News

Fewer than half of the 128 lots that made up The Cat Sale at Bonhams & Brooks on September 12 found buyers, but while demand was distinctly patchy and only 10 of 22 works by one of the foremost contemporary exponents of feline portraiture, Anne Mortimer, found buyers, there was no stopping Louis Wain.

THE first UK clocks and watches sale after the summer lull presented a good opportunity to examine the health of a market which is notoriously prone to ups and downs. From results at Gardiner Houlgate, Bath, it would seem that the trade in gentleman’s pocket watches remains buoyant, while ladies’ wristwatches are still hard to shift.

RELATIVELY quiet July and August sales caused a bit of a re-think at Gorringes: “After July we were a little bit worried,” said Lewes specialist Nick Muston. “There has been an adjustment in the market and we have adjusted prices accordingly.”

From the day it was delivered to Lord Yarborough in 1826, this Benjamin Vulliamy travelling clock had remained in the same family until it was sold at Hy Duke’s sale in Dorchester on September 20.

Harlequin Unmasked: Commedia Dell’Arte and Porcelain Sculpture by Meredith Chilton, published by Yale University Press in association with the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, Toronto. ISBN 0300090099 £45hb

AFTER this year the 20/21 British Art Fair will move from the Royal College of Art in Kensington Gore, London SW7 to the Commonealth Institute, Kensington High Street, W8.

Bretby Art Pottery: A Collector’s Guide, by Michael David Ash, published by David Ash Publishing, 165 Station Street, Castle Gresley, Swadlincote, Derbyshire DE11 9JY. Tel: 01283 212390. www.bretbyartpottery.com ISBN 0954061306. £8pb plus £2.50 p&p.