UK

GRAY’S dealers hoping for some let-up in the disruption to the surrounding area have learnt that Crossrail have applied for the continued closure of the street that runs parallel to the central London antiques centre.

TV presenters and antiques champions Kirstie Allsopp and Mark Hill announced the winners of the inaugural Britain’s Best Antiques Shops Awards at the Bath Decorative & Antiques Fair on March 8.

THE vital part trade has played in the history of collecting is the theme of a two-day conference at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford on June 15 and 16.

David Hockney (b.1937) and the late Lucian Freud (1922-2011) have captured the public imagination at the moment.

THAMES Valley accountants James Cowper have been formally appointed as liquidators to Kensington-based online firm Auction Atrium.

A WELL-PRESERVED James Hammond typewriter from the 1880s is itself a rare item, but the example offered for sale by Gildings in Market Harborough in Leicestershire on February 21 attracted greater interest on account of its first owner, Lewis Carroll (1832-98).

ONLY a matter of weeks after the closure of Bonhams’ long-running saleroom in Knowle, a new auction house has opened in the Warwickshire town.

FRESH from their multi-million dollar Prospero triumph in New York, Baldwin’s are preparing to offer an outstanding selection of Islamic rarities as part of London Islamic Week in April.

CLARION Events announced last week that stand sales for the Summer Olympia fair this June are up over 100 per cent from this time last year.

The latest sale at Duke’s of Dorchester included this 16in (41cm) wide French chinoiserie ormolu and lacquered bronze mantel clock c.1750.

IN what promises to be a massive test of the market for golfiana, Christie’s will auction the world’s most important private collection of golf art and memorabilia on May 30.

MALLETT have quit their New Bond Street showroom for Ely House in Dover Street, in the heart of Mayfair.

CHARLES Miller Ltd, auctioneers of maritime and scientific models, instruments and fine art, are moving offices and storage to larger premises on the New Kings Road.

This signed William Scott (1913-89) lithograph of Mousehole harbour in Cornwall was spotted during a furniture valuation before being entered into Chorley’s latest sale in Prinknash Abbey Park, Gloucestershire.

CLIVE Stewart-Lockhart, deputy chairman of Dreweatts, is to become managing director of Woolley and Wallis, the Salisbury-based salerooms.

KNOCKED down at £19m, Francis Bacon’s Portrait of Henrietta Moraes was the top lot of London’s Contemporary art auction series last week by some margin.

ONLINE auction house Auction Atrium has ceased trading, still owing a six-figure sum to consignors. The firm is likely to formally enter liquidation later this month. How much vendors and other creditors receive ultimately depends on the value placed upon the assets of the firm.

PRICES for Henry Moore (1898-1986) have been rising consistently in recent years, but the performance of this large-scale bronze sculpture at auction last week dramatically lifted the artist to previously unseen levels.

Posters of St Moritz, Davos, Gstaad continue to dominate at ski sales in London.

Bidders in the room, on the phones and the internet were all in action last week to contest the 475-lot sale of the collection of Will Fisher, founder of London dealers Jamb, at Christie’s South Kensington.