Jonathan Hills has joined Olympia Auctions.
Olympia expands its clocks offering
Olympia Auctions is expanding into clocks. Clock specialist Jonathan Hills has joined as a consultant.
Having worked in regional salerooms and coming from a horological family, he became head of clocks at Sotheby’s in Sussex in 1992, moving to Sotheby’s Olympia in 2002 and to New Bond Street in 2006, remaining as a director and senior clock specialist until earlier this year.
Hills is a past master of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers, a member of the British Horological Institute and a member of the Antiquarian Horological Society.
At Olympia Auctions clocks are sold in the European Works of Art sales with the next taking place at the Blythe Road, west London, premises on May 23, followed by November 21.
Hills is searching for consignments of good English and Continental clocks from the 17th to 19th centuries.
Vintage design in store at a pop-up
A pop-up ‘supermarket’ installation that merges vintage design and furniture with objects of Contemporary craft is coming to Soho, London.
From May 15-18 at the Vinyl Factory, The Vintage Supermarket is a pop-up shop that has been in the planning for more than five years by onl ine vintage retailer Merchant & Found. The firm said it is emptying its warehouse for the project, showcasing the full range of its stock during London Craft Week (May 13-19).
Somewhat tongue-in-cheek, the ‘supermarket’ is organised like one of its real-life counterparts, divided into departments: a butcher’s, brush department, fresh produce and fish counter. There is a series of games and prizes to be won, including a daily supermarket trolley dash.
However, the craftsmanship going into it is serious. The vintage furniture on offer includes makers such as Tolix, Baumann and Esavian, while the ‘goods’ that fill the aisles are the result of international commissions made over the last five years - for example a quantity of ‘fish’ created by textile artist Kate Jenkins and paper ‘fruit’ by Hattie Newman.
Merchant & Found is an online vintage furniture and lighting retailer founded in 2018. It stages the installation in collaboration with London Craft Week and online antiques and interiors platform Vinterior.
Restitution funding for a second year
Christie’s has launched the second year of the Christie’s Grant for Nazi-era Provenance Research.
The grant will be offered to four recipients (£5000 each), to fund academic, postgraduate research into subjects related to Nazi-era provenance research and restitution.
Christie’s has also launched a second grant option of £1000 each to undergraduates who are studying Nazi-era and restitution-related topics, and who may be considering a future career or study in this area.
Dealer supports tapestries appeal
The tapestries at Kelmscott Manor.
The Society of Antiquaries and the Kelmscott Campaign Group, led by antiques dealer Martin Levy, are hoping to raise the final £40,000 needed to conserve Kelmscott Manor’s Samson tapestries.
The four 17th-century Dutch tapestries depicting the Life of Samson were part of the house before Arts & Crafts specialist and social campaigner William Morris moved to the now Grade I-listed 16th and 17th century house.
Kelmscott Manor, in the vi l lage of Kelmscot t , Oxfordshire, was the country home of Morris and his family from the 1870s. It stayed in the family until the death of his daughter May Morris in 1938 and is now owned by the Society of Antiquaries of London.
The latest funding project is to conserve the Samson tapestries and return its Tapestry Room to the way it looked during Morris’ lifetime.
With the help of the National Lottery Heritage Fund Historic Houses Foundation, The Mercers’ Company, The Blavatnik Family Foundation, The LG Harris Trust and generous donations of benefactors and companions, the house has raised 86% of the total £306,000 needed to conserve the tapestries and reinstate the Tapestry Room.
Levy, chairman of the Kelmscott Manor Campaign Group, said: “We need your help to raise the final £40,000 required to conserve the fragile tapestries and allow visitors to experience the room as it was in the 19th century.
“It will also ensure young people have the opportunity to learn about the inspiring nature of Kelmscott Manor and how the tapestries worked their magic on Morris.”
For more details on the fundraising campaign and about the house itself see kelmscottmanor.org.uk
Most read
The most clicked-on stories for week April 10-17 on antiquestradegazette.com
1 How to spot faked or forged antique silver hallmarks
2 Comic featuring Superman debut soars to record sum
3 Art dealer rediscovers 16th century portrait miniature by Lavinia Fontana in Texas
4 Dealer sells portrait by female artist to Getty Museum
5 Godwin connection lifts table to 13 times top estimate
In Numbers
4.1
A Michelangelo diagram of a rectangular block of marble, part of a letter sold at $160,000 (£128,515) at Christie’s New York.
The area in square-inches of a simple Michelangelo diagram of a rectangular block of marble that was part of a letter knocked down at $160,000 (£128,515) at Christie’s New York on April 17.
The drawing contains the word simile (‘similar’) in the artist’s hand. The overall number of works by Michelangelo remaining in private hands is thought to be fewer than 10.
