Letters to the Editor

I wondered whether any of your readers can help with this painting, an oil on canvas with signature.

I write to you concerning my search for any information about this label found on the back of a painting.

Antiques Trade Gazette has recently reported on a spate of thefts at fairs and markets around the country, including at our own event.

Regarding Sotheby’s announcement concerning its move to the Dutch Auction system [for some sales of digital art – see ATG No 2602], one is left questioning why they have adopted this system.

I write in response to the letter from Andrew Morris (ATG No 2601) endeavouring to identify the use of the pivoting spoon.

Antiques Trade Gazette reported (No 2600) on the recent opening of my new saleroom at Royston in the name of Hanson Ross.

Last month Sotheby’s announced it would be using the Dutch auction format – whereby the price starts high and is reduced until a buyer is found – for some sales of digital art, sparking a flurry of online media coverage. Its new Gen Art Program will start with an auction on July 26.

Thank you so much for taking notice of the plight of stallholders in London markets and fairs (ATG Nos 2599 & 2600).

I noticed your article on Whitefriars glass (collecting guide on antiquestradegazette.com).

I wonder if any readers can help identify the purpose of a most unusual silver spoon in my possession.

Perth auctioneer Nick Burns of Lindsay Burns & Company was the winner of this year’s Scottish Auctioneers & Art Dealers golf tournament.

Some years ago I wrote a letter you published saying that the digital catalogue is no substitute for the printed form, as I believed the latter has a much greater attention span and it was something you tended to look at several times.

I have recently been visited in London by an American-based auctioneer who is looking for sporting paintings for his upcoming sales in Kentucky in the New Year.

In the July 1 edition (ATG No 2599) there is the sad case of the theft of £100,000 of jewellery and a letter from a dealer on a number of other thefts.

Every year there are large and small robberies committed against members of the antiques trade. These vary from ‘opportunist’ thieving – a brooch, a bag, a candlestick – to much more extreme and planned attacks.

I have been shown an article in ATG (No 2586) regarding Richard Cawood, the former organiser of the Antique Home & Vintage Fair that ran at York Racecourse for several years.

I despair of this government. After banning antique ivory sales we now will see the disappearance of what I consider works of art from sailors long ago passing the time by carving on animal tusks (ATG No 2595).

I would like to thank George Kingham of Kinghams Auctioneers and Michael Jefferies at Woolley & Wallis for organising two exhibitions to commemorate 150 years since the Martin Brothers Pottery was founded and 100 years since Robert Wallace Martin died (see ATG Nos 2587 and 2594).

The latest transnational operation to tackle cultural property crime raises serious concerns once again about claims from Europol and Interpol.

This week we have heard that the government plans to ‘extend the Ivory ban’. It has been reported in the press, on the radio and on television.