Auctioneers

The Moscow-based luxury retail giant Mercury Group have bought a majority stake in the London-based international auctioneers Phillips de Pury & Company. Phillips de Pury said that Mercury initially offered a possible partnership in July last year, but the deal developed into an effective takeover last week.

WHETHER or not the art market will be able to steer its way through the current financial storm remains an open question. But providing some relief from the constant talk of falling stocks and the global credit crunch, a pair of Dutch marine pictures saw some strong bidding at the latest picture sale held by Woolley and Wallis on October 8.

It proved, as predicted, to be the highest priced item in London Islamic week sales, but the Fatimid rock crystal ewer did not generate quite the fireworks that were expected before it came up for sale at Christie's on October 7.

Royal Worcester porcelain is one of those collecting areas which is plentiful enough in its many different ornamental styles to support a wide collecting base. There are buyers for all the different forms, from George Owen’s scarce reticulated vases to Doris Lindner’s equestrian models.

BOOKS being used in their physical form alone to disguise an entirely different function are nothing new – money boxes are a perennial favourite – but the book as Thunderbox?

THIS extremely rare 18th Century Khyber knife was the highlight of the London sale conducted by Norfolk-based sporting gun specialist Holts, where it sold for a surprise £38,000.

THE question of authenticity remains high on the agenda in the Banksy market after a last-minute intervention by the self-styled guerrilla artist had a devastating effect on Lyon & Turnbull’s latest attempt to break into the London contemporary art market.

J.P. Humbert opened their new saleroom in Towcester on September 25. After five years at a site on Burcote Road site they can now be found in a 4000 sq ft premises on the Silverstone Business Park situated off the A43.

The volume of artist Louis Wain’s distinctive ceramic animals making a sudden appearance on the market has raised the possibility that some could be reproductions or fakes. Seven have been offered at various UK salerooms in the last month, while two suspect examples have already been pulled from a Bonhams sale.

Lyon & Turnbull are to turn the buyer’s premium system on its head by raising it for top-tier prices but cutting it for lower-priced lots in general sales.

Gloucestershire auctioneers Simon Chorley began their autumn season on September 18, selling this Louis XIV ebony, ivory and tortoiseshell cabinet for £65,000 (plus 15 per cent buyer's premium).

Bonhams Oxford are to leave the city centre in favour of new premises in a village just north of the city.

Christie’s have announced the exact dates and location for the Paris sale of the collection put together by Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé. It will be held jointly by two auction houses, Christie’s and Pierre Bergé & Associates, on February 23, 24 and 25 next year.

MEDIA interest in the Pietro Psaier controversy saw members of the national press in attendance at John Nicholson’s Fernhurst rooms on September 24 for the sale of 235 artworks.

Quarterly sales of modestly-priced art and antiques, which were introduced for the first time this year by leading Shropshire auction house Halls, are to become a regular fixture in the company’s sales calendar.

As experienced art dealers discussed the £95.6m sale of 233 new works by Damien Hirst (b.1965), it was the word 'celebrity' that cropped up the most to explain the phenomenal prices seen at the Beautiful Inside my Head Forever sale.

CHRISTIE’S have announced that their sale of the joint stock of the two London dealerships Hotspur and Jeremy will be at a dedicated auction at their King Street rooms on November 20.

PRE-COLOMBIAN art valued at €5m in total was withdrawn from sale in Paris on September 12 after the last-minute intervention of the Mexican Embassy.

Trading Standards say they have received a number of complaints from unpaid consignors in the wake of the fine art sale held by Walker Barnett & Hill in June.

This large three-section glass panel was designed and made by Paul Jefferies at the Whitefriars factory in 1966.