Among the lots in the BBC Archive auction at Omega is this 1970s ‘On the air’ lightbox. It comes with its cover featuring a stencilled BBC logo and is estimated at £200-300.
Huge BBC music memorabilia sale
Merseyside auction house Omega Auctions will offer a collection of vinyl records, music memorabilia and equipment from the BBC.
The 285,000 duplicate items will be offered at auction with the money raised to fund the digitisation of its content archive. The first of the BBC Archives sale will be held on January 30 with more than 400 lots offered.
Stuttgart book fair back to January
In its 61th year, the Stuttgart Rare Book Fair is returning to its traditional new-year slot.
Germany’s leading fair for the rare book and prints trade was held last year in Ludwigsburg in June but now moves back to January 26-28.
The venue for around 60 dealers is the newly renovated rooms of the Württembergischer Kunstverein on Stuttgart’s Schlossplatz.
Firms from Switzerland (5), Italy (2), Austria (2), the Netherlands (2), the UK (2) and Denmark (1) will exhibit.
Tax crackdown on online platforms
Online platforms such as eBay will be required to report seller information to HMRC as part of an income tax crackdown on online traders.
From this month HMRC is able to request information from UK-based online operators and from the end of January 2025 firms such as eBay will be obligated to report information to HMRC on the value and volume of transactions for sellers who meet its criteria.
The crackdown follows the UK signing up to new rules implemented by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) as part of an international clampdown.
Under these rules, firms will not be asked to share data about sellers who make fewer than 30 transactions or less than around £1735 a year.
HMRC does not classify sellers as ‘traders’ liable for tax if they only occasionally sell items and that the sale is not for profit (ie they paid more for the item and later sell it for less than they paid).
Individuals have a trading allowance tax exemption of up to £1000 a year.
Heritage reveals record sales total
The 1870-S $3 gold coin that sold for a record premium-inclusive price of $5.52m (£4.36m) at Heritage.
Image: Heritage Auctions.
Heritage Auctions posted its highest-ever full-year sales result, reaching $1.76bn (£1.4bn) in 2023.
The Texas auction house said it was its third consecutive record-setting year and was 21% above its 2022 sales figure.
The 47-year old company said highlights included coin sales such as a 1870-S $3 gold coin from the Harry W Bass Jr Core Collection that sold for a record premium-inclusive price of $5.52m (£4.36m).
The collectables specialist added that the “ever-expanding universe of fascinating objects” boosted its results.
Irish auctioneer George Mealy dies
Irish auctioneer George Mealy has died. He ran Mealy’s Fine Art in Castlecomer, Co Kilkenny, until his retirement in 2018 after 45 years in the art and antiques business.
Betty Boothroyd memorabilia sale
This yellow metal, diamond and cubic zirconia House of Commons Speaker’s brooch, often worn by Betty Boothroyd, is expected to bring £200-300 at Special Auction Services.
On January 23, Special Auction Services of Newbury will conduct a sale of items from the estate of Betty Boothroyd (1929-2023), the first female Speaker of the House of Commons.
She served as MP for West Bromwich from 1973-2000, as Speaker from 1992-2000 and from 2001 became a baroness and sat in the Lords.
The 224 lots comprise jewellery, clothes, furnishings and parliamentary memorabilia. Proceeds will go to charity.
Most read
The most clicked-on stories for December 21, 2023, to January 3, 2024, on antiquestradegazette.com
1 ‘Turner’ sunset painting flies to 100 times estimate
2 Ceramics expert Henry Sandon dies
3 Marie-Antoinette’s chair sets an auction record
4 Stanley Gibbons and Baldwin’s saved from collapse
5 Brooch was ‘gift from Duke and Duchess of Windsor’
In Numbers
An English naïve school painting, c.1820, at Robert Young.
70
The number of years The Winter Show in New York celebrates at this month’s edition (from January 19-28). See p32-33 for a preview.
Robert Young Antiques brings this English naïve school painting, c.1820, of three sisters (pictured above). The picture, 4ft 1in x 4ft 10in (1.24 x 1.47m), has been shown in the US before. In 1996 it was part of the exhibition Two Hundred Years of English Naïve Art, 1700-1900, organised by Art Services International and shown at five US institutions. It is available for a five-figure sum.
