Auctioneers

Gary Don Auctioneers of Leeds was the first subject of Keep It In The Family, a new series of four documentaries that follows a different family business with a succession dilemma each week.

CHRISTIE’S have confirmed that their Antiquities department at South Kensington will continue as before, with sales in April and October.

Bonhams sold their second WWII Spitfire aircraft in the space of seven months last week when businessman Steven Brooks paid £1.58m plus premium for a TR Mark IX specification model at an auction held at the Hendon RAF Museum on April 20. The plane had been estimated to make in the region of £1.5-£2m.

AFTER nine years in Salisbury, silver specialist Alex Butcher is to leave Woolley & Wallis to join Lawrences of Crewkerne.

DREWEATTS will sell the stock of Chevertons at the Donnington Priory salerooms on May 12.

More details have emerged regarding the ‘breach-of-contract’ lawsuit which claims that Christie’s backed out of a $40m guarantee made to secure a Francis Bacon self-portrait for sale.

ELIZABETH Craven was no shrinking violet, even when judged by the freer moral standards of 18th century England.

THE highlight of the specialist arms and armour sale conducted by Sworders from their Sudbury rooms on April 7 was an important part medal group awarded to Sir Halliday Macartney (1833-1906), a soldier-turned-diplomat with a long official connection with China.

THIS carved ivory icon of a warrior saint sparked a ferocious bidding contest when it appeared at Hampstead Auctions' sale on March 26.

SOTHEBY’S are to continue with their strategy of focusing on their top-end clients while reducing lot volumes below the $5000 level.

NORTHUMBERLAND auctioneer Jim Railton has taken over the Old Narrowgate Salerooms in Alnwick on a lease from the Duke of Northumberland.

A LOAN exhibition of 20 works from the collection of American billionaire hedge fund manager Steve Cohen opens at Sotheby’s in New York this week.

DEMAND for Martin Brothers pottery may have tapered off slightly but it still provided three of the top prices at Bonhams’ recent Ceramic Design sale.

NO-ONE seemed to be in doubt about the quality of Sevi Guatelli’s Clarice Cliff collection.

Surrey auctioneers Ewbank and the Fine Art and Antiques division of Clarke Gammon Wellers are to merge.

Just hours before Sotheby’s sold the contents of Gianni Versace’s Lake Como villa on March 18, they withdrew an 18th century portrait by Johann Zoffany after its subject’s family claimed that it had been stolen from their home in London 30 years ago.

J.P. Humbert Auctioneers are to combine their two salerooms and focus their business in Towcester.

AN impressive example of Renaissance revivalism seen at Boston-based auction house Skinner on March 17 combined blue chip-names in both provenance and maker.

In a final bid to block the sale of two €28m (£25.4m) imperial bronzes, a Chinese collector revealed himself as the winning bidder and said he had no intention of paying for them.

As befitting a sale with world-famous brand associations, Christie’s dispersal of the Yves Saint Laurent–Pierre Bergé collection in Paris was more like a rock concert or fashion show than an auction.