UK

Trade bodies line up to make the case for art and antiques sector

The Bovey Pottery Company, closed in 1957, would have passed into collecting history without incident had it not been for the ‘Our Gang’ collection of figures.

Nicholas Mellors Auctioneers in Newark has closed but Newark Antiques will continue to trade.

The London Original Print Fair, now in its 32nd year, takes place at the Royal Academy from May 4-7 and features 51 international dealers and print publishers.

No fewer than 840 lots were offered in the bumper April 5-6 sale held by Dominic Winter (19.5% buyer’s premium). The most successful of them, at a record £32,000, was a presentation copy of a pioneering work that has been described as “the first practical statement of socialist doctrine”, Robert Owen’s A New View of Society… of 1813-14.

The next Chelsea Art Fair takes place from April 27-30 and, as fair director Ben Cooper sees it, the attraction of the event comes down to two key elements: quality and breadth of selection.

Keeley Harris is so pleased with the way her vintage home shows are going that she is expanding them.

Gary Wallis is based in Henley-on-Thames, trades in anything from childhood collectables to potential heirlooms and is a regular at The Decorative Antiques & Textiles Fair in Battersea.

An ‘Unfashionable’ single-owner collection from a London club attracted trade and private buyers. The 98-lot sale on April 5 was held by British pictures specialist Harry Moore-Gwyn at 25 Blythe Road (20% buyer’s premium) in West Kensington.

Nearly a quarter of the sale total at the auction held by Harry Moore-Gwyn at 25 Blythe Road (20% buyer’s premium) in West Kensington on April 5 came from a collection of original cartoons.

A work by one of Lebanon’s most eminent painters, Khalil Saleeby (1870-1928), surfaced at Hansons (17.5% buyer’s premium) of Etwall in Derbyshire.

A Beatrix Potter collection running to 62 lots got a Forum Auctions (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) sale of March 30 up and running.

Victorian exuberance or Georgian elegance – you pays your money and takes your choice. At Lyon & Turnbull (25% buyer’s premium) on April 5, it cost a great deal for the former and rather less for the latter.

Maxine Stonehill of Pop Up Vintage Fairs has launched a vintage market at a new London location.

The English porcelain specialist Simon Spero opens his 37th catalogued exhibition this week in his Kensington shop.

Johannes Schröder (1870-1942) was not only a wealthy German merchant but also a globetrotter and a pioneer in utilising the invention of photography to document his time.

Ahead of IACF’s popular Shepton Mallet antiques and collectors’ fair from May 5-7, with up to 600 standholders, the organisers have announced that the March event showed an impressive increase in buyers’ attendance.

An intriguing 18th century watercolour of a tree struck by lightning fetched a multi-estimate sum at Forum Auctions’ (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) March 30 sale in London.

Offered by Keys (20% buyer’s premium) on April 6, the Sir Malcolm Arnold Collection proved to be a problematic one.

The opening of the Turner Contemporary in Margate in 2011 reinvigorated the tourism industry in the north Kent area.