Warning over CITES documents
The government has reminded people importing and exporting items covered by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) to check the documents required af ter December 31.
Documents will be required from the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) in order to legally transport items between Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Great Britain and the European Union from January 1, 2021.
The government guidance can be found online here: www.gov.uk/guidance/cites-imports-and-exports
Darwin ‘stolen’ notebooks appeal
A detail of Charles Darwin's Tree of Life notebook. Image credit: Cambridge University Library.
Cambridge University Library has launched a public appeal for help to locate two missing Charles Darwin notebooks from its archive.
It now believes the notebooks, first listed as missing in January 2001, have been stolen. The notebooks were removed from the Special Collections Strong Rooms for photography in September 2000, with the photography request completed in November. During a subsequent routine check in January 2001, it was found that the small box (which is about the size of a paperback book) containing the two notebooks had not been returned.
For many years, the library believed that the notebooks had been misplaced in the vast storerooms. At the start of this year a new extensive search was arranged by Dr Jessica Gardner, university librarian and director of library services since 2017, but they were not found.
The manuscript content of the two notebooks had already been digitised, so they are available via the Cambridge Digital Library.
Rogers Jones opens west Wales office
Charles Hampshire at Rogers Jones.
Welsh auction house Rogers Jones is expanding with new premises in west Wales.
Established in 1992 by David and Margaret Rogers Jones, Rogers Jones & Co will now operate a valuation and consignment office in Carmarthen alongside its established salerooms in Cardiff, south wales (opened 2013) and Colwyn Bay in north Wales.
The new operation will be run by Charles Hampshire and his wife Morganna. Hampshire joined the firm in 2018.
Lennox Cato now a Deputy Lieutenant
Antiques dealer Lennox Cato.
Antiques dealer Lennox Cato has been appointed one of eight new Deputy Lieutenants of Kent. The title honours his “positive contributions to the county and the nation”.
Cato, adopted as a two-month-old baby by a family of antique dealers in Brighton, established Lennox Cato Antiques in 1978, specialising in 18th and 19th century furniture and works of art.
In 1997 he and his family moved to Edenbridge, Kent and he became involved in the local community.
Cato has appeared on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow since 2014 and is a council member at The British Antiques Dealers’ Association (BADA).
Nesbits expands collectables sales
Mark Wingham is joining Nesbits.
Nesbits Auctions of Portsmouth has hired a former editor of Picture Postcard Monthly to expand its collectables auctions.
Mark Wingham joins as a consultant to catalogue postcards and coins for the Southsea salerooms.
The auction house plans regular specialist sales in 2021 and is also hoping to hire a philatelic specialist on a consultancy basis to expand its stamps department.
Sirtl joins Phillips’ Munich team
Tobias Sirtl has joined Phillips in Munich.
Phillips has appointed Tobias Sirtl as specialist in 20th century and Contemporary art in Munich. Sirtl joins Phillips following three years at Christie’s, specialising in Post-War and Contemporary Art.
Previously he has worked with galleries, but started at Phillips’ Berlin office in 2004.
LAPADA launches online showcase
Art and antiques dealers’ association LAPADA has launched an online selling initiative called LAPADA Firsts. Showing new and unseen stock available only on lapada.org, it starts on December 3-9.
For the first week of every month a selection of ‘new stock’ items not for sale anywhere else on the web will be offered from dealers on the site. Items will go live at 1pm on the first Thursday of the month.
Most read
The most viewed stories for week November 19-25 on antiquestradegazette.com
1 Winston Churchill whisky painting brings bidding battle at Sotheby’s
2 New hires and an expanded saleroom – the latest news around the auction houses
3 Martinware theft: Ealing bird found
4 Prince Philip letter stars in our pick of five auction highlights sold this week
5 Plea to help find missing Darwin notebooks
In Numbers
92
The age of artist Philip Sutton (b.1928) who is opening a gallery this month in Dorset. The exhibition, Philip Sutton RA – His 21st Century Colours, will collate all of his work from the last 20 years and runs until January 28, 2021.
Blind in one eye, Sutton continued to paint during lockdown this year and is opening the gallery in Bridport Art & Vintage Quarter. It is because of his planned exhibition programme being cancelled amid Covid-19 restrictions.
