UK

Gilding’s, Market Harborough, March 8, Buyer’s premium: 12.5 per centTHE decision by Leicestershire auctioneers Gilding’s to cut back their fine sales from six a year to quarterly events is perhaps a sign of the times, but the 510 lots offered in March appeared to signal that the shires are weathering the depression.

2005 looks set to be a bumper year for single-owner sales organised by the London rooms.

After over 50 years as arms and armour auctioneers in the centre of Birmingham – and an association with the city of close to one and half centuries – Weller & Dufty are to close.

The Fine Art Society unveiled the final part of its year-long makeover on Tuesday, March 14 when they opened their new lower gallery.

GORRINGES were celebrating a house record last Thursday following the sale of a rediscovered late work by John William Godward (1858-1922) for £440,000.

SPRING Olympia, held from March 1 to 6 at the West London exhibition centre, changed its name this year to Fine Art, Design & Antiques and, although around half of the 170 or so exhibitors had traditional antiques, the 20th century design and contemporary look dominated.

TRADE minister Lord Sainsbury has told the House of Commons culture committee that implementing Droit de Suite effectively and comparatively cheaply is now the big challenge facing the Government.

A named designer and good provenance sent this oak refectory table and benches, right, to the highest price at Woolley & Wallis’ sale on March 2.

THE new-style collectors’ sales held by Greenslade Taylor Hunt (15% buyer’s premium) at Taunton are proving a winning format, with wide-ranging, briefly catalogued but illustrated lots with low reserves.

HOT on the heels of their event at Arley Hall in Cheshire, Cooper Antiques Fairs move on to two more March fixtures, the more notable being the one held this weekend from March 18 to 20 at Powderham Castle, near Exeter in Devon.

by Alex CaponMARKET-FRESH pictures in good condition by major names...meet all three of these criteria and success is virtually assured. And, as was evident at the March 1 sale held in Exeter by Bearne’s (15/10% buyer’s premium), two out of three ain’t bad.

MARCH is a busy fairs month for many organisers, but none more so than Cooper Antiques Fairs who hold three events, starting this weekend with their long-established fair at Arley Hall, near Knutsford in Cheshire, from March 11 to 13.

Remarkable things continue to happen in the Beswick market. Consider the fortunes of a handful of scarce, but damaged, models seen recently at the Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent rooms of Louis Taylor (12.5% buyer’s premium).

A local estate was the source of some fine Meiji ivories sold by Cheshire auctioneers Frank Marshall (15% buyer’s premium) of Knutsford on January 11.

Good corkscrews continue to attract solid sums. Alongside the likes of Thomas Lund and Edwin Cotterill, Robert Jones is one of the big names of the English patent market, if only because his so-called ‘Robert Jones II’ is among the rarest and most valuable of all corkscrews.

Duke’s, Dorchester, January 27Buyer’s premium: 15 per centOAK furniture’s rustic aesthetic and its ability to complement modern interiors, has kept it in demand by private buyers and decorators as well as oak dealers, and prices have tended to hold up during the furniture doldrums.

Alongside more traditional antiques and fine art, the March 10 sale at Morphets of Harrogate includes the biannual specialist sale of Arts & Crafts and 20th Century Design and Decorative Arts.

The recent competition seen for rare First World War silks was repeated at the sale conducted by Specialised Postcard Auctions (10% buyer’s premium) of Cirencester on December 6.

On a day when some unusual offerings caught the eye at the Nottingham sale held by Mellors & Kirk, one such lot was a set of 36 Anglo-Indian Company School Delhi or Agra oval miniatures dating to 1827 and depicting India’s nobility and their wives, six of whom are shown right.

by Ian McKayLAST summer, when a large Biggles collection was put up for sale in Swindon, results were a little disappointing – at least for some of those titles offered individually, where some reserves proved too strong for collectors and trade alike – and around half of the 100 lots were bought in – but W.E. Johns’ famous creation certainly does not lack admirers and in a Bloomsbury Auctions sale of February, a much smaller group of Biggles books, mostly from one source, brought good prices.