News

UK: COLLECTORS’ sales are more insulated against market polarisation than most other areas with the niche appeal of the generally more affordable entries attracting greater numbers of private buyers. This sale, with most lots selling under £500, was no exception, with an 88 per cent take-up resulting in a £51,000 total.

A major player in the US auction world is going on the auction block itself. Carol and Larry Farley, the majority owners of Dargate Auction Rooms of Pittsburgh, USA, are retiring and will sell the business at auction on September 7. The starting bid for the fixed assets, ongoing business, goodwill, Website, mailing list, trademarks, trade secrets, e-commerce relationships, archives etc. is $500,000.

UK: THIS 191/2in (49cm) wide engraved ivory-inlaid kingwood and boxwood dressing table casket is one of just six known pieces signed by the Italian royal cabinetmaker Pietro Piffetti.

ANYONE who thought that Yahoo’s decision to ban the promotion of Nazi memorabilia from its site would spell the end of legal wranglings over the issue were mistaken.

IT APPEARS that simple economics may be catching up with eBay sellers, at least in the antiques and collectibles sector. Everyone knows the law of supply and demand: if supply is low and demand high, prices go up. If supply is high and demand doesn’t increase accordingly, prices go down.

More selections from the early summer auctions.

Furniture in country house is eclipsed by piece found in a drawer UK: PAPERWEIGHTS have not hit any sort of headlines in years and anyone outside the coterie of (mostly American) collectors may have assumed they had been relegated to the status of murder weapons in Thirties whodunits – but not so. One became the totally unexpected star of the contents of The Thorne, a country house at Bethsersden which were removed to the salerooms at Canterbury.