Art and antiques news from 2005

Edinburgh auctioneers Lyon & Turnbull have announced substantial changes to their buyer’s premium structure.

ARTHUR Swallow Fairs are to cut future Swinderby fairs from three days to two. From the next event in June the RAF Swinderby International Antiques and Collectors’ Fair will be open on the Friday Trade Day and on Saturday but will drop Sunday trading.

Thanks to a lively book trade and the introduction of new departments, turnover at Bloomsbury Auctions has increased by 38 per cent in the first quarter of 2005 compared to the same period in 2004.

Capping a sell-out sale of the first instalment of a private collection of nutmeg graters at Woolley and Wallis on April 20 was this unusual Victorian novelty specimen fashioned as a hinged strawberry, which sold for £8200.

On his way to join the QE2 for a Mediterranean cruise on April 16, John Sullivan knew there was something he must do.

SPECIAL Auction Services, the West Berkshire auctioneers best known for regular sales of commemoratives and pot lids, are themselves on the market.

A LONDON dealer has exposed the latest scam attempting to trick the trade out of thousands of pounds. And, in doing so, he has discovered a quick and simple way of checking whether others have already been defrauded: using the internet.

Christie’s have joined the throng of western companies opening offices in Dubai.

In November 1933, the Queen Mother (then Duchess of York) wrote to Charles Edmund Brock (1870-1938), a noted illustrator and society painter, commissioning a family portrait.

Baroness Rawlings of Burnham Westgate has accepted the invitation of the British Antique Dealers’ Association to become their new president. She will replace Lord Brooke of Sutton Mandeville who has filled the role since 1995.

Government report reveals impact of levy... and the cost The introduction of Droit de Suite in the UK could result in the loss of up to ten art dealing jobs for every artist who would benefit from the tax.

The Conservatives have vowed to fight Droit de Suite in their election manifesto. “Conservatives believe the Artist’s Resale Right will be highly detrimental to the British art market, and will benefit competitors outside the EU,” the manifesto reads.

IT was a matter of success breeding success for Oxfordshire auctioneers Holloway’s in March. Late last year they sold an 18th century ivory bust, possibly of Handel, for £29,000, and when the owner of a tiny medieval ivory panel read of it in ATG No 1671, January 8, he decided to offer it in the Banbury rooms.

EXPECT around 3000 original works from 45 UK dealers at the 10th annual Chelsea Art Fair, organised by Caroline Penman and held from April 21 to 24 at Chelsea Old Town Hall in London’s King’s Road SW3.

PICK up the Modern British reference books and you might just find a small mention of Edgar Hubert: born in Billingshurst, West Sussex in 1906; trained at the Slade; an exhibitor with the London Group from 1931 to 1947; died in obscurity (actually it was in Scafold, West Sussex) in 1985.

Expertise rewarded, a surprise (and happy) ending and just a touch of regret... the story of an unassuming set of four late 19th/early 20th century chairs, one shown right, offered by Greenslade Taylor Hunt (15% buyer’s premium) at Taunton on March 15, was the very stuff of auctioneering romance.

CERAMICS SALES IN FRANCE £1 = €1.44A collection of drink-related objects and another devoted to Italian Renaissance maiolica were two very different single-owner properties on offer on the same day at the Paris auction house ArtCurial (17.5/10% buyer’s premium) last month.

THERE have already been two major sales at Dix Noonan Webb (DNW) (15% buyer’s premium) this year. The first concerned war medals and took place on March 2.

The regular sales of costume and textiles at Christie’s South Kensington (20/12% buyer’s premium) occasionally produce surprises. What seemed to be a sleeper in their March 15 sale was the mid-late 18th century linen court petticoat shown here. It was made from four oval split cane wooden hoops and half hoops on the hips for extra width, suggesting that it was intended for the most formal occasions.

The London Coin Fair (Frances & Howard Simmons) took place on February 5. Of the three of these fairs each year this one is not expected to be the most active. This time the reverse applied.