Art and antiques news from 2008

Knock-on effect of turbulence in money markets is less dramatic than feared at art auctions

The appearance on the market of a piece of ‘A’ mark porcelain at Woolley and Wallis’s Salisbury rooms on June 4 will be an exciting occasion for English porcelain buffs, especially those of an academic persuasion.

PHILLIPS de Pury more than doubled their auction sales total thanks to the booming market for contemporary art and their increasing presence in London.

A particularly impressive and well-provenanced example of cabinetmaking by the celebrated firm Gillows of Lancaster has returned home.

SOTHEBY’S and Christie’s have launched an unprecedented attack on France’s auction laws in a bid to halt Paris’s decades-long decline as a market force.

Sellers can no longer leave comments on buyers while final value fees are hiked

This rare medal issued to those involved in the 1916 Easter Rising is up for grabs in the collector’s auction at Plymouth Auction Rooms on February 16.

Until February 16, Linley at 46 Albemarle Street, London W1 will be showcasing the work of two of Britain’s leading contemporary wood turners in a show called Wizards in Wood.

THE effect of their new salerooms in Rome and New York saw London book specialists Bloomsbury Auctions post a hammer total of £20.4m for 2007.

SILVER sales at the Woolley and Wallis’ Castle Street Salerooms – that last year totalled an impressive £1.9m – are tailored to catch the prevailing winds of the marketplace.

Born and bred in the environs of Birmingham, Sheila Hughes (1937-2006) first began collecting tiles in the early 1970s.

Dukes have negotiated the sale to the nation of two major Pre-Raphaelite paintings. Music by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones and Hamlet and Ophelia by Dante Gabriel Rossetti were found in the Oxfordshire home of the late Jean Preston that also yielded two panels from the San Marco altarpiece by Fra Angelico sold by the Dorchester auctioneers last year for £1.7m.

CHRISTIE’S have maintained their lead over their rivals in wine sales thanks mainly to strong totals posted in Europe.

The results of the 2007 LAPADA membership survey broadly suggest a steady market throughout the previous year. Forty per cent of respondents reported a similar turnover to 2006 and 48 per cent expected it to be about the same in 2008.

SOTHEBY’S have released interim headline sales figures for 2007, which show worldwide auction totals up 44 per cent on 2006 at $5.4bn.

JOHN Nicholson’s are the latest ‘provincial’ auctioneers to open a London office.

Bonhams have announced the location of two major new salerooms – in Edinburgh and New York.

Offered in one catalogue, British Art pottery was the main thrust of two sales held by Woolley & Wallis staged at the end of last year.

Drama at Lawrences of Crewkerne on January 17 when this remarkable silver gilt and rock crystal vessel, left behind its estimate of just £100-200 to sell to a buyer in the room at £220,000 (plus 17.5 per cent buyer’s premium).

Sotheby’s have agreed to sponsor Tate Britain’s Duveens Commission, thereby allowing this site-specific sculpture commission to become an annual rather than a biennial event.