News

A HEALTHY take-up for the 170 lots entered without reserve from a period farmhouse in Shropshire provided the backbone of Humberts' (10% buyer's premium) 602-lot Gloucestershire outing on June 29, but it was an early 18th century upholstered walnut wingback armchair consigned from a different private source that proved the star turn.

A COPY of the Lawn Tennis Annual for 1882, compiled by L.S.F. Winslow, made £650 in a June 16-17 sale held in Ludlow by Mullock Madeley.

ALTHOUGH paintings provided the highest prices for Christie’s New York's (19.5% buyer’s premium) Maritime sale on July 29, the 310-lot sale’s smaller miscellany of maritime objects also drew some serious competition for certain objects.

NOBODY is pretending that this year has all been sunshine and brightness for the trade, but nor has it been quite as terminally doom-laden as some commentators would suggest.

The Parrot Pen-man, an ink and watercolour drawing by Quentin Blake that sold for £1200, was among 40 lots offered at Sotheby’s on July 8 on behalf of the Arvon Foundation, a literary charity that provides residential creative writing courses.

I HAVE often illustrated plates from the works of Maria Sibylla Merian, but never before a portrait of that remarkable lady herself.

LONG-TIME readers may recall that I used to wonder why East Anglia, such a fertile ground for everything from agriculture to antiques shops, remained something of a wasteland in terms of fairs. What, I asked, held organisers back? The place may be a little off the beaten track but it is rich in artistic heritage from Cotman and Constable to Munnings, it has history from Hereward to Nelson and there has always been money from medieval wool days through to the present acres of wheatfields.