UK

UK: AFTER 16 years of working at Dreweatt Neate to develop their ceramics department, Mark Law, the Berkshire auctioneers’ ceramics specialist, has left the partnership and has joined Andrew Hilton at the nearby Reading firm Special Auction Services.

UK: THIS bronze, Theseus Slaying the Minotaur, stamped Barye 1, made £105,000 at Sotheby’s on April 19.

UK: “ONE of only two known examples of Marconi’s first commercial wireless set in complete condition”, was how this inconsequentially appearing box was described by the English trade underbidder at G.A. Key’s sale in Aylsham, Norfolk on May 4.

UK: THE designs of Charles Rennie Mackintosh are normally associated with stellar prices in the salerooms, but this stained birch day bed struggled to get away at Lyon and Turnbull’s Glasgow sale of Decorative Arts on April 18 and indeed had experienced a fair degree of ignorance or neglect in the course of its history.

UK: POOR old Neville Chamberlain. He always takes the blame for all but delivering up the British people to Adolf Hitler, when perhaps he should really be seen merely as one of those Edwardian throwbacks like Eden who believed, quite rightly, that there was no aspect of a fascist dictatorship which could threaten the lifestyle of the English upper classes.

Highly desirable Clarice Cliff Blue Lucerne globular vase, 6in (15cm) high, shape 370, decorated with a stylised geometric Mediterranean landscape.

UK: TO the businessman in late 18th century rural England, these porcelain tokens would only have been worth a couple of shillings each, but to bidders at Dreweatt Neate’s Banbury salerooms on March 29 their value was to be measured in thousands of pounds.

UK: LEADING representatives of the trade have given evidence before the Culture Select Committee which is considering whether Britain should introduce new laws to tackle art theft and trade in illegally exported antiques.

UK: At the International Classic Motorcycle Show in Stafford on April 16, two determined collectors fought this rare 1954 AJS E90 ‘Porcupine’ to £142,000 (plus 15/10% buyer’s premium).

The Berkshire auctioneers Dreweatt Neate led the table of provincial auctioneers who were prepared to reveal their turnover for 1999.

UK: MANCHESTER United may be the most successful football team in the world at present, but it was a reminder of the most tragic event in the history of the club which stirred bidders at Phillips sale of the Leslie Millman collection of team programmes and memorabilia at Old Trafford on April 10-11.

UK: ANOTHER dealer has fallen foul of a credit card con only a month after the Antiques Trade Gazette warned the Trade about following correct security procedures during transactions.

UK & US: PHILLIPS’ traditional reputation as the permanent poor relation of Sotheby’s and Christie’s at the top end of the international art market could be turned on its head by a clutch of high value consignments soon to be offered in London and New York.

UK: THE prophet Ezekiel may not have recognised this Victorian model from the original which he was told to build by a shining man “upon a very high mountain” 3000 years ago, but no matter – this scale version of Solomon’s Temple stands alone as a unique creation in the public spirit.

UK: Two Victorian scale models of ancient temples turned up in the salerooms at the start of Spring, the Temple of Solomon at Bonhams on March 29 (see "Victorian scale model of the Temple of Solomon", above) and this erudite copy of the Parthenon at the Chester salerooms of Halls on April 5.

UK: ESSEX-based auctioneers G.E. Sworders & Sons have revived ties with Hertfordshire by taking over Andrew Pickford in Hertford.

UK: Christie’s are to sell a selection of works of art from the Wernher Collection, expected to fetch over £10m, as the highlight of their summer season.

UK: FEW silhouettes are as desirable as those portraits of military officers produced by John Buncombe, and few of those are as valuable as the example illustrated here, which was the highlight of a residual 17-lot group of silhouettes from the Christie Collection, consigned to Christie’s (15/10 per cent buyer’s premium) South Kensington sale on March 14.

UK: A Shining Palace, a 2ft 1/4in by 20in (62 x 51cm) oil on canvas view of Venice, signed by William John Leech (1881-1968) had been consigned to a sale conducted by Mainstreet Auctions in the village of Saint Boswells on March 4, 2000 where it was spotted by a runner from the south east of England.

UK: POLICE investigating the theft of 70 works of art – including several Lowrys – from a private collector in Northamptonshire in January have arrested a total of three men.