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250 jobs threatened as venerable rooms fall victim to global review

Dealer on a mission to establish such works alongside more ‘serious’ collecting fields

As the market evolves, auction rooms will inevitably come and go. But few will leave their mark like Christie’s South Kensington.

Much will depend on what the plan is for King Street and for the firm’s online-only sales (a growing but small fragment of the Christie’s business totalling £49.8m last year).

Estimated at £1500-2000, this rare English delft dish sold for £20,000 (plus 22.5% buyer’s premium) at Cheffins in Cambridge on March 8.

This 7 x 4in (18 x 11cm) enamel plaque in a silvered frame (right) by Francis Arthur Edwardes is the work of the Duchess of Sutherland Cripples Guild – the metalware workshop set up to aid and educate the children of the Potteries.

Attracting new and younger buyers is the thinking behind Tennants’ (18.5% buyer’s premium) modern and contemporary art sales. Held three times a year, the auctions offer art by a range of painters and sculptors at affordable levels to encourage new buyers into the market, while also appealing to established collectors.

Prints of Dublin as it would have looked in the late 18th century starred in an interiors sale held in the same modern-day city at Adam’s (20% buyer’s premium).

European CITES management authorities published a nine-page guidance report last week following a decision to protect all species of rosewood.

Coinciding with Hong Kong sales in March, Sotheby’s is holding a selling exhibition of mid-century European furniture in its Hong Kong gallery from March 20-26.

A round-up of art and antiques news from the previous seven days.

Tennants’ (20/18.5/17.5% buyer’s premium) sale of Scientific and Musical Instruments, Cameras and Tools on February 17 included a rare brass altazimuth theodolite, signed by London instrument makers Heath and Wing. Estimated at just £300-400, it sold in its original box together with wooden tripod at £10,000.

Owing to today’s minimalist taste, Continental views of 19th century ports are not an easy sell. This pair of canvases proved otherwise when they topped Thomson Roddick’s (15% buyer’s premium) March 18 sale in Carlisle, Cumbria.

Highly unusual, not to say confusing, but mathematically correct is the view of the world as seen in this untitled map of 1640 that made £4500 in a Dominic Winter (19.5% buyer’s premium) sale of March 1.