Art and antiques news from 2004

AFTER a couple of years in the country, London dealer Alasdair Brown has returned to Chelsea and is preparing to dive back into the London trade melee.

Dead animals are usually regarded as a major commercial no-no in a painting, as is excessive size. It was therefore hardly a surprise that a recently restored and relined 5ft 10in by 8ft (1.78 x 2.44m) Richard Ansdell (1815-1885) canvas featuring a dead wolf and a dying dog did not exactly inspire a blizzard of bids when it came under the hammer at Maxwells of Wilmslow on January 23.

Scottish, Greek and Australian subjects gave a welcome international feel to the main highlights among the pictures offered on the third day of Gorringes’ (15% buyer’s premium) January 27-29 sale in Lewes.

ESSEX organiser Robert Bailey is relishing his new role as ringmaster of LAPADA’s London showcase, The LAPADA Fine Art & Antiques Fair at Claridge’s, which will be held at the exclusive Mayfair hotel from April 14 to 18.

Although it might have been small beer by the standards of the New York Old Master sales reported last week, the presence of a £13,000 Italian still-life painting gave a welcome financial boost to Brightwells’ (15% buyer’s premium) inaugural auction at their new purpose-built Easters Court saleroom on the eastern outskirts of Leominster on January 15.

ISLAMIC ART: A MAJOR donation hase been given to the Victoria and Albert Museum, to enable it to completely refurbish its Islamic Gallery, home to the famous Ardabil carpet and many other treasures from the Middle East.

Furniture designed by Charlotte Perriand (1903–99) and produced by Steph Simon éditeur, raised some stiff start-of-year prices in the Piasa (17.94/11.96% buyer’s premium) saleroom on January 28.

FROM April London will have a new specialist book auctioneer. Biblion is already a major name in the antiquarian book world through the group shop at Grays Antique Market W1, where the stock of over 100 dealers is on offer and their website, Biblion.com, which carries the inventory of 500 booksellers.

BONHAMS have appointed Pippa Stockdale as managing director of the company’s Knightsbridge saleroom. Formerly the head of the pictures department at Knightsbridge, Ms. Stockdale joined Bonhams as a cataloguer in 1989 following time at Capes Dunn in Manchester.

Contemporary art shines in London: The February round of Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary sales in London gave plenty of evidence that the top end of the art market has made a strong recovery from last year’s bout of Iraq War syndrome.

Christie’s South Kensington increase their buyer’s premium from February 11: The new rate will be 19.5 per cent of the final bid price of each lot up to £70,000 and 12 per cent on the excess of the hammer price above £70,000, the same premium currently charged at Christie’s King Street.

Sotheby’s announced last week that the Forbes Collection of Fabergé, which had been scheduled for sale at auction in New York in April, has been sold by private treaty to a prominent Russian industrialist.

THE country’s premier dedicated trade jewellery show International Jewellery London has appointed Alison Marshall as their new organising manager.

ONE of London’s most concentrated areas for art dealing, St. James’s, SW1, has a new gallery specialising in fine antique prints – Isaac and Ede at 1 Duke of York Street (Tel: 020 7925 1177).

Although a £12,000 oil by Arthur Spooner (1873-1962) was the most expensive entry in the sale at Derby held by Bamfords (15% buyer’s premium) on December 9-10, perhaps the most eye-catching lot was this Lenci dish, right.

IT was not just Sotheby’s and Christie’s who were generating some exceptional prices for Old Masters in New York in the third week of January. The East 87th Street auctioneers Doyle’s (19.5/12% buyer’s premium) generated keen interest from TEFAF Maastricht exhibitors in the room when they included a moody Gottfried Schalken (1643-1706) canvas in their January 21 sale.

Most Continental auctioneers combine clocks with their furniture sales, and Sotheby’s Amsterdam is alone in hosting the city’s only regular specialist clock and watch outing. These biannual specialist sales attract a mix of local and international dealers and in recent years Sotheby’s specialist Jos Meis has seen an increase in demand from US buyers for decorative French gilt mantel clocks and from Dutch collectors for the quality Dutch clocks in his sales.

There is no doubt that a weak dollar has contributed to a weaker UK majolica market – and yet low estimates for good pieces continue to stimulate bidding.

ORGANISER Sue Ede of Cooper Antiques Fairs is promising “an antiques event of a quality not seen before in the West Country” with this weekend’s launch of her West Country Antiques Fair at Powderham Castle, near Exeter. It seems a bold claim but, on reflection, there have not been that many successful quality fairs in the West Country so Mrs Ede may well be on safe ground.

THE close of 2003 gave us much information on the current market in 18th-19th century cameos with more than 130 examples on offer between two European auction rooms, one in the UK, the other in Italy.