Art and antiques news from 2001

Q&A: A Sort of Autobiography by Terence Conran, published by Harper Collins, ISBN 0007115296 £20 hb.

To prove the point, Christie’s have held their first ever ‘Transatlantic’ wine auction. Dubbed the International Burgundy Sale, this 973-lot auction of the region’s most prestigious wines was offered in two legs, the first 303 lots in an afternoon session at Zachy’s/Christie’s (10% buyer’s premium) in New York on October 30, the remaining 670 the following evening at Christie’s (10% buyer’s premium) King Street on November 1.

Of greater general interest was Baldwin’s sale of Ancient and Modern coins that occupied October 9. There were 1403 lots looking for a new owner. This included the 322 lots devoted to the working library of the late Patrick Finn.

PORTRAIT miniatures are one field that has been performing strongly in recent seasons, an area of the market where the private buyer is very much in evidence.

THE new football season brought fears in the sports pages that the game’s financial bubble was about to burst and auctioneers may have had worries too.

The Genius of Robert Adam: His Interiors by Eileen Harris, published by Yale University Press. ISBN 0300081294 £65 hb

Trade show strength in surprise bids on fresh-to-market pieces. If September 11 was a watershed in modern history, the way forward, as far as Hampshire auctioneers Dreweatt Neate were concerned, seems to be a retreat to how things used to be – good quality material from local private sources, the trade ready to buy it and one or two old-time sleepers.

USA: Mixed signals emerged from New York’s crucial November round of Part I Impressionist and Modern sales, the most significant test of the international art market since September 11.

ARTS Minister Tessa Blackstone has placed a temporary bar on the export of an important drawing, Study for the Institution of the Eucharist, by Federico Barocci (1528-1612).

Owners of silver spoons are generally believed to have a head start in life, and the continuing bouyancy of this market might keep a few heads above water in the coming months.

Trade gap in art also mushrooms: Fine art exports from the UK to non-EU countries have increased by 50 per cent in the year ending December 2000. Equivalent imports for the same period also rose by a substantial amount – 26 per cent.

A 1926 first, limited edition copy of Winnie the Pooh, signed by both Milne and Shepard, that came for sale in these Rendells Devon auction rooms on 12 October was in the original binding but dampstained to the front board, causing some loss of the paper. It sold at £950.

THIS WAS a very mixed sale at Bloomsbury Book Auctions on 11 October, containing plenty of job lots and much ex-library material, but little of outstanding interest or high value.

THE Top lot in this North Yorkshire sale at Tennants on 18 October appeared very early on in the proceedings, when, as part of the opening art and architecture section of the sale, a copy of Humphrey Repton’s Sketches and Hints on Landscape Gardening was sold for £6000.

As Sotheby’s ex-boss Alfred Taubman faced a New York jury last week on criminal charges of fixing vendors premiums with Christie’s, there was still no sign of money owed to dealers in the related civil law suit that was settled in April. The reason? Two US appeals.

THE British Art Market Federation has been named the winner in the Best Public Affairs Campaign category of trade magazine PR Week’s annual awards scheme.

After several years in the doldrums, Tunbridgeware is now much in demand here on its home ground with Bracketts auctioneer James Braxton noting a continuing increase since the Liverpool collection sold in the rooms back in April.

THIS 619-lot ceramic and clock sale at Phillips Chester did not boast such a high take-up as Phillips’ Bury St Edmunds auction but the 60 per cent that did manage to get away sold to the tune of £73,170.

“In light of the current situation...” this is, understandably, now a well-worn phrase in provincial salerooms and Roger Williams was yet another auctioneer to utter them after his October sale on 10-11 October at Brightwells, Leominster.