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Mark Skipper of Cheltenham Rare Books talks about opening a shop, travelling as a dealer and the importance of fairs.

News as reported from the ATG Archive...

Christie’s UK chairman says the closure of Christie’s South Kensington, the largest upheaval in the firm’s recent history, “has been a very painful decision for all but for the long-term health of the business it is right”.

For the most important ceremonies and rituals, high-ranking Chinese officials along with the royal family would don the chao fu or full court dress. At the Qing court a whole range of garments and paraphernalia were associated with the chao fu – a hat, collar, necklace, girdle and boots – but the most important were the chao pao and jifu, the court robes. Their use was restricted to high-ranking officials and persons.

“In the 19th century, before football came along, it was all about field sports,” says Iain Byatt-Smith of Bonhams’ (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) Scottish picture department.

A Charles-Francois Daubigny (1817-78) painting that had been in the same private collection since 1963 topped Nesbits’ (19% buyer’s premium) sale in Portsmouth on May 17.

ATG’s weekly selection of items on sale at auctions and dealerships.

A view of Ludlow Castle is one of the works included in Miles Wynn Cato’s ongoing exhibition.

Yves Montand (1921-91) and Simone Signoret (1921-85) were famous French husband-and-wife actors with starring roles in many French films.

This depiction of a 16th century bullfight in Siena’s Piazza del Campo starred in Christie’s (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) sale of the collection of the late Lord Weidenfeld.

A clutch of photograph sales is coming up this month in Paris. Among them is Millon and Baron Ribeyre’s two-day auction on June 13 and 16.

This drawing of a young girl by the Dutch-born artist Sir Peter Lely (1618-80), who was official portrait painter to the English court, features in a sale at Ivoire Nantes on June 13.

MADAM – My compliments on an excellent round table debating the issues facing the trade (ATG No 2291), to which I would very much like to add my views.

Christie’s Chinese art department – shorn of the experience of Jeremy Morgan and Pedram Rasti (long-standing heads of department in both South Kensington and King Street who have recently left the firm) – will be led by Marco Almeida as international senior specialist and Kate Hunt, former head of sale at Christie’s South Kensington.

ATG’s weekly selection of items on sale at auctions and dealerships.

Bailly et Beuret’s next auction series takes place in the Swiss city on June 21. On offer are over 460 lots divided between four catalogues and covering works from the 14th to 19th centuries, Swiss and contemporary art.

It’s a full-on ‘green’ home theme for this year’s annual architectural salvage fest at the Fawley Hill Estate near Henley-on-Thames.

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

By definition ruyi sceptres are highly auspicious objects, favoured for their shape and ornamentation which together represent the propitious expression ‘as you wish’.

The centrepiece of Bonhams’ Japanese offering on May 11 was the second part of the extraordinary collection of netsuke formed by US concert pianist Julius Katchen (1926-69) and his wife Arlette.