Auctioneers

As befitting a sale with world-famous brand associations, Christie’s dispersal of the Yves Saint Laurent–Pierre Bergé collection in Paris was more like a rock concert or fashion show than an auction.

SOTHEBY’S latest figures showed just how deeply they were hit by the art market slump since October, with revenues for their final quarter sales cut by more than half to $166.2m. Profits for the year are down 87 per cent.

Among the highlights of the sale conducted by Sworders of Stansted Mountfitchet on February 17 was this William IV patent mahogany library armchair, with carved acanthus leaf sides, turned lobed front legs and outswept back supports.

JAMES BRINDLEY lies amongst these Rocks,He made Canals, Bridges, and Locks...

Following a review of their premises, Dreweatts, the UK’s largest regional auctioneer, are to close their Nottingham saleroom.

SOUTH Wales auctioneers Peter Francis anticipate moving to their new Carmarthen saleroom in the spring.

CHRISTIE’S year-end results for 2008 show that Europe, including the UK, is currently their premier global market in terms of sales, with a total of £1.24bn compared to £1.02bn in the United States.

Positive news from Dreweatts' clocks sale at Donnington Priory, Newbury on February 10 which posted a 92 per cent selling rate.

SOTHEBY'S have completed the purchase of their New York headquarters in a $370m deal.

BIRMINGHAM auction house Biddle & Webb are to open a Wolverhampton office later this month.

Melting bidders' hearts in a snow-covered Dorchester, this rare Doulton figure of a little girl cradling a doll proved the star attraction at Duke's sale on February 5-6.

Prisoner-of-war work is the name given to intricately crafted small objects created from carved bone or wood and straw marquetry by captured French prisoners languishing in the hulks and other jails during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars.

WOOLLEY and Wallis silver specialist Alex Butcher is well known for his expertise in the spoon world, but his most recent offering at the Salisbury saleroom took the specialisation a step further.

Remarkable for both their size and their original condition, this pair of Italian console tables c,1760 sold for £28,000 Semley Auctioneers of Shaftesbury in Dorset on January 24.

MEMENTOS of the notorious Kray Twins amassed while they served life sentences in Parkhurst and Broadmoor were offered in some 160 lots at Chiswick Auctions on the evening of January 26.

Fittingly for a man whose career started in the 1930s, last week's sale of the Roger Warner collection at Christie's South Kensington was just like old times.

Today Robert Baden-Powell is best known as the founder of the Boy Scout movement in 1908, but in the Edwardian era his name was synonymous with the Boer War, and specifically the 217 wretched days from October 1899 to May 1900.

SALES in 2008 in Paris saw Sotheby’s and Christie’s occupy the top two spots for the first time – and open up a significant gap on the rest of the field.

Lawrences of Crewkerne are to sell items of stock from former antiques dealers Dodge and Son Limited of Sherborne. The instructions come from the dealership’s administrators, Bishop Fleming.

The death last year aged 98 of Roger Warner brought to a close the long career of one of the last old school eclectic but knowledgeable country dealers.