Flints launches jewellery auctions
Scientific instruments and photographica auction house Flints has expanded its specialisms and will launch a biannual fine jewellery auction from December 4. Aimed at the middle market, lots will range in price from £400-8000.
The auction house was set up in 2017 by dealers Matthew Nunn and Keith Petts and auctioneer Jonathan Brown. It also holds vintage and second-hand hi-fi equipment sales and runs its online auctions from Thatcham, Berkshire.
Maggiar joins team at Christie’s Paris
Christie’s has hired Alexis Maggiar as international director in its Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas department in Paris.
Alexis Maggiar of Christie’s.
He started his career in 2001 with Alain de Monbrison and subsequently Calmels Cohen Auctioneers at the Hôtel Drouot.
He joined Sotheby’s in 2007 and became its European director of the African and Oceania Arts department in 2017. At Christie’s he will report to Cécile Verdier, president of Christie’s France.
Its next Paris sale of African, Oceanic and American Art is on December 3.
Doyle saleroom hires Cervantes
US auction house Doyle has hired Richard Cervantes as senior vice president and director of Asian works of art.
Richard Cervantes has joined Doyle.
Previously at Freeman’s, he remains in Philadelphia and will travel regularly to New York and other areas of the country. He is currently taking consignments for Doyle’s September Asian Works of Art auction.
Dealer Wallis heads restoration TV show
Dealer and restorer Gary Wallis stars in a new antiques TV programme. With a team of craftspeople Wallis has filmed Restoration Workshop for the Yesterday channel.
An exhibitor at previous editions of the Decorative Antiques & Textiles Fair in Battersea and the Salvo Fair, Wallis deals from Henley-on- Thames, specialising in a range of salvage and ‘up-cycled’ objects.
The first episode of Restoration Workshop features a Grenadier guard’s drum and airs on August 18 at 8pm.
Messums opens Harrogate branch
Art dealership Messums has opened a space in James Street, Harrogate.
The business, which also has locations in London and Wiltshire, will focus on Contemporary and Modern British art with six exhibitions planned to take place annually.
Dealer Johnny Messum says: “Our vision is to create a place where artists, art lovers and collectors can come together on a regular basis to enjoy the best contemporary art and craft from every corner of the world.”
The upper floor of the gallery will focus on British Impressionist paintings by artists such as Walter Sickert and Harold Gilman.
Currently on show is Material Textile: Modern British Female Designers, co-curated by Gray MCA, and a selection of Contemporary ceramics by French artist Thiébaut Chagué.
Visitors can book timed appointments to visit.
Pokemon cards take £25,000
A complete base set of first edition Shadowless Pokemon cards bought directly from the original US publisher in 1999 sold on thesaleroom.com for £25,000 in the Richard Winterton auction in Lichfield on July 27.
Binder containing a full set of Pokemon cards – £25,000 at Richard Winterton.
The 102-card set, which had been estimated at £25,000- 35,000, has actually 103 cards as there are two different versions of the Pikachu, numbered 58a for Red Cheek Pikachu and 58b for Yellow Cheek Pikachu.
The vendor was Nigel Brookes, a 33-year-old self-employed sales consultant who grew up in Streetly, West Midlands. The collection was bought in 1999 for his 14th birthday as a special present. Unusually for the time, it was acquired online from the Wizards Of The Coast shop in the US.
The cards were offered together with a vintage 1990s official Pokemon trading card binder with the classic slogan Gotta catch ’em all! on the cover.
A portmanteau of ‘Pocket Monsters’, Pokemon has become one of the world’s biggest and most popular media franchises ranging from video games, trading cards and anime to movies and apps.
The Pokemon Trading Card Game based on the Nintendo franchise was first published in October 1996 by Media Factory in Japan and by Wizards Of The Coast.
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The most viewed stories for week July 23-29 on antiquestradegazette.com
1 Coronavirus: Adams fairs and IACF postpone London events
2 Huge bidding battle as rediscovered Old Master military drawings take £125,000 at Sworders
3 Glamour and high society mix in a Scottish country house sale
4 A portrait by James Jebusa Shannon and an Old Master found in skip near Portobello Road are among five lots to watch at auction
5 ‘The King’s Speech’ cigarette case sells for over 10-times estimate
In Numbers
183,500
An online tour hosted by writer and TV presenter Andrew Graham-Dixon of the pre-sale exhibition for Sotheby’s Rembrandt to Richter evening sale on July 28 was watched by an audience of 183,500 says the auction house.
