International

Direct competitors to Bonhams Honiton, in an area of the South West that is hardly brimming with quality goods, auctioneer Richard Connor and his team nevertheless put together a respectable offering of brown furniture and paintings at the Honiton Galleries, where the one item of rarity among the silver was this Irish dish ring of above average quality by Edmond Johnson, Dublin 1863, measuring 8in (20cm) diameter, which attracted an above-estimate bid of £2200.

THE majolica market has long been underpinned by American collectors and on April 4-5 Indiana-based Michael Strawser will be selling British, American and Continental pieces at the Alderfer Auction Center in Hatfield Pennsylvania.

TOP London specialist in English pottery Jonathan Horne exhibits at major fairs in London and New York and consistently comes up with top-of-the range stock, which he generally sells very well indeed.

Baldwin, Markov and M&M Numismatics is a bit of a mouthful, but this troika held their sale also in New York on January 16. It consisted mostly of classical coins. The antics of the Roman Circus would have given modern hunt protesters something to think about.

APART from sporadic themed sales held by provincial auctioneers, Camard’s main rival on the French poster auction scene is the Paris-based dealer Frédéric Lozada, who has instituted regular 1000-lot sales in Versailles (the one in late October brought over £250,000) and, most recently, in Lille, where he offered 1120 lots under the Wattebled hammer on December 11-12.

US: What was the impact of the sluggish economy and the downward DOW coupled with 150,000 troops in the Gulf on the New York Ceramics Fair? Well, barely a dent in enthusiasm or sales, much less a blemish on attendance in the event organised by the California-based Caskey-Lees enterprise.

NEW YORK specialist dealers in movie posters Posteritati hold some beguiling selling shows, but they look like being onto an international winner with their current one – French Gangsters & The New Wave – which runs at their gallery at 239 Centre Street until March 4.

NEW YORK: THE North American linkage between gardens and antiques – one some English dealers have benefited from – reaches new heights from February 20 to 23 when New York-based Stella Show Management mount a fair dedicated to outdoor collectables.

BELGIUM: LIEGE was an important silver centre in the 18th century under its wealthy prince bishops, so it is no surprise that these days the city hosts some of Belgium’s leading silver sales.

Lorenzo R. Rudolf has been appointed vice president of International Fine Art Expositions, the David Lester-run fair organising business now owned by dmg world media. Mr Rudolf was the driving force behind ArtBasel for over 10 years before leaving in 1999 to become the director for the Frankfurt Book Fair. He also conceived and set in motion the plans for ArtBasel Miami Beach, launched in December.

Luxury goods magnate Bernard Arnault finally abandoned his attempt to compete with Christie’s and Sotheby’s at the top end of the art market last week when he sold his remaining 27.5 per cent stake in troubled auction house Phillips to its joint chief executives Simon de Pury and Daniella Luxembourg.

Gino Severini’s Les objets deviennent peinture (vase bleu et maïs) was one of the most significant lots in Christie’s 310-lot auction of Contemporary art in Rome on December 18. Dating from 1965, this picture was the last oil still life he was to paint and, indeed, one of the last works to be finished before his death.

A FURTHER reason to be cheerful about the fairs scene comes from America. More than 20,000 attended Florida’s sixth annual ArtPalmBeach fair of Modern and Contemporary art, held at the International Pavilion of the Palm Beaches in the Florida resort from January 8 to 14.

A full-length Plains Cree Indian male costume from Saskatchewan River in Canada, consisting of a moose-hide shirt, pair of bottom tab leggings, and pair of soft-soled moccasins, sold for €130,000 (£83,300) at Millon & Associés (17.5/13.5% buyer’s premium) on December 2.

NOW in its 42nd year, the Stuttgart Antiquarian Book Fair will be bigger than ever when it runs from January 31 to February 2 at Wurttembergischer Kunstverfein.

There were two surprising results at the Lempertz Asian Art sale in Cologne on November 22-23. This large, anonymous Japanese 17th/18th century Indian ink and watercolour, Daimyô in Kamishimo with tachibana weapons and two swords on a tatami mat, paper 4ft x 2ft 10in (1.22m x 86cm), right, soared 100 times estimate to make €80,000 (£51,300).

A 1467 second edition of the second part of Thomas Aquinas’ Summa theologiae, a massive treatise on moral rather than dogmatic theology that stands as an independent work, was one of the earlier printed highlights of a $4.69m (£2.97m) sale held by Sotheby’s New York on December 13, and once again it was one of a number of lots making a rapid return to the rooms.

NEW York-based fair organisers Wendy Management launch their Wendy International Antiques Show at the Seventh Regiment Armory, Park Avenue and 67th Street, from March 7 to 11.

CHRISTIE’S have unveiled some major changes for their 20th century decorative arts policy in Europe. The auction house have closed their King Street department and are concentrating all their London activities in decorative arts at South Kensington. They also want to develop and raise the profile of this field in France with regular dedicated auctions in Paris under specialist Sonja Ganne.

NEW York-based Stella Show Management launch a new event this spring with an antiques and gardening show, a combination which has taken off at a number of American locations and has attracted a number of English dealers.