News

ONE can always rely upon Lincolnshire auctioneer Chris Richardson of Richardsons, Bourne (15% buyer's premium) for a straight up-and-down opinion of business in his area.

“ANOTHER glorious array of items from our railway heritage with many record prices,” was Ian Wright’s verdict after Sheffield Railwayana Auctions' (no buyer's premium) specialist March 13 sale, and certainly a sale total of £427,000 with only 16 of the 550 lots unsold would be the envy of most auctioneers, some of whom must be wondering if the railwayana market is ever going to run out of steam.

THE gulf in value between fully authenticated pictures and those with mere attributions was clearly in evidence on March 4 when this 18th century Irish School landscape, right, came up for sale at the Amersham Auction Rooms in Buckinghamshire.

With a dozen works by the artist currently on show at Tate Britain’s Pre-Raphaelite exhibition, Sussex auctioneers John Nicholson (15% buyer’s premium) could hardly have picked a better time to offer a watercolour by George Price Boyce (1826-97) than at their March 17 sale in Fernhurst.

A HIGH Court judge has retired to consider his ruling in a case that could revolutionise the terms under which auctioneers do business.

AVON and Somerset Police are currently investigating a series of cheque deceptions committed against antique shops and dealers throughout the UK and Europe over the last two years.

ONE of the hottest Modern British names in the last few years, has been Winifrid Nicholson (1893-1981), whose half-length portrait of her husband Ben Nicholson made a record £100,000 at Lawrence’s, Crewkerne in January 2002.