Scotland

RIGHT: this suite of Victorian silver gentleman’s dressing table bottles is among 200 lots donated from Dorset homes that will be sold for charity at auction on September 18.

EXCEPTIONAL golfing collectables can still command exceptional prices.

RIGHT: although an undeniably rare beast, the super-cute sleeping Wemyss piglet, just 6 1/2in (16.5cm) long, has made a number of appearances at Sotheby's Gleneagles over the years.

THE Fergusson show at Alexander Meddowes, coincides with Edinburgh’s exhilarating annual Festival, which brings with it not only hundreds of incredibly diverse theatrical shows but a good sprinkling of art exhibitions too.

PICTURED here are two outstanding pieces of provincial silver sold in the country during August.

TURN the clock back some 30 years, and regulars to Bonhams’ Knightbridge rooms might just recall a rather dapper, pinstripe-suited auctioneer by the name of Alexander Meddowes.

OFFERED as part of a large sports sale held by Lyon & Turnbull of Edinburgh on July 12 was the angling and sporting library of Major Barton William-Powlett (1871-1953) of Cadhay in Devon.

DEFINITELY in the running for the accolade of busiest organiser is Harrogate-based Galloway Antiques Fairs who make one of their many annual forays North of the Border from September 10 to 12 for the Blair Castle Antiques Fair at Blair Atholl near Pitlochry in Perthshire.

One of the most mysterious objects in Bonhams’ Made in Scotland sale from August 18-20, was a fascinating 18th century anamorphic painting – one of a whole class of pictures that required cylindrical mirrors to view the true image.

ADMIRAL Robert FitzRoy (1805-1865) has several claims to fame. He was companion to Darwin on the Beagle, the first Head of Meteorology at the Board of Trade (the Met Office) and, using the newly invented electric telegraph, one of the first to attempt a scientific weather forecast. His first daily weather forecasts were published in The Times in 1860, thus introducing the British public to a new pastime – complaining that the forecasters got it wrong.

HELPED by contacts with the Traquair family, Shapes have a great track record selling the work of Phoebe Anna Traquair (1852-1936), the Dublin-born mixed-media artist who became a leading member of Scotland’s Arts and Crafts movement.

PAINTINGS offered at Lyon & Turnbull’s (17.5% buyer's premium) July 21 Jordantone dispersal were mostly comfortable furnishing pictures of some quality including this uncharacteristic Joseph Farquharson oil, right, entitled Fisherwoman on a Deserted Sandy Beach. Very different from the artist’s trademark mix of sheep, heather and swirling snow, the 22in x 3ft (55x 91cm) image of a solitary figure walking barefoot on the shimmering sand went to a private buyer at £17,000.

AT its fifth annual staging from June 18 to 20, Antiques For Everyone – Glasgow reinforced its reputation as Scotland’s premier antiques event and, although it did not break the current pattern of very patchy fairs business, it is telling that already almost all the 116 exhibitors have rebooked for next year.

SPEAKING after a combined-operation sale at Edinburgh on June 10-11 which offered jewellery, silver and furniture, Bonhams’ (17.5/10% buyer's premium) specialist Bruce Anderson said: “Ultimately trade buying underpins a sale so if the trade is finding business tricky this affects us.

TWO very strong prices, one in Edinburgh and one in London have underlined the status of the Zeigler as the most fashionable of late 19th century carpets. And the £110,000 and £130,000 bid for Zeigler & Co. carpets at Lyon & Turnbull on March 31 (Antiques Trade Gazette 1636, April 24) and Sotheby’s on April 28 (Antiques Trade Gazette 1641, May 29) had one thing in common – both were made with cream grounds.

EDINBURGH dealer Andrew Fletcher, who as Twentieth Century Antiques specialises in original works from 1920-1970, normally trades via his website or by appointment, but for the duration of the Edinburgh Festival he is taking space at Concrete Butterfly, a large complex at 317-319 Cowgate in the Old Town which retails furniture and interior design.

GLASGOW in the 18th century was a shadow of the powerhouse it was to become during the Industrial Revolution. In the mid-18th century, when the primary source of wealth on the Clyde was trade in tobacco, rum and sugar from the New World, the population stood at a modest 17,500, enough to support only a handful of goldsmiths and silversmiths.

THE National Trust of Scotland are looking to the Scottish Executive to lead the effort to prevent the piecemeal sale of the contents of Dumfries House, home to one of Scotland’s most celebrated collections of 18th century furniture.

IT was in the summer of 2000 that Fran Foster of Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre took her Antiques For Everyone formula to Glasgow in an attempt to establish a large, good quality, vetted Scottish fair, a feat which previous organisers had failed to achieve.

CONDITION is nine-tenths of the law in toy collecting and that explains the remarkable level of interest in this No.2 Special Pullman train set, pictured right, which turned up at Bonhams Edinburgh (17.5% buyer premium) on March 25.