Gibbons group sells Masterpiece share
Stamp and coins dealership Stanley Gibbons Group has sold its stake in Masterpiece London for £2.4m. The decision to sell the 25% stake to the company that owns the Masterpiece fair follows the sale by Stanley Gibbons earlier this month of auction house Dreweatts and dealer Mallett for £1.4m.
The group became the owner of part of Masterpiece when it acquired Mallett in 2014 for £8.6m. Mallett was one of the four founding firms of the London fair, which takes place from June 28-July 5.
Stanley Gibbons will use the proceeds of the sale to pay down debt.
It continues to own rare book auction and retail business Bloomsbury and the inventory of Mallett, but said in a statement it will “derive additional value” from these assets in the coming months.
Selling show at Dresser festival
Cast-iron Kenrick trivet to a Dresser design priced at £85 at 'DresserFest2'.
The Christopher Dresser Society is hosting its second selling exhibition to coincide with the DresserFest series of events at Teesside University and the Dorman Museum in Middlesbrough from June 30–July 2.
The society will welcome consignments of Dresser-related artefacts from dealers and collectors for the DresserFest2 exhibition that opens on June 30.
The society’s bi-annual symposium at Teesside University is titled Christopher Dresser, Japonism and the Victorian World of Goods.
Rodin discovery shines in Paris
A small Rodin marble, Andromeda, signed and dated 1887, made a treble-estimate €3.1m (£2.72m) at Artcurial in Paris on May 30. It was hammered down to a European collector bidding on the phone against around 10 other bidders.
The 12in (30cm) marble was recently rediscovered in Spain by Artcurial specialists Stéphane Aubert and Bruno Jaubert.
Andromeda, a small marble by Auguste Rodin that sold for €3.1m (£2.72m) at Artcurial in Paris.
It had spent almost 130 years in the family of the Chilean diplomat Carlos Lynch de Morla.
In 1888, while posted in Paris, he had commissioned Rodin to sculpt a portrait of his wife Luisa, but such was its success at the Salon National des Beaux-Arts that year, the French state put in a request to acquire it.
De Morla agreed and in recompense Rodin presented him with this marble interpretation of the Andromeda myth, showing the naked woman crouched on a rock.
In Numbers
283
The number of dealers standing across the two main book fairs that opened in London last week – the London International Antiquarian Book Fair and the London International Premier Book Fair.
£200,000 Sussex jewellery theft
A West Sussex robbery on April 24 resulted in the loss of more than £200,000 of antique jewellery, handbags and other valuables.
Among the items taken from a private home were an 18 carat gold Parentesi bracelet wristwatch by Bulgari and a c.1900 négligé necklace.
The crime reference number is 47170056839.
‘Looted’ Marieschi comes for sale
The restituted Venetian scene by Michele Marieschi
A view of Venice by Michele Marieschi (1710-44) which was seized by the Nazis in 1940 will be offered at Sotheby’s on July 5 following the settlement of a longstanding restitution claim.
After 15 years, a settlement between the heirs of the Graf family, who had acquired La Punta della Dogana e san Giorgio Maggiore in 1937, and the estate of the late owner who had kept it for 60 years, has finally been facilitated by Art Recovery International.
The picture is estimated at £500,000-700,000.
Great Scott
William Scott’s Blue Still Life was top lot at Whyte’s in Dublin on May 29, hammered down at €450,000 (£517,240) to an English collector. Painted in 1969-70, it was previously owned by collectors George and Maura McClelland.
Most read
The most clicked-on stories for week May 25-31 on antiquestradegazette.com
1 Hans Christian Andersen’s unpublished picture book comes to auction
2 Auction offers original John Player tobacco ads artwork
3 Christie’s South Kensington to close sooner than expected
4 Record set for Star Wars collecting ‘holy grail’ figure at auction
5 Stanley Gibbons sells stake in art fair Masterpiece London
