Art and antiques news from 2001

The Ashendene Dantes that sold for £7000 as part of the book section of this general antiques sale at Dreweatt Neate on 10 October were formerly in the library of Sir Frederick Handley Page, founder of the aeronautical firm, and sold at £3500 was his copy of the 1906 Ashendene edition of Sir Thomas More’s Utopia.

Windsor Chairs: An Illustrated Handbook by Wallace Nutting published by Dover Publications Inc. NY ($14.95) and distributed in the UK by David & Charles Ltd of Newton Abbot. ISBN 0486417255 £15.70

A Study Collection of Marked Domestic Brass and other Base Metalware c.1600-1900, a catalogue compiled by Roderick and Valentine Butler, Neil Bollen and Dr Christopher Green. Price £26 inc. p&p UK, £30 inc p&p US. Contact Roderick and Valentine Butler on 01404 42169 to order copies.

As every silver dealer knows, the value of standard Victorian three-piece tea sets has gone down, not up, over the past decade. But introduce a fashionable style to the casting, and the price will inevitably soar.

WHILE it was worrying that Phillips’ main Midlands saleroom could find only 100 furniture lots worthy of their main autumn sale, and that only five of those took more than £3000, such is the drought of quality goods in the provinces at the moment that the trade were determined to make the best of any opportunity.

TEFAF, the European Fine Art Foundation, who organise the Maastricht fair, have commissioned a detailed new study on the state of the European art market.

Even without the worldwide crises of the last two months, the market for Islamic works of art has always been volatile, subject to price polarisation and a degree of selectiveness.

Two rather different toy sales went under the hammer early last month. October 4 saw Christie’s South Kensington (17.5/10% buyer’s premium) put some 465 lots predominantly devoted to dolls under the hammer while six days later Bonhams & Brooks (15/10% buyer’s premium) offered an even bigger, more general 630-lot mix of playthings ranging from Dinkys and lead figures to dolls, soft toys and tinplate.

FRANCE: After a long and frustrating delay, Sotheby’s and Christie’s finally got the official go-ahead late last week to conduct auctions in France. They were among the first four auction houses to receive a licence from the French Conseil des Ventes on October 25 and both houses swiftly announced details of their inaugural sales to be held later this year.

USA: STELLA Management have been forced to cancel New York’s Triple Pier Antiques Show despite moving the venue.

PICTURED right is just one of a number of rare and important artefacts whose sale to the nation has just been negotiated by Christie’s.The 14th century Norwegian carved ivory crozier head, which has been sold in lieu of inheritance tax and will go to the V&A, is an extremely rare example of late medieval Scandinavian carved ivory.

Uncertain of just how widespread a reaction they would receive on the lot, Walker Barnett & Hill of Shropshire estimated this rare pair of 19th Century Japanese Carved Wood & Ivory Figures of two young boys, one with a hobby horse, the other playing a flute, measuring 10in (25cm) high, conservatively at £500-700.

Two of the biggest art insurance companies have warned the trade to expect a 20 per cent rise in the cost of renewing policies following the terrorist attacks in America, and the Afghanistan war.

Christie’s will close their office and saleroom in Athens on November 30, with the loss of all seven staff. The company is also shutting offices in Oslo, Stockholm, Frankfurt and Copenhagen, with the loss of at least 12 administrative staff, with further office closures expected in Asia and America by the end of the year.

Complaints taken up with Austrian ministry: Further investigations by the Antiques Trade Gazette into dealers falling foul of the FAIRGuide charges point to there being no protection for the trade under English law.

THE nationwide buyer-base of Lays auctioneers was reflected by concerns far beyond the Duchy – Bath dealers, for instance, were particularly worried about selling on to American clients. However, a £213,076 total from 1906 lots was proof enough that business is still there to be done.

Fresh-to-market goods from the deceased estate of a well-known Lincolnshire lady, Mrs Rosalys Ransom, ensured keen trade and private interest at this Lincolnshire sale on 26 September at Thos. Mawer resulting in a 75 per cent take up of the 522 lots and a total of £123,000.

AWAY from New York, the international trade have been preparing to return to serious business in the US at David and Lee Ann Lester’s second annual Texas International Fine Art Fair, running from November 1 to 7.

THE acceptance that silver has long lost its shine does not mean that there is no active market, just that prices are lower. After this sale of 340 lots at Phillips’ Midlands operation on 19 September the familiar picture emerged of modern pieces struggling, standard material chugging along and items with appeal beyond the metal doing rather well.

Penrith Farmers' and Kidd's have been badly affected by world events this past year. Situated in one of the worst hit areas for the Foot and Mouth epidemic, the county all but shut up shop. And just as things were starting to pick up the devastating events in America have created a marked caution in the trade.