Print Edition

A round-up of art and antiques news from the previous seven days, including Lyon & Turnbull no longer selling antique items made from rhino horn.

The overall art and antiques market reported solid growth last year – though concerns about the year ahead clouded the responses to the 2019 Art Basel/UBS global art market survey.

On Friday, March 15, Michael Bloomstein of Brighton was paying the following for bulk scrap against a gold fix of: $1302.65 / €1153.67 / £981.85

The ice pick carried by geologist Frank Debenham (1883-1965) during the doomed Terra Nova British Antarctic Expedition of 1910-13 sold for £22,000 (plus buyer’s premium) at Cheffins earlier this month. The estimate was just £200-400.

An impressive Edwardian aquamarine and diamond brooch with a provenance to the first lady to take her seat as an MP in the UK sold for £54,000 (plus 25% buyer’s premium) at auction this month.

MADAM – It was good to see Clarice Cliff featured in ATG No 2383. As mentioned, the pottery has had its ups and downs over the years and in any case ‘Clarice’ has always been a little ‘Marmite’.

In ATG No 2377 and 2379 we reported on forthcoming seaside brocantes in Whitstable run by Cindy Manwaring.

ATG’s selection of auction lots bought by internet bidders on thesaleroom.com from the period March 7-13, 2019. This includes both the highest prices over estimate and the top prices paid online.

A month before the emergence of three Compass factory figures in Lewes, the eighth and ninth recorded pieces by America’s earliest-known porcelain maker were offered for sale in Salisbury.

A massive 3ft (92cm) high majolica urn – a riot of grotesque masks, mythical figures and other motifs drawn from Renaissance sources – combining the talents of two key figures in the history of the Minton factory was included in Fonsie Mealy’s (20% buyer’s premium) sale on March 5.

A monthly brocante has launched in the pretty Kent town of Westerham, famed for nearby Chartwell, the former home of Winston Churchill.

Jeff Day was born in Weston-super-Mare in 1952 and grew up in Somerset.

Paul Treadaway, antique dealer and gilder, died on March 5 after a long illness. He will be sadly missed by his family, friends and colleagues.

Some areas of the secondary pictures market march to their own beat, appearing to defy the usual forces that determine value. Ancestral paintings are such a category.

An abstract creation by the revered Singaporean artist Cheong Soo Pieng (1917-83) took £15,500 at Derbyshire saleroom Hansons (20% buyer’s premium).

Ornithological books and artworks have played their part in the success of two recent sales and a selection of just a few of those lots begins with books from the Ladwell library.

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from March 19-30, 2019.

The ceramics sale at Woolley & Wallis in Salisbury on April 30 includes two maiolica apothecary jars and covers from the celebrated Fortuna series – an ambitious suite of pharmacy jars and jugs made in the third quarter of the 16th century.

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

Our very special and beloved father, Evert (Everardus Josephus Maria) Douwes, passed away on March 6 at the age of 90.