News

Wiltshire auctioneers Finan & Co., have carved out a niche for themselves by steering clear of brown furniture and 19th century porcelain and offering slightly more exotic fare.

FRESH from a buoyant January debut in West London, Caroline Penman moves north from February 13 to 16 for her provincial flagship event, The Spring Chester Antiques and Fine Art Show at the County Grandstand, Chester Racecourse.

CHOCOLATES and roses will be bought by the ton over the days leading up to St. Valentine’s on February 14. But for those looking for a more novel way of pleasing a loved one, Grays Antique Market in Mayfair offers plenty of scope.

Dictionary of Irish Artists: 20th Century by Theo Snoddy, Merlin Publishing ISBN 1 903582 17 2 £50 (€70) h/b

LONDON: PIMLICO, SW1 has long been a prime London area for antique hunting, but now it is gaining an increasingly high profile as an international centre for decorative work of all descriptions.

Twenty one lots in Bonhams’ marine sale on January 22 came from the collection of the late John Foster, celebrated yachtsman and yachting enthusiast. The bulk of these were paintings but there were also three non-pictorial entries: a pair of carved wooden Prince of Wales feathers from Edward VII’s yacht Osborne, which fetched £1100, and the two silver racing trophies pictured here, which represented significant mementoes of racing history from both sides of the Atlantic.

Ireland’s Painters 1600-1940 by Anne Crookshank and the Knight of Glin, published for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, by Yale University Press. ISBN 03000987654 £40h/b