2011

INDIVIDUALS buying and selling goods over the internet are to be targeted in the latest crackdown by the taxman.

THE discovery of a new clock by a Golden Age maker is bound to generate excitement in horological circles, but the £600,000 plus premium paid at Bonhams last week for the ebony table clock pictured here illustrates just how much the rarest and freshest examples can command.

THIS year’s British Antique Dealers’ Association survey shows that annual combined sales of BADA members are estimated at £698 million. The figure is almost unchanged from last year.

BONHAMS have taken part of the ground floor of Royal Victoria House in the Pantiles, Tunbridge Wells, as their new operational base in Kent and Sussex.

AUCTIONEERS in the south east of England are advised to exercise particular vigilance after a spate of saleroom break-ins.

What a difference a year makes.

ANY perception that the demand for top English delftwares had softened seems to have been scotched by the huge competition for this 17th century London-made mug.

CHRISTIE’S chairman Edward Dolman is leaving the company to join the Board of Trustees of the Qatar Museums Authority.

A PICTURE purchased at Sotheby’s Chatsworth ‘Attic’ sale last year has become the centre of an attribution debate after being re-ascribed to Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641) by a leading London dealership.

UNDER a new fees structure, private users of eBay will face a flat ten per cent charge for items sold under the ‘Buy It Now’ price listing.

BILLED as “the greatest collection of Modern British Art ever to come to the market”, the sale of the Evill-Frost collection at Sotheby’s in London did not disappoint.

HASLEMERE in Surrey has fallen victim to a gang targeting silver for melt, two weeks after thieves stole a rhino head from the town’s museum.

WHEN a grand, photographically illustrated record of the Great Exhibition of 1851 was planned by the Royal Commissioners and Executive Committee, they nonetheless kept a tight grip on the exhibition purse strings.

JONATHAN Arnold has been awarded an MBE for services to English furniture makers in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.

IT is interesting to compare the commercial fortunes of these two similar, but not identical, Mouseman adzed oak sideboards sold at auction in recent weeks.

DEALERS at Grays antiques centre have been told that disruption from the next phase of the Crossrail project at Bond Street will last three months longer than previously thought.

THE latest round of Russian art sales in London put in a consistent performance as auctioneers’ totals again benefited from a series of £1m-plus prices. Demand, however, remained selective with selling rates noticeably patchy.

PAINTINGS may have provided the large bulk of the money raised in last week’s Russian sales, but the auctions also provided the usual glut of works of art, Fabergé and icons.

THE Guildford Riverside Saleroom is to reopen under the banner of Wellers Fine Art Auctions after a seven-year absence. The firm, who had a presence in the town until ten years ago, will also continue to operate from Chertsey.