Print Edition

MADAM – We are all devastated at what is being proposed by the government in relation to ivory.

The Hon Sir William McAlpine, avid collector and conservationist, died on March 4 after a three-month battle with sepsis. News of his death will have depressed a great many dealers, not just because he was an incredibly nice, fun, generous man, but because he was a voracious collector.

A round-up of art and antiques news from the previous seven days, including the largest-ever painting by Amedeo Modigliani heading to auction in New York.

Printed for circulation only among members of the imperial family and those foreign dignitaries who had participated in the celebrations, an album recording the 1883 coronation in Moscow of Tsar Alexander III and the Empress Marie Feodorovna sold for $30,000 (£21,125) in a US sale.

Several decades ago, when China was shut to the Western world, encounters with foreigners were understandably rare.

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from May 1-12, 2018.

Allan Bellamy of Gazelles in Lyndhurst has been a dealer in Art Deco since 1982 and is a regular exhibitor at Deco fairs around the UK.

Estimated at £10,000-15,000, a pair of James II silver candlesticks sold at £62,000 (plus 25% buyer’s premium) at the Woolley & Wallis silver sale in Salisbury.

Antiques fair organiser IACF is offering a free pitch at one of its fairs to newcomers in return for agreeing to take part in filming a day in the life of the winner.

Auctioneers have told ATG the preparations they are making for sweeping new rules that will affect how they store and use personal data, due to be implemented in the EU on May 25.

Huanghuali furniture in the form of a late Ming/ early Qing ping tou-an (recessed legs table) starred in the Oriental section of Brightwells’ (17.5% buyer’s premium) sale in Leominster.

Bound in recent times as six volumes in elaborately gilt crushed scarlet morocco, a 1614-17 Prague first of a major commentary on the Mishnah by Rabbi Yom Tov Lipmann Heller (1579-1654), was a highlight of a recent New York sale of Judaica.

The world of Chinese art remains open to collectors on modest budgets if they look to some of the less fashionable wares, those from later periods and pieces that carry damage.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

Crane Kalman’s exhibition of paintings by the Modern British artist Stanley William Hayter (1901-88) unites a number of paintings never seen in the UK before.

The first of Arthur Swallow Fairs’ Decorative Home and Salvage Shows this year kicks off on Friday, May 11, and runs to Sunday, May 13, at Ripley Castle near Harrogate.

Patricia Stevenson, the former Tatler magazine publishing director recently appointed as chief executive of dealer body LAPADA, has left the association.

The primary contents of North Mymms Park in Hertfordshire – including an important collection of European tapestries – provided Sworders with its best-ever sale last week.

Spink medals specialist David Erskine-Hill is leaving to take over as Lord Ashcroft’s medals curator on the retirement of Michael Naxton.

A New York law banning the sale of antique ivory has been challenged in court by two leading US antiques dealers associations.