Letters to the Editor

MADAM – I have just read the article on the painting by Richard Lin sold recently in the McCartneys Ludlow auction for £84,000 (Art Market, ATG No 2401).

MADAM – I’m sure I’m not the first to write about this but could the inscription on the mount of the picture attributed to Glyn Philpot (Art Market, ATG No 2399) have read or was meant to be C Phillott?

MADAM – I am delighted to be able to reassure your reader Geoffrey Hobson (Letters, ATG No 2398) that indeed the facilities he discovered in a US auction house are already in use in our auction room and others in the UK (Ewbank’s, Forum and Stanley Gibbons to name a few).

This month art adviser and former co-chairman of Sotheby’s Europe Henry Wyndham is walking 185 miles along the 8th century wonder that is Offa’s Dyke to raise money for The Royal Marsden, a world-leading cancer centre.

MADAM – We have several paintings in our store room left by artists or owners who have failed to collect them.

MADAM – Having made a few appearances in ATG recently, a small silver pepper pot in the form of a Suffragette was eventually auctioned in London at an extraordinary hammer price of £3200 against an estimate of £800-900 [see picture below].

MADAM – The niello designs on the ‘Persian’ Esther scroll sold at Lyon & Turnbull (ATG No 2398) indicate that in my opinion this is likely to be Iraqi work rather than Persian.

MADAM – I’m amazed how many people don’t know the difference between prints such as lithograph, linocut, etching, wood engraving and woodcut.

MADAM – I was interested to receive the statement from Patrick Drahi on the acquisition of Sotheby’s.

MADAM – I recently submitted a bid online to an auction house in the US. I registered my bid which was accepted by the auction house, but in their reply they stated the actual amount of the buyer’s premium and taxes and then provided the total sum which I would be charged if successful.

MADAM – In last week’s edition (‘Trading Places’ ATG No 2397), you include a short piece about the London Silver Vaults. It is only a small point, but the article states that the Chancery Lane Safe Deposit opened in 1876.

MADAM – I am mortified to find myself at the cusp of ending one of London’s oldest and favourite art and antiques fairs, unless someone would like to take it on?

MADAM – Fernando Autori was a famous Italian opera star in the early 20th century. Alongside that he was one of the top caricature artists of his era. His UK opera career linked him into Gilbert and Sullivan and the cream of show business and high society.

MADAM – I have been intrigued by the correspondence begun by Peter Card regarding the correct nomenclature of bicycles.

MADAM – In Fairs & Markets (ATG No 2395), Gallops Architectural Salvage and Reclamation wondered what a legend on its plaque said.

MADAM – I find that making a priority issue of the BADA logo is a classic systemic issue of misdirected priorities within the trade.

MADAM – Further to Mr Adam’s letter in ATG No 2393, and Mr Lewis’ letter in ATG No 2392, the facts that I supplied in my letter about the history of the Ordinary Bicycle and its incorrect renaming are entirely accurate.

MADAM – The recent offering in Wiltshire of a gold pocket watch presented to the then FA Cup-winning manager of Manchester City, Tom Maley, in 1904 is perhaps a reminder that corruption in the football world is not a new phenomenon.

MADAM – It was counsel for the crown Mervyn Griffith-Jones, and not the 'Lady Chatterley’s Lover' trial judge Sir Laurence Byrne in R v Penguin Books Ltd, November 1960 (see Books Supplement, ATG No 2393), who asked the jury in his opening remarks: “Is it a book that you would wish your wife or your servants to read?”

Blissfully unaware of the BADA logo controversy, the big Ordinary Bicycle debate, a notorious novel, football bribery in 1904 and the Pepys family, here is Gunna admiring the front cover of ATG No 2392 featuring another handsome canine (picture posted on Instagram by owners, dealership Leslie & Baggott).