News

A sporting treble of Cricket, Boxing and Tennis made up the 311-lot sale held at Christie’s South Kensington back on June 22. This early tilt- headed lawn tennis racket which made one of the highest prices in the tennis section had the double distinction of being an early piece of equipment with a provenance to a pioneer champion of the sport.

UK: THE Antiques Trade Gazette has been given an exclusive preview of Sotheby’s new saleroom at Olympia. With 120 men a day working onsite to meet the September 3 deadline, prior to the first sale on September 18, one can see it is going to be very impressive indeed.

Today’s national cricket teams jet around the world to their Test series by plane, but back in the early 20th century the cruise liner was the chosen mode of transport.

Minton’s majolica is currently riding high with collectors who appreciate its bright colours and distinctive, often quirkily clever designs. But there is much more to Minton than its majolica, as a loan exhibition currently on show at Phillips New Bond Street rooms aims to show.

FRANCE: THE make-up of the Conseil des Ventes, the new auction watchdog to vet all companies wishing to stage auctions in France, has been announced far quicker than expected.

June saw the fourth and final episode in the dispersal of the Ken Smith Collection of Staffordshire pot lids and Prattware by Reading auctioneers Special Auction Services (15% buyer’s premium inc. vat). The 240 lots from the collection, mainly four items per lot, formed part of the 1000-lot event over the weekend of June 9 & 10 and contributed £47,400 to the hammer total of £207,500 for the whole collection of which only a remarkable 23 lots failed to get away.

ESSEX organiser Robert Bailey holds his main South of England summer fair at, appropriately, Sotheby’s South, one mile north of Billingshurst in West Sussex, from August 17 to 19.