X may no longer be the crowd-pullers they once were, but these cinematic greats live on through their original advertising posters.

TIM Hirsch, managing director of Spink, has succeeded in leading a management buy-out of the firm from Christie’s.

PORTRAIT MINIATURES: A substantial selection of silhouettes and a collection of wax portraits boosted the content of a 311-lot middle ranking sale of portrait miniatures held by Bonhams on March 12.

LONDON: MAYFAIR dealers Partridge have seen pre-tax profits drop by 90 per cent in what chairman John Partridge has dubbed “the most difficult and uncertain market conditions, for this company, that I have experienced in my 43 years as chairman”.

Though not so credited, this coloured lithograph, Grand Prix de l’A.C.F. 1913 (Motocyclettes) has a very Gamy/Montaut look about it. In the literature section of a motoring sale held by Bonhams at the RAF Museum, Hendon, on February 25, it sold at £250.

“…a show, not a place to live,” was how Lord Gowrie summed up David Sylvester’s approach to decorating his homes in a tribute previewing Sotheby’s sale of the art critic and curator’s collection last month.

THE conventions of attribution for paintings are safe after a High Court judge ruled in favour of Mayfair art dealers Agnew’s in a £1.5m claim by a disgruntled customer.

SILVER: Good commercially appealing entries were what was finding favour with both trade and private buyers at Christie’s South Kensington’s second silver sale of the year, the 158-lot £136,123 gathering held on February 19.

The sudden death of David Wolfers, the ‘captain’ of the New Grafton Gallery (49 Church Road, Barnes, SW13 9HH. Tel: 020 8748 8850) in late December 2001, aged 84, robbed the art world of one of its charismatic characters.

THE Staithes Group, the band of artists who made the North Yorkshire fishing village their home before some moved to the South West and Newlyn, are the subject of an impressive exhibition put together by Cumbrian dealer Peter Haworth (Tel: 015395 62352).

It was standing room only at Sotheby’s Bond Street on February 26 when the auctioneers sold the David Sylvester collection. In a room packed with dealers, collectors and friends of the late art critic, plus a phalanx of Sotheby’s staff manning a bank of telephones, the auctioneers offered 149 lots of paintings, drawings, sculpture, tribal art and antiquities, and as lot after lot outstripped the estimates, it was clear that their £1m projection was going to be dramatically exceeded.

THE relative strength of Old Master paintings in comparison to other sectors of the market has been noted at a number of recent auctions, but this new-found strength, it seems, is not just restricted to top-end sales in London and New York.

Transferring fine vintage wines from the bottle to the decanter without disturbing the sediment has been an age-old concern of those who take their wine seriously. It was clearly a concern in the 18th century, as can be attested by this ingenious and now rare George II silver wine syphon, right, which came under the hammer at Christie’s South Kensington’s (17.5/10% buyer’s premium) February 19 sale of Selected Silver and Plate.

CHRISTIE’S have announced that they have been instructed by the Marquess of Bath and his trustees to sell 400 lots of paintings and works of art from Longleat House. The aim is to raise over £15m to set up a maintenance fund for its preservation.

Sotheby’s July 11 Old Master sale will include the re-discovered Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) oil on panel The Massacre of the Innocents, pictured right.