London

BONHAMS have promoted Jon Baddeley, their head of collectors’ sales worldwide, to be managing director of their Knightsbridge operation in London with immediate effect. A new head is also expected to be appointed for the Bond Street operation.

THE antiques trade in Portobello Road has suffered another blow, with the demise of The Good Fairy market now confirmed. Added to what has gone before, it calls into question Kensington and Chelsea Council’s entire vision for the borough as set out in its Core Strategy, currently being reviewed by the Planning Inspectorate, which talks time and again about how Portobello should be protected as a Special District Centre.

AT 11 1/2 stone and 4ft 3in (1.3m) wide, it is big enough to bathe in. Baron Raby’s wine cistern was ordered from the workshops of goldsmith Philip Rollos in 1705 as part of his ambassadorial plate in his capacity as Ambassador Extraordinary to the King of Prussia in Berlin.

HAD it not been for the headline-grabbing and record-breaking J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851), the latest Old Master auctions in London would have seemed a bit flat.

THE latest Contemporary art sales in London were a little flatter than expected, but Modern British art generated a batch of stand-out prices.

TO many people, Geoffrey Godden is indivisible from English porcelain. The scholar and author is a name on every ceramic enthusiast’s bookshelves through the many books on English ceramics written during the course of his 60 years of collecting and study.

TRADERS and campaigners at Portobello Road are urging fellow dealers and members of the public to attend the planning meeting regarding the redevelopment of The Good Fairy Market taking place at Kensington & Chelsea Town Hall on Tuesday, July 6.

LONDON'S brand new fair, Masterpiece, closed on June 29, but already by the end of the preview on June 23 it was clear that not only was the event a winner, but it had broken the mould of international antiques fairs.

THE latest Impressionist & Modern art auction series in London saw rising returns for the salerooms but buyers reacted unfavourably to heavy estimates on the most expensive works.

HOUSE contents sales always create a frisson of excitement. Alongside the stars of the show, big-ticket pieces that comes trailing clouds of pre-sale publicity, there is the potential thrill of the unexpected, the serendipitous attractions of the less elevated contents of cellar, outhouse and attic, which hold out the possibility of a bargain.

ANTIQUES Trade Gazette has won a Green Apple media award for its promotion of the Antiques Are Green campaign.

DEALERS at another antiques arcade in Portobello Road are having to vacate the centre after being given notice to quit.

FROM perfume bottles and menu holders to vases and car mascots, the glass creations of René Lalique remain consistently appealing to a varied gamut of buyers.

THE first slice of the Longridge collection of early British pottery and European vernacular works of art, formed over 30 years by American Syd Levethan, was sold in two sessions for £2.93m by Christie's in King Street on June 10-11.

THE latest Russian art sales in the capital saw the continuing recovery of an important sector for London’s auctioneers. The market may lack the free spending seen before the downturn in October 2008 but the June sales were significantly up on the equivalent series last year.

This jewelled and gold mounted hardstone model of a turkey by Fabergé was among the highlights of Christie's Russian art sale in London on June 8.

A TOPICAL July release from the Antique Collectors' Club (ACC) publishing group is Portobello Road, a collection of previously unpublished photographs of the famous market taken over three years in the early 1960s by photographer John Petty.

SETTING the highest price ever seen at auction for Sir Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), this lifesize sculpture of a mother and child, overshot its £60,000-80,000 estimate at Sotheby's latest sale of Modern British art in London before being knocked down to a private buyer at £120,000.

AFTER being closed since early March, The Good Fairy Market in Portobello Road reopened on May 8, to the surprise of some dealers at the Saturday market.

CONSIDERED the finest work by the Italian Baroque master Domenico Zampieri, Il Domenichino (1581-1641), in private hands, this painting of St John the Evangelist has been saved for the nation. It has gone on display in the National Gallery's Baroque rooms.