Organisations

THE Society of Fine Art Auctioneers have awarded a number of Honorary Associate memberships to leading industry figures. The awards were announced by SOFAA chairman Chris Ewbank at the society’s dinner, held last week at the Royal Thames Yacht Club in Knightsbridge.

Rubbing shoulders with racing stables, vineyards and Spanish holiday homes at the ExCeL exhibition centre on September 19-21 were dealers John Bly and Wakelin & Linfield, LAPADA and toy auctioneers Vectis. But an opportunity missed was the general consensus of the event among a dozen or so representatives from the trade who took part in the first Leisure & Alternative Investment Show.

IT started as a joke, but at £240,000, it is now one of the most important pieces of ceramics to change hands in recent years. One of the most extraordinary pieces of maiolica in existence, the phallic plate, pictured right, whose purchase grant of £100,000 is the highest ever given by the National Art Collections Fund for a piece of ceramics, dates to about 1536 and is attributed to Francisco Urbino, one of the leading maiolica painters of the period.

Online auctioneer eBay will create up to 800 new jobs in Dublin as they expand their European operations. The San Francisco-based company will locate the European headquarters for their PayPal Internet payment unit in west Dublin and will also open a second European customer support centre.

Scam letters targeting small businesses continue to fall through the letterboxes of Britain’s antiques dealers.The Antiques Trade Gazette has warned in the past of the dubious practices of firms with official-sounding names who ‘offer’ to register dealers under the Data Protection Act for £95.

As part of the on-going development of the Gazette website, antiquestradegazette.com is now asking users to log in when using the site. Access to the site and all its services from Lot Find to Price Guide remains free of charge.

SAVILE Row suits will be swapped for shorts and shirts when dealers and auctioneers meet for a showdown on Friday. But saleroom rivalries will have nothing to do with it as lots make way for shots... at goal.

A federal judge has ordered dotcom giant eBay Inc. to pay $29m (£18.3m) to a Virginia inventor who accused the company of stealing his ideas for holding and searching online auctions. Ruling in Virginia on August 6, US District Court Judge Jerome Friedman said there was “no dispute” that the online auction site eBay had infringed patents which covered ways for people to make online bids backed by credit cards and purchase items over the Internet for a fixed price.

THE Antiques and Fine Arts Faculty of the RICS have released details of their annual conference, which will be held in the West Midlands, from Friday, October 3 to Sunday, October 5.

Ebay, flourishing survivors of the e-commerce boom and bust, have again out-performed forecasts, showing continued strong growth in the second quarter of 2003. The California-based company, who now include the electronic-payments business PayPal in their revenues, showed profits of $109.7m on a turnover of $509.3m.

A PRODUCT design and development company are encouraging the antiques trade to try out an ingenious new packing product they believe is both more effective and environmentally-friendly than traditional methods. Free samples are available to readers of the Antiques Trade Gazette.

OXFORD’S Ashmolean Museum has made an application to the Heritage Lottery Fund for £23m for a major redevelopment of the building. The new proposals for Europe’s oldest museum include a dedicated education centre, 100 per cent more display space and state-of-the-art environmental control.

UK site to answer readers’ queries: Dot-com giant eBay have agreed to meet with the Antiques Trade Gazette to answer readers’ questions about buying and selling art, antiques and collectables on the website.

The Antiques and Fine Arts Faculty at RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) have appointed a new chairman and vice chairman. Nicholas Somers, who is principal of Nicholas Somers and Company, replaces Jonathan Meyer as chairman supported by a new vice-chairman, Mark Dalrymple, managing director and proprietor of loss adjusters Tyler & Company.

LAST-minute efforts to persuade the Government to amend legislation that could prove damaging to the honest trade in antiques looked set to pay off as the Antiques Trade Gazette went to press.

TUCKED away through an archway next to wine merchants Berry Bros & Rudd in St James’s Street is Pickering Place, home of Nevil Keating Tollemache – formerly Nevill Keating. Pictures until director Angela Nevill formed a new company with Michael Tollemache, a past chairman of the Society of London Art Dealers and a specialist in Old Master and 19th century paintings.

FIRMS condemned by the Information Commissioner for trying to scare businesses into paying unnecessary fees for a straightforward service have stepped up their campaign to mislead. The Antiques Trade Gazette has warned of the dubious practices of a number of firms in trying to force the trade to use their services to register under the Data Protection Act.

In addition to the implementation of VAT on seller fees reported in last week’s issue, eBay will introduce a number of substantial price increases from July 1. Most likely to upset eBay users is the imposition of a 1% charge on items carrying reserves in excess of £100. Previously that fee was just a flat rate of £1.20.

New European Union regulations regarding the collection of VAT on digital services mean that eBay will begin collecting VAT on seller fees from July 1.

Lack of Americans hits top dealers. As American buyers stayed away, sales by 400 of Britain’s top art and antiques dealers fell by almost a tenth last year. This was one of the key findings of the fourteenth annual British Antique Dealers’ Association survey covering trading in 2001-02, completed by 58 per cent of members including well-known names such as Richard Green, Mallett and S.J. Phillips.