Riley-Smith launch
Crispian Riley-Smith has launched an art valuations and consultancy business.
During three decades in the art market he has worked as a specialist drawings dealer and the founding director of London Art Week and Master Drawings New York. He has also worked at Sotheby’s, Phillips and Christie’s King Street as well as being a consultant with Bonhams.
Riley-Smith’s new business offers clients independent advice on the market, buying and selling and collections management. He also offers valuations for purposes such as insurance and probate.
Quaritch celebrates Laurie Lee and lawyer collections
Two collections of books assembled by author Laurie Lee (1914-97) and lawyer Geoffrey Bindman (b.1933) are on offer from rare book dealer Bernard Quaritch as it celebrates its new home in Bloomsbury, London.
Lee is best known for Cider with Rosie (1959), his memoir of childhood in the Cotswolds. It is among the 113 books by him in the collection, many of them signed, as well as 167 by other authors such as John Betjeman, Ted Hughes and Nadine Gordimer. Many of these are also signed or inscribed to Lee.
The library is offered for £30,000.
Bindman was a human rights and civil liberties lawyer who built up an assemblage of political protest works. The core of the collection spans the radical publications of the 1790s leading up to the Peterloo Massacre of 1819. These are accompanied by accounts of the radicals’ prosecutions and of the legislation introduced to repress their fight for electoral reform and universal suffrage. The first catalogue of highlights includes 250 items at prices ranging from £75-5000.
Bernard Quaritch was founded in 1847 and specialises in early photography, Islamic and European manuscripts and travel works among other fields.
The shop moved to its new home, a five-floor late- 17th century townhouse on Bedford Row, earlier this year. However, it officially toasts the premises with a reception and the release of the collections next week.
Ronin rolls out new look
New York’s Ronin Gallery marks the opening of its new space in the taproom of the Engineer’s Club at Bryant Park Place with an exhibition of Japanese woodblock prints.
Iconic: Images of the Floating World from October 12-November 9 includes some of the most recognisable images by Ukiyo-e artists such as Hokusai and Kuniyoshi.
The gallery was founded in 1975 in the Explorers Club Mansion and its Japanese woodblock prints collection spans 17th century Buddhist creations through to Contemporary works.
roningallery.com
Bank account
London art gallery Panter & Hall is celebrating its 20th anniversary with an exhibition at its Mayfair site.
The show, which runs until October 18, features works by the gallery's Contemporary artists, though the dealership also specialises in works by Modern masters.
In the introduction to the catalogue Matthew Hall reviews the history of the business from its frist gallery in Shepherd Market. It now occupies two premises, one in Pall Mall and the other in Cecil Court.
Hall writes: "Here we are, riding out the current storms of uncertainty in a magnificent ex-bank at the heart of the London art world."
