Art and antiques news from 2005

AMONG the mementos of the martial glory of her ancestor Hamiltons which Hope Hamilton brought as a bride to Pallinsburn from her Sundrum Castle home were four 18th century bronze carronades, one shown right...

SIMON Hope of Hatton-based H&H Classic Auctions is to ride the full length of the Pennine Trail for charity.

London antiquities dealer James Ede is handing back a rare bronze statuette – stolen from Samos Museum during the Second World War – to Greece.

by Ian McKayUNDOUBTEDLY one of the more famous of cartographic curiosities, the ‘Leo Belgicus’ map, in which the 17 provinces of the Low Countries are depicted in the form of a lion, was first introduced by Michael Eitzinger as part of a topographical and historical account of the Netherlands, published in Cologne in 1583.

Christie’s New York are selling the Bibliotheca Bibliographica Breslaueriana in three portions.

FOUNDED in 1999 with just 30 dealers, Art London rapidly established itself as an integral and, indeed, refreshing constituent of June in London.

The specialist British sale held by Spink (15% buyer’s premium) on May 5 consisted exclusively of the collection formed by Samuel King.

The rainbow plate seen above right comes from an 1814 first issue* of David Cox’s Treatise on landscape Painting and Effect in Watercolours, an oblong folio work that incorporates a hand-coloured aquatint frontispiece and 31 plates (15 coloured, 15 in sepia) as well as 24 soft ground etchings.

BRUSSELS FAIR PREVIEW Over 100 dealers – half from abroad – will gather in Brussels from June 8-12.

A WEEK is a long time in politics, but nowadays the same can be said of sport. As soon as we read about a premiership player confirming his commitment to one club, the next day we see him signing for Chelsea.

An English judge has issued a stern warning to those who knowingly sell fake merchandise on eBay, handing a suspended prison sentence to a woman who sold a counterfeit collectable over the auction website for almost £1000.

Following the decision of Thames Valley estate agents Simmons and Son to concentrate upon their core business, a new firm of fine art auctioneers and valuers has been established in Watlington.

Ealing Council are appealing for information on the theft of 16 pieces of Martin Brothers pottery from Southall Library in the early hours of Monday, May 23.

OFTEN I have commented that the annual Buxton Antiques Fair, the 41st of which was held in the Pavilion Gardens of the Derbyshire spa town from May 11 to 15, keeps a low national profile.

RACEHORSE trainers may be used to a photo finish but a battle between two famous breeders went right to the wire on May 17 when Graham Budd (17.5% buyer’s premium) in association with Sotheby’s Olympia offered a selection of chattels from Ascot Racecourse.

PERHAPS the rarest of all Beswick’s ouput is the Spirit of Whitfield.

LAPADA have appointed Rebecca Hossack of London’s Rebecca Hossack Gallery (RHG) as a director. The Australian-born dealer in Contemporary pictures, sculpture, jewellery and decorative arts is the first Contemporary specialist to join the association’s board.

AMONG the great grails of Maling collecting are the so-called Urbino style vases: 16in (41cm) high exhibition pieces c.1945 decorated in relief with a celebrated moment from classical mythology by Lucien Boullemeir to a design by Norman Carling. The scene shows Perseus holding aloft the Medusa’s head to petrify the sea monster and save the beautiful Andromeda, who is chained to the rocky shore.

THE reputation established by Gardiner Houlgate over the last ten years for Clarice Cliff pottery has resulted in two specialist sales each year of around 200 lots.

Christie’s South Kensington (20/12% buyer’s premium) : Art Nouveau and Art DecoThis two-day, all-Continental offering really was a sale of two halves.