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Art and antiques news from 2004

In 2004 Nicholas Bonham left Bonhams. It was the first time there was no family member on the board in the firm's history.
 
A blaze at Momart's London warehouse destroyed about £40 million of art including important contemporary and Modern pictures.
 
A crowd of more than 800 people in the saleroom watched as Young Lady Seated at the Virginals, a newly acknowledged work by Johannes Vermeer, sold at Sotheby's for £14.5 million.
 

Clarion Events team complete firm’s buy-out: Future of Olympia antiques fairs assured say new bosses

03 November 2004

CLARION Events, organisers of the Olympia Fine Art and Antiques Fairs, have successfully completed a £45m management buy-out from their parent company, the Earls Court & Olympia Group (EC&O). They emphasise their continued commitment to the antiques fairs.

Seminar on the risks of moving art

28 October 2004

BUYING and selling art and antiques is one thing, but what about transporting it from the place of sale to its destination?

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A richly woven tale from Ireland…

28 October 2004

THE highlight of a Gerald and Sheila Goldberg collection of predominately Irish decorative arts sold by Mealy’s in Douglas, Cork earlier this month was this finely-preserved Aubusson tapestry, right, designed by Louis le Brocquy (b.1916).

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Wanted, mother with muscles

28 October 2004

SHALL I be mother? At first glance there’s nothing very exciting at all about this Edwardian teapot. Decorated with printed, painted and aerographed flower sprays against a graduated green and yellow ground and highlighted by burnished gilt, it is typical of the cheap and cheerful earthenwares churned out in their thousands in Staffordshire at the turn of the last century.

New sculpture study gallery opens at V&A

28 October 2004

THE V&A have opened the first new gallery in their £30m transformation programme.

Guess what – yes, they’re back again

28 October 2004

AS certain as Autumn’s falling leaves, the scam fair guides have come out of the woodwork once more to trap dealers in the run-up to the Winter Olympia fair.

New vintage matures in Chicago

28 October 2004

TWO former Sotheby’s executives and a leading wine retailer have announced the formation of a new Chicago-based firm specialising in the sale of fine wine by retail and auction.

Asian Art award winners

28 October 2004

THE winners of the Asian Art in London Outstanding Work of Art Awards, sponsored by the Antiques Trade Gazette, were announced last week.

Cadogan consolidates

20 October 2004

CADOGAN Tate, the international packing, shipping and storage company, have announced that they have turned The Packing Shop into a profitable concern. They acquired the assets and goodwill of the antiques specialists just over a year ago.

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Stairways to heaven, via a Led Zeppelin lamp or a Pharaonic jar

20 October 2004

AN early 20th century Tiffany Favrile ten-light lamp was an unusual consignment for a provincial auction house. The market for Tiffany is largely based in America and even the major London rooms tend to sell their best consignments through their New York rooms. However, the family of the late Peter Grant, former manager of the legendary rock group Led Zeppelin, live locally and put his lamp into Dreweatt Neate Tunbridge Wells Saleroom's (15% buyer's premium) September 3 sale.

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Duke’s bid for a larger market share with new second saleroom

20 October 2004

DUKE'S of Dorchester are opening a new auction room to allow them to improve their handling for house clearance and deceased estates among other services.

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Vettriano’s early fan reaps £26,000 reward

20 October 2004

JACK Vettriano (b.1951) is not an artist normally associated with the North East of England, but one of the lesser known facts about Britain’s Most Popular Artist is that one of his first one-man exhibitions, if not the first, was held at the Corrymella Scott Gallery in Jesmond, an upmarket suburb of Newcastle upon Tyne, in 1992.

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Barcaglia from Berkshire nets £120,000

20 October 2004

THERE are few more commercial subjects than children. Accordingly, it was no surprise that this near life-size Italian marble group of two children playing on a balcony (pictured right) by Donato Barcaglia, dating from the late 19th century stole the limelight at Christie’s King Street (19.5/12% buyer’s premium) 19th century furniture, sculpture, works of art and ceramics sale on September 30.

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Specialists rule Qianlong vase is ‘right’ and bid £5000

20 October 2004

A COUPLE of exotic sleepers swelled the tally at Lays Auctions (15% buyer's premium) September 23-24 sale which also boasted healthy prices for more home-grown fare such as Troika and Newlyn copper.

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Bonhams Knightsbridge

20 October 2004

TWO or three times a year Bonhams (19.5/10% buyer's premium) offer a selection of modern pieces in their monthly Knightsbridge silver and objects of vertu sales. Undoubtedly a growth area of the market, works by major names such as Stuart Devlin, Gerald Benney and Christopher Lawrence routinely feature amongst the top ten lots.

RA fairs news at the double

20 October 2004

NEXT year’s Watercolour and Drawings Fair will move to a new venue, the Royal Academy rooms at 6 Burlington Gardens, London W1, where it will run from February 3 to 6 with an opening evening preview on February 2.

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Webb feat remembered in porcelain

20 October 2004

AT 10.41 on the morning of August 25, 1875, to the sounds of Rule Britannia, Captain Matthew Webb emerged from the cold and choppy waters of the Channel. It had taken him 21 hours and 41 minutes. He had covered close to 40 miles. But he had become the first man to swim from English to French soil.

Texting brings antiques industry recruitment into the 21st century

20 October 2004

SMS texting is the latest innovation for matching candidates with new career opportunities in the art and antiques trade.

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Dowager’s expertise

20 October 2004

THE Dowager Lady Langham, who authorised the HOK (18.5% buyer's premium) sale of the Langham family’s collections on September 27, is a world authority on Belleek having been collector/dealer for many years and having written three books on the subject. At the sale she only parted company with nine pieces of the Fermanagh pottery, most of which sold above expectations.

Swinderby goes it alone, a week before Newark

20 October 2004

NEXT year Arthur Swallow Fairs’ International Antiques and Collectors’ Fairs at RAF Swinderby will be held almost a full week before the Newark fair.