Art and antiques news from 2007

North west Essex auctioneers Mullocks Wells are to close by the end of the year. Their Monday, November 19 sale of fine art and antiques will go ahead as planned but is likely to be the last at the Dunmow Sale and Auction Rooms.

Anyone who picked up Sotheby’s latest Chinese catalogue for their November 7 sale in London could not have failed to notice the stunning blue and white Qianlong moonflask on the catalogue cover, the piece that topped the sale when it sold for £2.5m.

A FUNDING crisis means the Percival David Foundation collection of Chinese ceramics will move from the University of London’s School of African and Oriental Studies (SOAS) to the British Museum.

The Art Fund have announced the five £1m winners of Art Fund International, the scheme dedicated to building collections of international contemporary art at regional UK museums and galleries.

THE first book on swimming printed in England was Everard Digby’s De arte natandi of 1587.

THE closure of Sherborne House in Dorset leaves a question mark over the future of the Elizabeth Frink Archive, the premier assemblage of the sculptor’s work.

DATE changes for Arts of Pacific Asia at the 69th Regiment Armory on Lexington Avenue mean the event effectively launches the 2008 New York Spring Asia Week.

When the last of the 823 lots in the sale of the contents Ariane Dandois’ Gallery on the Faubourg St Honoré in Paris was hammered down by Sotheby’s on October 26, it provided a $32.2m (£16.9m) grand finale to a month of sales devoted to traditional areas of the decorative arts in New York.

The descendants of James Thursby Pelham, a renowned early 20th century collector who was advised by R. W. Symonds, are in the process of selling some fine English furniture.

Leading Florida auction business Arthur James Galleries of Delray Beach is for sale.

A private San Francisco bank has emerged as one of the largest creditors of Salander-O’Reilly Galleries.

Two different pistols with very different stories sold at provincial auctions in the UK in October.

PREVIOUSLY unpublished letters from the poet John Betjeman are to form part of the setting for a travelling display of early 20th century jewellery designer Helen Holmes at Bonhams.

BEARNE’S have been forced to withdraw a large number of lots relating to Lord Byron from their November 7 sale.

Auction houses and antiques malls in the United States are reporting a surge in overseas buying on the internet thanks to the weak dollar.

SEAFAIR has postponed its second leg on America’s Eastern seaboard and returned to Florida to address mechanical issues encountered on the maiden voyage.

Fellows & Sons, the Birmingham-based auctioneers and valuers, are to expand their operation to London and have appointed Richard Slater to spearhead the initiative.

FRENCH auctioneers are to hold their next open weekend of events on November 17-18.

Art dealer Andrew Sim has sold a watercolour by Richard Dadd (1817-1886) to the Metropolitan Museum in New York. It is the first work by the enigmatic Victorian artist to enter the museum’s vast art collection.

New York Old Master dealers Salander-O’Reilly are expected to file for bankruptcy after a state judge ordered their gallery to be closed indefinitely.