Art and antiques news from 2005

TO the non-specialist, a cracked and chipped blue and white 18th century delft plate might have seemed reasonably estimated at £60-100 in the January 5 sale held by Brightwells (15% buyer’s premium).

Back in the late 1920s, during the height of the so-called Etching Boom, prints by Scottish contemporary artists such as Muirhead Bone, David Young Cameron and James McBey were the subject of the sort of feverish speculation which now characterises the market for cutting-edge names like Damien Hirst, Richard Prince and Maurizio Cattelan.

Business as usual was the message from Camden Stables following the sale of the north London market to the clothing tycoon Richard Caring. A price of £40m was quoted in the financial press.

The student section of the British Antique Furniture Restorers’ Association will hold their annual conference at Oxford and Cherwell College, Oxpens Road, Oxford on March 14.

PICTURES which belong to a very specific collecting area are frequently in much greater demand than those of comparable quality that lack esoteric appeal.

It would be amiss not to record the fortunes of the rare George II provincial silver tea kettle that, as reported in ATG no.1663, dated November 6 had been consigned for sale at Toronto fine art auctioneers Waddingtons (15% buyer’s premium) on December 6.

SOME weeks ago, I wrote about the immense variety in the quality of stock and presentation to be found in antique centres up and down the country.

AFTER more than 41 years, veteran silver dealers Hymie and Shirley Dinerstein have left West London’s Portobello Road.

FOR its seventh London staging, The Watercolours and Drawings Fair leaves its long-time home at the Park Lane Hotel, Piccadilly, and moves deeper into Mayfair to The Royal Academy, 6 Burlington Gardens, W1 where it will run from February 3 to 6 with a charity preview on the evening of February 2.

ANTO CARTE (1886-1954) has emerged as the darling of the Belgian auction scene in recent years, and was again responsible for the country’s top saleroom price in December.

UK Trade & Investment, the export directorate of the Department of Trade, has offered, through the British Art Market Federation, a grant of £25,000 to be shared among 19 UK dealers showing at the eighth annual Chicago Antiques Fair from April 29 to May 2.

AFTER a decade at the venue, Essex-based organiser Robert Bailey has decided not to stage his flagship fair at Claridge’s hotel in London this April.

For the second year running, Christie’s posted the highest auction total in Paris, with sales of €86.4m (£61.7m), up five per cent on last year.

Morphets, Harrogate, November 25 Buyer’s premium: 15/10 per centTWO different female figures stole the limelight at Harrogate; a rather racy bronze and alabaster, semi-nude who graced the catalogue front cover, and a much smaller, more demure, bronze bust of a young girl.

Lawrences, Bletchingley Buyer’s premium: 12.5 per centTHE unceasing campaign among provincial auctioneers to bring the right material to the rostrum is, perhaps, tougher the nearer one is to London. However, salerooms outside the capital can compete both on vendors’ charges and by accepting pieces turned down by the metropolitan’s top three.

After five years of hosting the British Antiques & Collectables Awards, the chairman and board of BACA have cancelled the event for 2005. Issues of funding have led to the decision.

Damien Hirst’s tiger shark suspended in a tank of formaldehyde, once the centrepiece of the Charles Saatchi collection and arguably the best-known work by a late 20th century British artist, has been sold to an American collector for a price close to £7m.

The Elizabethan communion cup of St Peter-with-Bastwick, Repps, pictured right, was stolen from a safe on the weekend of January 1-2.

THE New Barnham Auction rooms have just held their first fine art and antiques sale – only five weeks after taking over the premises.

ATG have an update on the round-up of provincial sale totals for 2004 published in issue 1672, January 15.