Letters to the Editor

MADAM – Amid the BADA voices calling for an EGM (ATG No 2409), let me add that one thing is certain: the days of traditional art and antiques fairs are numbered, thanks to changing tastes and an ageing buyer audience.

MADAM – The decision by BADA’s council to sell a majority stake in the fair was based on reliable information that the event faced making significant losses in the coming years. When we were approached by Thomas Woodham-Smith and Harry Van der Hoorn with an offer to invest in the fair, we had the opportunity to say ‘no’.

MADAM – There are positives about BADA’s decision to sell a majority stake in our annual fair. Not least of these is that the event needs fresh innovation. As an exhibitor for nearly 20 years, I felt it was getting tired and stale. It was time to look at things in a new and open way.

BADA sent ATG this statement last week providing further details on the sale of a majority stake in its fair

MADAM – As an American dealer in historical artefacts, I have made two or three trips a year to London over the past 20 years.

MADAM – Last year I bought a basket-case of a canvas from an artist’s estate for £400. I then spent many hundreds of pounds on a new support, re-stretching, cleaning and re-framing and eventually sold it for a profit.

Madam – I enjoyed the report of the annual cricket match between the Fine Art Trade and Christie’s (ATG No 2408).

After going to press on issue 2408 we received a letter from another reader who had spotted the monument featured on the seal in issue 2406 was Chirk Castle, in North Wales.

MADAM – The castle depicted on the matrix seal (letters, ATG No 2406) is Chirk in Denbighshire, seat of the Myddleton family.

MADAM – We regularly read in ATG of ‘good luck’ stories of people finding wonderful things for nothing in car boot sales or charity shops. They are not really good luck stories at all but, rather, bad luck stories.

MADAM – Regarding the photograph of Fleetwood Mac first shown in ATG No 2403, I have some more information which may be of interest.

MADAM – What wasn’t mentioned in your review of Artist’s Resale Right (ARR) in ATG No 2404 is that the ‘first sale’ exemption also applies to auction houses, so any lots from a studio sale which make over €1000 are exempt from ARR.

MADAM – With regard to the article ‘Thar she Blows...’ (Books and works on paper, ATG No 2404), Melville was only one of many authors who suffered from the puritanical attitude of US publishers.

MADAM – A silver seal matrix, probably George III period, has recently been added to the Matrix Collection.

MADAM – I was interested to see in Auction Reports, ATG No 2403, an early photograph of the band Fleetwood Mac. But I was even more interested when on closer inspection I noticed that Peter Green, the ‘star’ of the band, wasn’t in the picture at all, even though your story mentioned that he was.

MADAM – The new ATG recyclable wrapper is an excellent initiative (Letters, ATG No 2404).

MADAM – Re: Michael Laikan’s letter in this week’s ATG (No 2404). The brass instrument illustrated is a tobacco shredder.

MADAM – Now the journalistic ‘silly season’ is with us and you have recently curtailed discussion about ‘ordinaries’ and ‘longcases’ (I thought this could tick on for longer, having my own now unpublished theories) may I introduce other subjects to fill the void.

MADAM – I would be grateful if any of your experts or readers could help me with identifying an instrument (pictured below) brought to me by one of my customers.

MADAM – The BBC’s 'Fake or Fortune?' returned to TV screens last month with a Thomas Gainsborough mystery. I watched with great interest, and a degree of trepidation.