News

THE name of Namikawa Yasuyuki is justly positioned in the premier league of Meiji metalworkers as one of the very finest cloisonné workshops working in the late 19th/early 20th century.

ONE of the highlights of Bonhams & Langlois' (15% buyer's premium) March 26 Channel Islands theme sale was a collection of uniforms and associated ephemera and family history relating to three senior members of the Jersey Militia.

MID APRIL saw only the second sale held by Bamfords, the Derbyshire auctions firm (15% buyer's premium), but elated auctioneer James Lewis, talking from his mobile whilst filming a new episode of BBC TV’s Flog It!, felt it to be the best he had seen in Derby in at least five years.

THE bi-annual West Country Sporting Sales have acquired a character of their own since their inception six sales ago, finding a niche in what has become a crowded field by focusing upon hunting antiques in addition to the traditional summer sports.

This rare and impressive Royal Worcester porcelain model of a Golden Eagle, right, attracted huge amounts of interest from Royal Worcester collectors when it came to the rostrum on April 10 at the Worcester rooms of Andrew Grant (15% buyer’s premium).

Illustrated with 117 detailed watercolours, an account of the different species of Agaric mushrooms growing in the Vienna region, complete with notes on their suitability for eating, was one of two mycological manuscripts in the natural history section of the Sotheby’s sale of May 7 (19.5/10% buyer's premium).

JUNE looms and the annual antiques season is due to get underway. Fairs are at the hub of proceedings and while Grosvenor House initiated this summer celebration of collecting and connoisseurship back in the 1930s, the latest addition to the June roster, artLONDON, has made its mark in a remarkably short time.