News

REGIONAL dealers’ associations have become an integral part of the British trade over the past couple of decades and the first of them, the one that set the mould for all the others, the Cotswolds Antique Dealers Association this year celebrates its 25th anniversary.

Victorian Decorative Glass: British Designs 1850-1914 by Mervyn Gulliver, published by Schiffer Books, distributed by Bushwood Books. ISBN 0764315988 £59.95

Originality and Initiative: The Arts and Crafts Archives at Cheltenham, edited by Mary Greensted and Sophia Wilson, published by Lund Humphries in association with Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum. ISBN 0853318735 £25sb

AS WELL as their specialist musical instruments and clock specialist sales, the Bath auctioneers Gardiner Houlgate have been holding pioneering bi-annual sales devoted to Clarice Cliff and decorative arts sales for the past eight years.

Two historic, finely carved Mughal emeralds were the highlights of Christie’s Arts of India sale in London on September 24. Topping the bill was a 17th century wine cup made from a 408.5ct carved emerald mounted in gold and enamel that sold to a Middle Eastern buyer on the phone for £1.6m (plus 19.5/12% buyer’s premium).

THE Edinburgh firm of Shapes’ (15% buyer’s premium) September 6 sale of the contents of Glencruitten House, Argyll, the former country home of the Dundee venture capitalist, Alexander Mackay, was one of those rare opportunities for dealers and private individuals to buy paintings and prints by sought-after artists that, in a number of cases, were bought directly from the artists and had never been offered for sale before.

Miller’s Price Guide 2004: 25th Anniversary Edition, published by Miller’s. ISBN 1840008318 £24.99hb Antiques Price Guide 2004 by Judith Miller, published by Dorling Kindersley ISBN 1405300051 £22.99hb