Print Edition

We are sad to announce that Geoffrey Laney FGA, aged 81, passed away very suddenly on Sunday, July 9, following a short illness.

What better way to test your mettle as a novice auctioneer than to host a live sale with experienced auctioneers playing the part of bidders?

The art and antiques trade has criticised a report on the ivory market, arguing it “fails to distinguish between genuine works of art and the trade in modern carvings made from tusks”.

The Doccia factory is perhaps best known for its hard-paste sculptures – many of them near-direct copies in porcelain of 17th and early 18th century bronzes. The key figure is the talented modeller Gaspero Bruschi, himself a Florentine sculptor.

Condensed into one day instead of the usual two, the Summer Sale at Tennants (20% buyer’s premium) nevertheless provided a bird’s eye view of the middle market which these triannual ‘fine’ auctions at Leyburn traditionally offer.

More than 100 Russian paintings consigned from a single source went under the hammer at Moore Allen & Innocent’s (18% buyer’s premium) July 7 sale in Cirencester.

Celebrated work in German issued from a Basel press sells for six figures in Stockholm auction.

A new book, The British Underground Press of the Sixties, marks the birth of the countercultural press and all the music, fashion and controversy it represented.

Steampunk is described in earnest tones on Wikipedia as “a subgenre of science fiction or science fantasy that incorporates technology and aesthetic designs inspired by 19th century industrial-power machinery”.

Nick Gerrard, who has been dealing in railwayana largely at the Pickering Antique Centre in the North Yorkshire market town, is rolling out his stock, moving on and expanding his business.

MADAM – I don’t know if your readers are aware but the future of Poole Pottery Studio in Poole is in danger as the lease is up on the building in which it operates.

Tim Goodman’s Fine Art Bourse (FAB) has fallen foul of Facebook’s nudity rules.

Found among the contents of a storage unit, a watercolour of Venice by Edward Lear (1812-88) starred in Brighton General Auctions’ (15% buyer’s premium) sale on July 28.

Three of the poems featured in A Northern Venture…, a slim collection of verses by members of the Leeds University English School Association published by the Swan Press in 1923, added considerable value to this now rare little work.

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

Gonzalo Fernandez Pontes became the president of the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB), an international body with 1800 affiliates, in 2016. He undertakes his duties alongside running his shop, Pontes Maps, which opened in Madrid in 1991.

A complete list of exhibitors standing at the British Antique Dealers’ Association’s (BADA) inaugural collectors’ event has been announced.

ATG’s selection of auction lots bought by internet bidders on thesaleroom.com from the period August 2-9, 2017. This includes both the highest prices over estimate and the top prices paid online.

Collectors of works by the Rhead family of potters will no doubt have September 5 already marked in their diaries.

MADAM – It would be my submission that had Jeremy Taylor conducted the same survey of attitudes to a merger between the BADA and LAPADA at Masterpiece rather than Olympia, the result in favour of merger would have been entirely different (ATG No 2302).