Front Page and News

Woolley & Wallis celebrated its 10th £1m-plus lot last week, selling a portrait by Chinese contemporary artist Yang Fei Yun (b.1954) for £1.7m (plus premium). The sitter – the artist’s wife pictured in the early days of their marriage – was in Salisbury to watch the sale.

The organisers of Asian Art in London are to abandon the event’s ‘best objects’ award after doubt was cast on the authenticity of one of this year’s winners. The Danish auctioneer which won the award however is standing by the Yuan attribution for the flask after conducting a scientific test.

Strong bidding for the best Republic period porcelain has become a familiar sight at Asian art sales. Less often observed is the newer enthusiasm for artist-decorated wares from the early years of the People’s Republic.

A mass boycott by more than 580 book dealers across 27 countries has forced AbeBooks to U-turn on its planned withdrawal from four countries.

Art dealers and auction house specialists have been removed from all TEFAF vetting panels to avoid any potential conflict of interest.

The Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association (ABA) has scrapped its sponsorship deal with Amazon-owned AbeBooks after the online book portal chose to quit selling in four countries.

Two Charles Rennie Mackintosh chairs made for Glasgow’s Argyle Street Tea Rooms starred at Lyon & Turnbull’s Decorative Arts sale in Edinburgh last week.

The white-glove sale of the Shannon collection of jewellery at Woolley & Wallis was topped at £22,000 (plus 25% buyer’s premium) by a gold bracelet by Omar Ramsden.

Though an assortment of highprofile sales took place at the recent TEFAF New York Fall, some participants reported that business was markedly slower than in other editions.

The UK art and antiques trade is calling for an overhaul of the “archaic and regressive system” of business rates and dismissed the Budget rates relief announcement as “too little too late”.

The Winter Art & Antiques Fair Olympia is to return next year in its new format after dealers made significant early sales and said they were “very happy” with its latest staging,.

Copenhagen auction house Bruun Rasmussen and London dealer Grace Tsumugi Fine Art were the recipients of the 2018 Asian Art in London Awards, co-sponsored by ATG.

Harold Hardman’s journey from amateur footballer and solicitor to chairman of Manchester United in the era of the Busby Babes is a fascinating story in itself. But a medal coming up for auction in Oxford adds even more appeal.

The National Ballistics and Intelligence Service (NABIS) has warned of a rise in defectively deactivated firearms offered at auction since the law changed this summer.

A newly discovered Ottoman charger described as one of the most important pieces of Iznik pottery remaining in private hands was the toast of Islamic Week, selling at Sotheby’s for a spectacular £4.55m (£5.4m including buyer’s premium).

Included in the Important Design sale at Phillips in London on October 18 was an unusual mantel clock designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens (1869- 1944).

An amendment to the ivory bill raised in the House of Lords will limit the powers of accredited civilian officers.

Netsuke from the collection of ceramicist and author Edmund de Waal, made famous by the 2010 memoir 'The Hare with the Amber Eyes', go under the hammer in London.

Black Rock Galleries in Greenwich, Connecticut received bids up to $388,000 (plus 18% buyer’s premium) for a bronze it believes is Buste de Saint Jean-Baptiste, a previously lost lifetime cast by Rodin.