London

THIS autumn, the Crafts Council will stage the fourth Origin: the London Craft Fair at Somerset House on The Strand in London.

NEWS that the Grosvenor House Art & Antiques Fair had been scrapped sent shockwaves through the trade last week – but that soon gave way to a determination that the event must be revived in some form.

IRONICALLY, in its 75th and sadly final staging last month, the Grosvenor House Art & Antiques Fair reaffirmed its status as unquestionably the UK's flagship antiques event.

THE readjustment taking place at the top end of the contemporary and modern art market was once again in evidence at the latest flagship London auction series.

WELL-KNOWN silver dealer Nicholas Shaw is to leave the trade to become the new head of department at Bonhams. Following more than two decades working as a dealer, he begins work as an auctioneer in September.

THE campaign to persuade the government to extend business support to the antiques industry has set out in detail exactly what it wants to achieve.

LAPADA’s year-long search for their object of the year ended at Olympia on June 9 when the prize was awarded to Mayfair dealer Adrian Alan, who submitted this magnificent Grand Bureau by François Linke.

ALTHOUGH this summer’s Russian art auctions in London failed to bring the gold rush of previous years, there was some relief in the salerooms that demand did not sink even further.

A DISPUTE between Lord Lloyd Webber and the HM Revenue and Customs over the purchase, with the aid of taxpayers' money, of J.W. Waterhouse's St Cecilia by the Andrew Lloyd Webber Art Foundation, has been settled out of court.

THERE were notable sales in the first hour of the two fairs which opened at Olympia in West London last Thursday.

BONHAMS are moving their musical instrument department from New Bond Street to their Knightsbridge rooms.

THE organisers of The Grosvenor House Art & Antiques Fair have announced that they have chosen the 75th anniversary to take the event in a new direction. New disciplines brought in by a raft of new dealers will help broaden the appeal for today's collectors, says the fair's director Alison Vaissiere.

AFTER the resignation of the speaker of the House of Commons Michael Martin last week, the subject of this cartoon of the 1830s could hardy have been more topical.

THE petition to persuade the Government to ease business rates in support of the art and antiques industry is gathering momentum.

HE had received only a basic education and spoke only Dutch, but Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) is today recognised as the greatest of the pioneering microscopists of the 17th century.

A HOARD of James I gold unites, found in the wall of an Oxfordshire cellar 30 years ago, is expected to sell for £50,000 at London specialist auctioneers Morton & Eden on June 9-10.

DEALERS at Antiquarius have been left looking for a new home after the final death knells were sounded for the King’s Road antiques centre last week.

CHRISTIE’S have confirmed that their Antiquities department at South Kensington will continue as before, with sales in April and October.

LONDON Sculpture Week, which was scheduled for June 12 to 19, has been suspended due to lack of sponsorship.

KENSINGTON and Chelsea council are holding a public planning meeting on Tuesday to consider the application to turn the King’s Road antiques centre Antiquarius into a branch of the American clothing chain Anthropologie.