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WITH buying split 50/50 between trade and private bidders, a total of £84,000 and all bar 84 of the 928 entries getting away, this was one of the healthiest of Andrew Hartley’s bi-annual specialist collectors’ sales to date, on 20 September.

THE winners of this year’s AXA Art Awards for Asian art were announced last week as Bonhams Bond Street and Mayfair dealer Sidney Moss. Bonhams clinched the prize for the best two-dimensional work with an early Chinese blue and white rectangular panel, from the Ming dynasty’s coveted Chenghua period (1465-87), from the du Boulay collection.

DOT-COM giant eBay have registered another set of record results, this time for the third quarter of 2003. With predicted turnover of $515m, the company actually registered revenues of $530.9m for the quarter, an 84 per cent rise on the same period last year.

Creating A Splash: The St Ives Society of Artists – The First 25 years (1927-1952) by David Tovey, published by Wilson Books, 11-13 Mill Bank, Tewkesbury, Glos GL20 5SD. Tel: 01684 850898 email: tovey@millavon.fsnet.co.uk ISBN 0953836339 £35 sb

THE 36 sq.metre habitation module, pictured right, one of a series designed for a holiday village by Jean Manevel in 1965, was by far the biggest item on offer at the Pavillon des Antiquaires staged in Paris from September 20-28. It occupied one end of the Pavillon’s 200m marquee in the Tuileries Gardens, and was sold by Jousse Entreprise to a Paris private buyer for €50,000 (£35,000).

‘SEE NAPLES AND BUY’ is a headline that has previously made its mark in the Antiques Trade Gazette when some Neapolitan scene has tickled the fancy and the bank balance of a determined picture bidder, but it was never more applicable than in the case of the Worcestershire couple who bought the superbly preserved Attilio Pratella (1856-1949), shown right, at the Colwyn Bay auctioneers Rogers Jones & Co (6% buyer’s premium) on September 27.

Mauchline Ware: A Collector’s Guide by David Trachtenberg and Thomas Keith, published by the Antique Collectors’ Club. ISBN 1851493921. £35 hb