Print Edition

On behalf of ILAB (International League of Antiquarian Booksellers), I would like to send you a ‘thank you’ for putting together again such a great Books, Maps & Prints supplement (ATG No 2492).

A couple of Winston Churchill letters were among the more successful lots in a second selection from a History in Manuscript collection* formed over the last 20 years and offered at Sotheby’s (26/20/13.9% buyer’s premium).

This late 18th century watercolour of the famous cascades at Neptune’s Grotto in Tivoli forms part of a private collection of works on paper currently offered in Classic Ground: Travels in Italy, an online exhibition at Karen Taylor Fine Art.

Beaussant-Lefèvre is holding a series of sales on May 28 at the Drouot auction centre. Among them is an auction of Old Master and Modern paintings and antique furniture assembled by the collector James Bismuth (1931-2020) offered for sale by his descendants.

Michael Mills and his family, the new owners of the now renamed Antiques & Retro Antiques Centre at Hemswell Cliff, launched their business on May 1.

An actor and theatre director who turned to dealing when work dried up during the pandemic is standing at his first antiques fair on Sunday, May 23, at the Dorking Halls in Surrey.

As the son of an entomologist and ornithologist, the artist David Morrison Reid-Henry (1919-77) was destined for a career observing wildlife and nature.

This late 17th century portrait depicts Lady Frances Brudenell, Countess of Newburgh (c.1677-1736), an early victim of salacious journalism.

Alex Maas is a third generation dealer who heads Box House Antiques in Lymington, Hampshire, specialising in English antique furniture and objets d’art.

Strawser auctions in Indiana has a long tradition of selling 19th and early 20th century English majolica wares by the likes of Minton and George Jones and Wedgwood.

Among the fine art to be included in the May 29 sale at Fontaine’s in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, will be this Parisian street scene by the French artist Edouard Leon Cortes (1882-1969).

Joy O’Meara of Jay Fairs is disappointed but sanguine about the news that the parish hall in the Oxfordshire village of Benson will close for refurbishment from June to October, thus causing her to cancel her monthly antique and vintage fairs at the venue.

Just a thought: the main reason to withdraw Benin and other West African cultural artefacts from auction should be their connection with the slave trade (‘Benin plaque withdrawn from auction’, front page, ATG No 2491).

Good art at a great price in regional sales.

Bloomfield Auctions (15% buyer’s premium) in Belfast achieved a house record on May 11 with the sale of this William De Morgan vase for £15,000.

This Fijian kava bowl, or daveniyaqona, carved in the form of a shallow figure, would have been used for both the consumption of kava (yaqona – the intoxicating liquor of the pepper plant) by priests during religious rites and to hold sacred oil.

This prototype side chair by pioneering Victorian designer Christopher Dresser (1834-1904) was discovered during the pandemic.

London’s art world between the wars was a surprisingly diverse community.

Sotheby’s has made changes to its Old Master department in London.