UK

UK: IT’S not just rose-tinted nostalgia – the old days really were more pleasant and these really are some of the toughest times the trade has known. The fact is that more dealers are chasing fewer lots at auction than ever before. Gloucestershire auctioneer Philip Allen has noticed a dramatic increase in private buying at auction in the past decade, which has obviously denied the trade much business, but what he has to say about the activity of dealers is even more depressing.

Age, practical usage and quality have always made for healthy prices for looking glasses and when one adds today’s demand for the decorative it was not too suprising to see this fine late Regency rococo frame lead the Cheltenham sale held by Bruton Knowles (10 per cent buyer’s premium) back on February 27 where it sold at £12,000.

UK: THE subject matter of the Viking collection sold at Spink on March 14 speaks for itself. Not something to appeal to most Antiques Trade Gazette readers it is worth reporting briefly, mainly to demonstrate the skill that resides in London.

The Bonhams Knightsbridge sale (see above, Henty – the great adventure begins with A Secret for Success) also included a P.G. Wodehouse collection (from a different source) and among the more successful of those lots were these two shown here.

UK: West Country auctioneers Bearne’s of Exeter made headline news last May when they sold a collection of vintage 1850s photographs from William, 2nd Earl of Craven for £1.4m.

UK: THE Kent and Medway Bills go the House of Lords on Thursday (March 29) for the final reading before Royal Assent puts them on the statute book.

One of eight colour printed and hand-finished plates from the only known copy of a work that Fabien Gautier D’Agoty issued in 1777, apparently as a prospectus for his Histoire naturelle ... Règne Minéral.

UK: THE Sussex sale was dominated by the £98,000 bid for L.S. Lowry’s oil on plywood Old Houses (Art Market, Antiques Trade Gazette No. 1479, March 10) but this record bid for the rooms was backed up by a number of pieces of good-quality furniture which saw competitive bidding.

UK: WELSH organisers (and occasional ceramics dealers) Robert and Carol Pugh make their debut as the new owners of the Little Chelsea Antiques Fair at Chelsea Old Town Hall, London SW3 on April 2 and 3.

TO commemorate the centenary of Queen Victoria’s death the V&A’s major spring exhibition is Inventing New Britain: The Victorian Vision, from April 5 to July 29. Co-curated by Paul Atterbury, the exhibition takes as its themes how a modern Britain emerged during the Queen’s all-powerful reign, and the way in which the Victorians have shaped our lives. Three books have been published by V&A Publications to accompany the exhibition.

UK: BOXLOCK shotguns are the most common of British fowling firearms and those with bolt-actions are certainly not unusual, but this particular model, left, aroused great interest at Weller and Dufty’s (15 per cent premium) arms and armour auction in Birmingham on March 14.

UK: THE current strength of the silver market for unusual pieces has been discussed in theAntiques Trade Gazette of recent weeks and the Cambridge auctioneers two-day sale showed that the trend is no different in East Anglia.

UK: PEOPLE are rightly reluctant to travel to foot-and-mouth infected countryside, and although the local area was free from the disease, the February sale at Devon-based S.J. Hales was attended by just 25 bidders in the room.

UK: THE Cotswolds seems the natural environment for oak dressers and a couple were on offer here.

Lowly-rated architect’s table sells at £24,000 UK: OCCASIONALLY a dream sale comes along for the auctioneer that needs no selling and takes off for no apparent reason. It happened at Nottingham where Neales’ specialist Bruce Fearne enjoyed taking some startling bids from privates and trade alike, for no obvious reason.

UK: AMONG the spicier silver prices realised at Manchester-based Capes Dunn’s February sale of jewellery, silver, plated wares, watches and gold coins, were a small cylindrical nutmeg grater with pull-off domed lid and two ribbed girdles.

UK: The name of Gillows, never unfashionable, is going through one of its periodic high points and this was more than confirmed at the March 1 sale held at Leamington Spa by Locke & England (121/2% buyer’s premium) when they could offer the mid-19th century amboyna and gilt embellished centre table.

UK: IN THE original grey-brown paper boards with printed paper labels on the spines, these first edition copies of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, four vols. 1818, and Emma, three vols. 1816, sold at £19,000 and £22,000 respectively to an un-named US dealer.

UK: THIS elaborately gilt violet cloth binding on an 1861 first edition of Mrs Henry Wood’s East Lynne was identified by Sotheby’s as Carter’s B ‘Presentation Binding’ but their view on the value of this copy – which had all edges gilt but was fragile at the hinges and partially split in Vol. III – was a modest £600-800.

UK: IN THE second of the Oxford auctioneers’ regular monthly sales the focus was largely on jewellery reflecting auctioneer Benjamin Lloyd’s belief in the increasing numbers of private clients or ‘impulse buyers’ who may come to the saleroom looking for a mahogany sideboard and leave with a diamond ring.