Fine Art

UK: A RARE catch indeed, the most important painting of its period in a British private collection, Botticelli’s Virgin Adoring the Christ Child, c.1490-1500, pictured right, has been acquired by the National Gallery of Scotland from the 10th Earl of Wemyss and March, who was about to sell it to America.

UK: THE LINK between the woven silk portrait illustrated right and the modern world of computing may not be instantly apparent, but this 6in x 4in (16 x 11cm) silk panel, albeit a curiosity rather than a key scientific document, had a successful part to play in the Weinreb Computer Collection, which was sold by Bloomsbury Book Auctions in London on October 28.

US: THE MARKET for Impressionist and Modern art saw further consolidation last week when Sotheby’s and Christie’s turned over a premium inclusive $466m (£289.5m) for their November sales of works by the world’s most expensive artists.

UK: THE world record auction price for a photograph was broken twice at the Sotheby’s London sale of the Photographic Collection of Marie-Thérèse and André Jammes on October 27.

UK: Charles Napier Hemy’s seascape Life 4ft 6in x 6ft (1.24m x 1.83m), signed and dated 1913, with reverse inscription, set a record for Salisbury auctioneers Woolley & Wallis on October 12 when it sold for a double mid-estimate £110,000 plus premium.

UK: BRIGG auctioneers DDM hit the headlines after selling a household vinyl blind decorated with art work by David Hockney for £11,000 (plus 10 per cent premium).

US & UK: AN English antiques dealer based in the United States has just helped to reunite Aldenham School with a bronze statue stolen from its grounds 21 years ago.

UK: June saw London re-affirm its position as one of the world’s two premier venues for selling top quality Impressionist and Modern art with record-breaking sales at Sotheby’s and Christie’s.

UK: PICTURED here is one of the best examples of English cameo glass to go under the hammer for many years.

UK: TONY BANKS MP and former ministers Kenneth Baker and Peter Brooke were among those registering their interests at a sale of political commemoratives held by Special Auction Services on June 13 at the Courtyard Hotel, Padworth.

UK: A DEALER’S £25 purchase at an antiques fair is likely to bring him a substantial windfall after being identified as a rare copper etching plate by Lucas van Leyden, the 16th century Old Master.

US: THE bonanza of Impressionist and 19th century art sales in New York, headlined by the record $55m (£33.5m) hammer price paid for a Cézanne still life, has highlighted various trends in the market, not least the dominance of Post Impressionist works.

UK: TWO brothers involved in an international conspiracy to dispose of two stolen Old Master paintings have had their sentences upheld in the Appeal Court.

Antique Phonograph Gadgets Gizmos and Gimmicks by Timothy C. Fabrizio and George F. Paul

UK: IN common with a number of other London auctioneers, Bonhams (15/10 per cent buyer’s premium), were reserving their best quality Old Master consignments for July, but their April 13 sale in Knightsbridge did at least include the decorative charms of this 3ft 21/2in by 2ft 43/4in (98 x 73cm) canvas, illustrated here, of a young woman tending a bouquet of flowers, signed by the Italian-based still life specialist Abraham Brueghel (1631-1697).

US: How do you titillate an ocelot? You oscillate its tit a lot. Kenny Everett’s immortal insight into the sexual life of one of the obscurer members of the cat family is usually quite difficult to drag into an auction report. But how can titillation be resisted when someone is prepared to pay $525,000 (£324,075) for this painting of an ocelot at Sotheby’s New York (15/10 per cent buyer’s premium).

US: ONE of 167 illustrations which make up Frans Masereel’s My Book of Hours, one of the woodcut novels pioneered by the Belgian political cartoonist in the early part of this century.

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.

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.

SWITZERLAND: NOWADAYS the trade makes much of its living out of putting pictures through the salerooms, but there can be few more spectacular profits in recent months than the £200,000 St James’s dealer David Mason made out of this Albert Anker (1831-1910) oil, right, Strickendes Mädchen which sold for SFr550,000 (£239,130) at Christie’s Zurich (15/13/7.5 per cent buyer’s premium) on March 23.