News

ONLINE auction giant eBay have announced a record 59 per cent increase in turnover for the first quarter of 2004.

HAVE we just had a glimpse of the Jack Vettriano market in 100 years’ time? Any connection between the Walter Dendy Sadler (1854-1923) painting of three top-hatted Regency gentlemen being served a bottle of port in an inn garden which made £50,000 at the Cambridge rooms of Cheffins (15% buyer’s premium) on April 22, and the £660,000 Singing Butler might seem tenuous in the extreme.

WHEN a small, unattributed Old Master painting sells at £30,000 in the provinces the S-word usually gets plenty of use.

DESPITE the myriad complaints that there are too many fairs, still they keep coming, and here is another. From May 7 to 9 Sue Ede of Cooper Antiques Fairs launches her Oxford County Antiques Fair at Eynsham Hall, an 18th century Grade 11 listed manor house in 30 acres of parkland near Woodstock.

ONE of the country’s oldest and most respected annual fixtures, the strictly vetted and datelined Buxton Antiques Fair, celebrates its 40th anniversary at the Pavilion Gardens of the Derbyshire spa town from May 12 to 16.

TWO specialist services in the world of tracking stolen art have joined forces to launch a new recovery service.

As in other markets, that of samplers has its peculiarities. While condition and craftsmanship – or rather craftsgirlship – are important they are not always paramount.