News

UK: ONE OR TWO lots that figured among the higher prices in this Midlands sale would seem to have been sold primarily as collections of travel or botanical plates, and these I have bypassed in favour of the following selection of books.

SIX years after a gang stole part of the Luton Hoo Fabergé collection, a new police database succeeded in trapping one of the thieves.

PRIME Minister Tony Blair has taken the unusual step of announcing that the UK government will vote against droit de suite, the artists resale levy, when the European Union puts it to the final vote.

A number of dealers have contacted the Antiques Trade Gazette concerning a couple passing false cheques in antique shops across Dorset, Devon, Oxfordshire and Berkshire.

CHRISTIE’S are preparing to sell all subsidiary companies currently operating under the Spink name. PricewaterhouseCooper have been instructed to handle the disposal of their Spink assets, which are likely to fall into four separate entities.

Beadwork by Pamela Clabburn, published by Shire Publications. ISBN 0747804818, £4.50.

AUSTRALIA: A COLLECTION of classic 18th century English and German porcelain gave a flying start to Christie’s Australia’s (17.5/10 per cent buyer’s premium) mammoth 575-lot, mixed-owner auction of Decorative Arts in Melbourne on May 28-29.