UK

Londoners are steeling themselves for the introduction of the daily £5 congestion charge on February 17, introduced by Mayor Ken Livingstone in a bid to reduce traffic and pollution in the capital. The Antiques Trade Gazette has been asking members of the trade what effect it will have on their businesses.

A secondhand bookshop in Glasgow and two Yorkshire dealers are celebrating a windfall of several million pounds after settling their dispute over the ownership of a lost cache of William Blake watercolours. The folio of 19 illustrations for Robert Blair’s poem, The Grave, one of the most exciting “finds” in art market history, have been sold through London art dealer Libby Howie, acting on behalf of an anonymous collector, for an estimated £4.9m.

PEOPLE are always coming up with new fairs, very few of them exciting, but last week I heard of one to be launched this spring, which does seem to have more than just a bit of flair. Boldly called Antiques & Audacity at Arundel Castle, it is organised by an outfit called Zygo.

Coming up in Lincoln: “ENGLAND expects every man to do his duty.” Nelson’s famous command was to be his last and effectively signalled the end of the Battle of Trafalgar. Details surrounding the start of the campaign are much more sketchy, but on February 20 Lincoln auctioneers Thomas Mawer & Son will be offering a memorandum written by Nelson to launch the famous battle.

THE country’s most famous antiques dealer David Dickinson, now a television superstar, did not work his magic on George Taylor, organiser of the Great Northern International Antiques and Collectors’ Fair at Harrogate’s Great Yorkshire Showground.

AS a one-off, the spring version of the twice-yearly Cardiff Antiques and Collectors’ Fair decamps to the nearby country town of Cowbridge. Carmarthen-based Robert and Carol Pugh, who operate as Towy Fairs, have been forced out of their regular venue, the Cardiff Bowling Club, by a rather rougher fixture than bowling, the Rugby League Cup Final which will be held at the Millennium Stadium on the same weekend – April 26 and 27.

The Red House, the former home of designer William Morris acquired last month by the National Trust, is due to open to the public in Bexleyheath later this summer. But aficionados of the Arts and Crafts movement who cannot bear to wait that long should take a look at the Clarke Gammon sale in Guildford on February 25, where the residual contents of the Victorian house are being dispersed.

MAYFAIR’S only specialist in tribal art, the Gordon Reece Gallery, hold an exhibition Gabbehs: an idiosyncratic art form from February 21 to March 29.

TIME waits for no man, the saying goes, and clients of Abraham-Louis Bréguet were certainly reminded of this fact when paying their monthly instalments to the Swiss-born watchmaker for Souscription pocket watches like this example right which featured at Woolley & Wallis’s sale on January 29.

BESWICK is one of the strongest areas of the 20th century collectable ceramics market so it was not surprising to see trade and private collectors packing these Leicestershire rooms at Gildings to bid on a large single-owner collection from a local deceased estate. What was surprising were the lengths to which bidders would go.

The first furniture sale of the year at Sotheby’s Olympia (20/12% buyer’s premium) was a 272-lot gathering on January 14 which saw two-thirds of the contents change hands.

The Spring Fine Art & Antiques Fair at Olympia, which will be held in London from February 25 to March 2, has received a record amount of publicity thanks to this Graham Sutherland (1903-1980) portrait of Churchill, right.

AT a time when several categories of London picture sales are struggling to achieve selling rates of 50 or 60 per cent, marine pictures appear to be one area with a rich enough client base to ride the current global financial storms.

Wiltshire auctioneers Finan & Co., have carved out a niche for themselves by steering clear of brown furniture and 19th century porcelain and offering slightly more exotic fare.

CHOCOLATES and roses will be bought by the ton over the days leading up to St. Valentine’s on February 14. But for those looking for a more novel way of pleasing a loved one, Grays Antique Market in Mayfair offers plenty of scope.

It’s QUESTIONABLE how much influence a piece of furniture could have upon the writer using it, but certainly when the writer in question is Graham Greene, a writer of that fame can certainly influence the fate of a piece of furniture.

A number of auctioneers have reported their best sales of the year in December and the North Cornish firm of Kivells (10% buyer’s premium) were in that happy position following their sale at Bude, on December 12. It was not merely the best of the year but their best sale ever.

LONDON: PIMLICO, SW1 has long been a prime London area for antique hunting, but now it is gaining an increasingly high profile as an international centre for decorative work of all descriptions.

FRESH from a buoyant January debut in West London, Caroline Penman moves north from February 13 to 16 for her provincial flagship event, The Spring Chester Antiques and Fine Art Show at the County Grandstand, Chester Racecourse.

AS Christie’s and Bonhams followed Sotheby’s in announcing new commission structures last week, Bonhams emerged with the most attractive terms for buyers and added a new incentive for sellers at their Bond Street rooms.