South-east England

As reported in ATG No 1724, January 28, Kent Auction Galleries (15% buyer’s premium) of Folkestone were selling this mid-18th century organ by John Sneltzer on February 11 on behalf of The Caldecott Foundation, a charitable organisation.

Establishing a new landmark for a picture lot sold at auction outside London, two portraits by Jean Baptiste Greuze (1725-1805) took £900,000 at Dreweatt Neate’s Donnington Priory salerooms last week.

An antiques dealer from Heathfield in Sussex has become the first British woman to complete the punishing Dakar Rally. The appropriately named Patsy Quick, owner of Toad Hall Antiques, set off on the 16-day trek on January 1 in Portugal, crossing Spain and Africa in the 5600-mile trip to Dakar, Senegal. She crossed the finish line on her motorbike one place ahead of her partner, Clive Town.

The tripod table is among the selection of Early Mahogany furniture that contributes to the ACC Antique Furniture Price Index. The sector recorded a 6% fall in 2005 – with tripod tables of routine quality dropping in price – but better examples of any form will buck the general trend.

THE giant RAF Swinderby fair will ditch Sunday trading and move to a Monday to Wednesday slot in the run-up to Newark from January.

On December 1 South Downs Auctioneers opened a new office and showroom at Gosdens Heath Barn, two and a half miles east of Midhurst, towards Petworth on the A272.

IT has stood for just over a century as a tribute to one of the leading figures in English Victorian art. But now the fabric of the Watts Gallery building, which houses a unique 200-piece collection, has deteriorated so much that £10m is needed to repair it and secure its future.

Police in Hartley Wintney, Hampshire, are investigating a series of thefts from antiques shops and galleries in the area over the last month, which officers believe are linked.

Setting a new house record for Holloways of Banbury, this enigmatic alabaster urn shot to £170,000 (plus 15% buyer’s premium) on October 18.

POLICE are warning antiques dealers to look out for the two men, pictured left, who they believe are professional thieves targeting antiques centres and shops.

TWO lots stood out among the 600 lots offered at Hampshire. One was an 18th century matched pair of brass barrelled flintlock pistols signed Burnford, London, which, because of a missing ramrod and broken trigger mechanism were catalogued a/f but sold to a collector at a quadruple estimate £1600.

Surrey auctioneers Ewbank are now offering a live online bidding service and held their first such sale on July 7.

NEWLY refurbished rooms at Send in Surrey mean that Ewbanks will now be able to hold two general sales a month (on the first and third Thursdays) with quarterly sales of fine art and antiques.

Following the decision of Thames Valley estate agents Simmons and Son to concentrate upon their core business, a new firm of fine art auctioneers and valuers has been established in Watlington.

NEXT month The Country Seat turn the spotlight for the second time on fin de siècle pioneering lighting designer W.A.S. Benson, when they mount an exhibition, The Talented Mr Benson, at their picturesque medieval tithe barn at Huntercombe off the A4130 near Henley on Thames in Oxfordshire.

SPECIAL Auction Services, the West Berkshire auctioneers best known for regular sales of commemoratives and pot lids, are themselves on the market.

PICK up the Modern British reference books and you might just find a small mention of Edgar Hubert: born in Billingshurst, West Sussex in 1906; trained at the Slade; an exhibitor with the London Group from 1931 to 1947; died in obscurity (actually it was in Scafold, West Sussex) in 1985.

IT was a matter of success breeding success for Oxfordshire auctioneers Holloway’s in March. Late last year they sold an 18th century ivory bust, possibly of Handel, for £29,000, and when the owner of a tiny medieval ivory panel read of it in ATG No 1671, January 8, he decided to offer it in the Banbury rooms.

“Perhaps the last collection from a commissioning family that is likely to come onto the market” was how Berkshire auctioneer Mark Law of Law Fine Art described the remarkable sale of the Andrew Keith Collection conducted at Littlecote House, Hungerford on April 5.

AS Easter approaches life is picking up apace on the provincial fairs scene.