News


Categories

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.
 

1660DD01A.jpg

LAPADA backs its luck to change at Cheltenham

14 October 2004

HAVING staged fairs with varying success in Birmingham and London, LAPADA, our largest trade association, enters a new era this month with the launch of a new event at a new venue – The LAPADA Autumn Antiques and Fine Art Fair which will run at The Centaur at Cheltenham Racecourse, Gloucestershire from October 21 to 24.

Bermondsey market to go ahead as usual during redevelopment

13 October 2004

EXCAVATION work due to start shortly on archaeological remains, as part of the Bermondsey redevelopment project, will not interfere with the New Caledonian Antiques Market.

Irish trade return to boost Cornish day

13 October 2004

FURNITURE in Bonhams' (17.5/10% buyer's premium) Par sale on September 2 was given a considerable boost by a contingent of Irish dealers who between them secured around 20 of the more standard entries in the 104-lot section.

1660NE01A.jpg

Coenwulf is king again as unique penny takes £200,000

13 October 2004

RIGHT: London auctioneers Spink’s pre-sale billing of this Anglo Saxon gold penny as ”the most important discovery in British numismatics for many years” gained tangible endorsement last week when they sold it for £200,000 – a new record for an English coin.

1660NEO3A.jpg

A well-travelled gift to a friend

13 October 2004

THE chronicles of Captain Cook and his perils on the high seas of the South Pacific, possess a mixture of action, adventure, discovery, science and romance that is enough to capture the most hardened imagination.

Expect Swinderby dates this week

13 October 2004

SWALLOW Fairs say they will announce their dates for next year’s International Antiques and Collectors’ Fair at RAF Swinderby this Thursday.

1660AR03B.jpg

Will Doulton prices rise if the Burslem factory closes?

13 October 2004

Given the Potteries location, it is hardly surprising that Royal Doulton and Beswick have long provided Louis Taylor (12.5% buyer's premium) with their bread-and-butter business as well as many top lots. The first day of their quarterly fine sales is always devoted to these staples, predominantly sourced from private vendors living within a 50-mile radius of the Hanley rooms.

Room warms to quality fire basket which goes at ten times the top hopes

13 October 2004

BEING part of a large company such as The Fine Art Auction Group has its benefits when it comes to sourcing consignments and sharing expertise, but, on a day-to-day basis, it does not always make the specialist’s life any easier when it comes to spotting sleepers.

Seven-day week plan for CSK sales

13 October 2004

CHRISTIE'S South Kensington are to launch a new sales programme next year that will turn them into a seven-days-a-week operation.

1660AR04A.jpg

Estimates demolished as buyers identify two rarities: £5200 bid for 3oz cup marks current demand for Guild work

13 October 2004

PROVINICIAL auctioneers may no longer be able to bank on a solid furniture take-up to keep business ticking over (the 162-lot furniture section at Bruton Knowles (15% buyer's premium) on September 16 fielded the lion’s share of casualties), but at least they can rely on unusual, commercial or quality entries still selling at a premium.

1660NE02A.jpg

Hodges’ War and Peace prints found after appeal

13 October 2004

THE National Maritime Museum has purchased two prints from a London dealer following its appeal in the Antiques Trade Gazette for information about two missing William Hodges paintings.

Alerts after Slane and other thefts

13 October 2004

POLICE have alerted dealers across Ireland to a cache of antiques stolen in a weekend raid at the home of Lord Henry Mountcharles on his Slane Castle estate in County Meath.

1660AR03D.jpg

Size and colour outweigh condition of £10,500 table

13 October 2004

THE focus of the furniture trade’s attention in Bamfords' (15% buyer's premium) 1025-lot Derbyshire outing on September 8 was a c.1835 mahogany, triple-pedestal dining table with a top formed from two D-sections and a central Pembroke drop leaf.

£160,000 in the Will

13 October 2004

THE sale of a Shakespeare First Folio is a rare event, but the sale of a copy that emerged out of nowhere is something that comes around only once in a generation.

Board changes at LAPADA

13 October 2004

GRAHAM Smith of Graham Smith Antiques in Jesmond, Newcastle has joined LAPADA’s board of directors. He started his own business in 1999 after 27 years working with Owen Humble Antiques.

1660AR01E.jpg

Preview

13 October 2004

THIS unusual metamorphic George III mahogany dressing table, right, goes under the Charterhouse gavel on Friday October 15.

1660AR03A.jpg

£13,250 bid answers speculation about cow creamer

13 October 2004

SOME provincial auctioneers batten down the hatches during August, but for Keys (10% buyer's premium) in Norfolk it was a particularly busy month with two antique sales, a collectors’ auction and a picture outing.

Novelties add value to animal attractions

13 October 2004

AS is often the case at regular provincial auctions these days, proceedings at Abbotts Auction Rooms' (12% buyer's premium) otherwise fairly routine, 438-lot September 8 sale were enlivened by a couple of novel entries.

Slow but certain tactics meet challenge of 200 clocks

13 October 2004

DISPERSING 200 mixed-quality clocks may seem a daunting prospect for some provincial auctioneers, but, by selling the Staffordshire collection in bite-size chunks through their general, oak and country and fine auctions, Richard Winterton (15% buyer's premium) managed to get away almost all entries during the summer months.

1689AR09A.jpg

Woburn Abbey provides stately setting for combined Country House sales

09 October 2004

When it comes to pulling in buyers, the country house sale held on the premises is a hard format hard to beat – unless, of course, you can combine the attraction with a titled provenance.