UK

The United Kingdom accounts for more than one fifth of the global art market sales and is the second biggest art market after the US.

Through auctioneers, dealers, fairs and markets - and a burgeoning online sector - buyers, collectors and sellers of art and antiques can easily access a vibrant network of intermediaries and events around the country. The UK's museums also house a wealth of impressive collections

Miniature masterpieces re-united

12 April 1999

UK: A MAJOR loan exhibition of Dutch and Flemish cabinet pictures opens at Richard Green’s gallery at 33 New Bond Street, London W1 this week.

Holtzbecker’s reputation restored with a bid of £500,000

12 April 1999

UK: THE highlight of the Natural History sale held by Christie’s on March 17 – a lot which had its own separate catalogue – was the Moller Florilegium.

Mysterious Maria

12 April 1999

UK: Maria Szantho (b. 1898-?) was a Hungarian artist who specialised in glamour girl nudes which crop up with some regularity in the salerooms, generally at prices between £500-3000.

Joanna plumps for cushions

12 April 1999

UK: AROUND this time of the month it’s always a pleasure to report from that most elegant of cities, Bath where, as readers will know, members of the Bath and Bradford on Avon Antique Dealers Association take turns each month to donate the sale price of an item of stock to the NSPCC.

Victorian saddler’s well in Bedford

12 April 1999

UK: ONE of the more unusual entries to the sale conducted by Wilson Peacock (10 per cent buyer’s premium) at the Bedford Auction Centre on March 2 was this 19th century carved wooden model of a horse, right, with full leather harness, 2ft 4in (76cm) high, believed to be a shop display tool for a Victorian saddler. There is always great interest in such objects for their decorative appeal and social historical interest: this example posted £400.

Jewel-studded stockbroker belt with an armorial silver star

12 April 1999

UK: WHEREAS auctioneers in less densely populated areas of the UK such as Scotland, Wales and the West Country, consistently lament the dearth of good quality consignments, this is not a common complaint at Hamptons’ Surrey saleroom.

Collectors buy offbeat pieces

05 April 1999

UK: UNUSUAL collectables on the first day and standard furnishings on the second at this 495-lot Essex dispersal.

Illuminated manuscript of religious meditations

05 April 1999

UK: “THE richness of the language in which this manuscript is written speaks redolently of the period, and of the writer himself,” said the Phillips cataloguer of an illuminated manuscript of religious meditations which sold at £4400 to Quaritch.

£20,500 sparks more talk of Burges

05 April 1999

UK: IS this Gothic revival red walnut foldover card table, left, another rediscovered work by the great William Burges?

Bidders go Wilde

05 April 1999

UK: SIGNED cabinet photographs of Oscar and Constance Wilde flank one of their younger son, Vivian, which has been inscribed and dated 1891 to the reverse – although the well known portrait of Oscar is known to date from 1889.

From Zanzibar to the Cotswolds

05 April 1999

UK: FURNITURE from the East Coast of Africa is hardly common currency within the Cotswolds antiques trade but it was given unusual prominence last month with the appearance of this substantial 18th century hardwood chest with brass studwork decoration at the Gloucestershire rooms of Wotton Auction Rooms on March 23-24.

More money on the tables…

05 April 1999

£25,000 bid sees trade becoming less perfectionist in hunt for quality UK: FEW dealers will talk bullishly on the record and the auction scene in the provinces does remain patchy – but all the evidence is that there is still money around and auctioneer Guy Schwinge saw its effect at his latest Dorset sale.

Byron auction catalogue raises the bidding high

05 April 1999

UK: ONE OF THE principal successes in the printed portion of this sale was a copy of the 1827 Evans auction catalogue of the Library of the Late Lord Byron....

Out of Africa and into the rich treasure house known as Sussex

05 April 1999

UK: AS two of the wealthiest and most densely populated of the Southern Counties – housing large communities of former expats, retired professionals and alpha-class commuters – it is hardly surprising that West and East Sussex have a multitude of salerooms.

£3100 for mirror with nautical air

05 April 1999

UK: THIS Victorian gilt overmantel mirror, right, was the unexpected highlight of Plymouth Auction Rooms (buyer’s premium 10 per cent) February 24.

US candelabra bid sets a £39,000 house record

05 April 1999

UK: ROBERT Garrard is a heavyweight in the Victorian silver market, renown for large and imposing tablewares produced for the great and the good of mid-late 19th century society. And a fine example of the Garrard output was on offer at the Bournemouth Auction Galleries in March.

340 years old and drinkable

05 April 1999

UK: FOR the moment at least the great international wine auctioneering machine grinds on serenely enough with lottage selling rates routinely at levels of 90 per cent or better.

March horological highlights

05 April 1999

UK: PICTURED here are three of best-sellers from a trio of horological sales held in the London rooms last month, all of which fared well in terms of overall selling rates.

Trade flock to Cotswolds for all manor of delights

05 April 1999

UK: NINETEENTH century brown carcase furniture of country house proportions and impeccable provenance attracted the higher prices at this monthly sale in the Cotswolds.

Kaempfer and Titsingh offer posthumously published revelations of Japan through Western eyes

05 April 1999

UK: THE Christie’s South Kensington sale of March 19 fielded no fewer than three copies of the book that was the main source of western knowledge of Japan in the 18th century, the two-volume History of Japan... written by Englebert Kaempfer.

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