Print Edition

In the first of a series uncovering stories behind data from thesaleroom.com, Noelle McElhatton looks at the increasingly esoteric nature of high-value finds from house clearances

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

MADAM – Regarding General Patton’s sword referenced in your militaria feature (ATG No 2287), the details supplied as to the background of this weapon are not totally correct.

A new street event in Church Street in London’s Lisson Grove is to take place in September.

Launched last year by Kate and Mike Button of Blackdog Antiques in the pretty north Suffolk town of Halesworth, the monthly Halesworth Brocante, held in the Old Print Works, has become become a regular and popular fixture.

Almost exactly a year after setting an auction record for modern British painter Sir Cedric Morris (1889-1982), the Henry Adams saleroom has done it again.

News as reported from the ATG Archive...

Two opposing views on the big questions facing the trade - temporary vs fixed auction locations...

Westminster City Council has put its weight behind the art and antiques dealers of London’s Church Street with a series of initiatives designed to encourage growth of the sector.

A coalition of California auction houses fighting to reword a new law governing the sale of autographed collectables has cleared its first legal hurdle.

Auctioneers and vendors are quickly discovering that Europe’s country houses, furnished with the routine period objects that no longer generate great excitement, can occasionally yield valuable souvenirs of a colonial past.

A grand piano commissioned by George IV in 1821 is to return to Brighton Pavilion after it sold for £62,000 at Piano Auctions (20% buyer’s premium) in London on April 6.

Former Bonhams and Christie’s specialist Mark Wilkinson is to join Sworders to launch new specialist sales at the Essex auction house. Wilkinson spent over 30 years at Christie’s and led its ‘interiors’ auctions at South Kensington.

Christie’s is to open a new Los Angeles premises this month in Beverly Hills to bolster its presence on the west coast of the US.

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

The first of the biannual Antique Scientific Instrument Fairs due to be held on Sunday, April 30, at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel in Bloomsbury, London, has been cancelled owing to unexpected refurbishment work at the hotel, advises Don Edwards, the organiser.

In the continuing series looking through the keyhole of ‘bricks and mortar’ shops in 2017, ATG talks to Lucinda Silcock who runs St Martin’s Antiques Centre in Stamford.

The apparent decline in passing trade is a subject occupying the minds of many shop-owning dealers. But some, such as Brentford’s Hill House, have taken matters into their own hands by staging promotional events to encourage attendance.

This pastel portrait by Maurice Quentin de la Tour is the potential star of the auction taking place at Drouot held by Kalck & Associés.

Lawrences of Crewkerne is co-sponsoring a major new exhibition of works by the Camden Town Group which runs at the Museum of Somerset in Taunton until July 8.