News

SWITZERLAND: NOWADAYS the trade makes much of its living out of putting pictures through the salerooms, but there can be few more spectacular profits in recent months than the £200,000 St James’s dealer David Mason made out of this Albert Anker (1831-1910) oil, right, Strickendes Mädchen which sold for SFr550,000 (£239,130) at Christie’s Zurich (15/13/7.5 per cent buyer’s premium) on March 23.

Did dropping datelines alter customers’ perceptions?

UK: WHILE Christie’s sale of the collection of the Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava lacked much of the memorabilia one so often associates with these events, the personal gap was filled in some measure by the elements from The Owl House.

UK: THE Christie’s South Kensington sale of March 19 fielded no fewer than three copies of the book that was the main source of western knowledge of Japan in the 18th century, the two-volume History of Japan... written by Englebert Kaempfer.

UK: WITH the re-branding of Sotheby’s saleroom in Billingshurst (see the News Briefing section - 'Sotheby's revamp Sussex operation') Summers Place leaves behind its image as Sotheby’s last saleroom foothold in the UK provinces and assumes its position as the company’s second stronghold in the South.

Ceramics at Sotheby's South

UK: ESTIMATED at a lowly £700-900, this Aesthetic movement armchair sailed to £21,500 (plus 15 per cent premium) at the Banbury salerooms of Dreweatt Neate on March 17.