News

Sotheby’s will sell the contents of Fawley House, Fawley, near Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire on October 14-15. Their vendor, David McAlpine of the construction dynasty, has collected for 30 years.

USA: The reputation of Portsmouth-based Northeast Auctions (15% buyer’s premium) has predominantly been built on selling Americana, but this New Hampshire auction house hope to target greater numbers of UK and European collectors and dealers by including more European material in their five major annual sales.

ARGUABLY the most apt backdrop for an art fair anywhere in the world is the Renaissance city of Florence, and the city can be seen at its best at this time of year when, from September 26 to October 5, the 23rd Florence Biennale takes place at the Palazzo Corsini on the Arno.

IT started as a joke, but at £240,000, it is now one of the most important pieces of ceramics to change hands in recent years. One of the most extraordinary pieces of maiolica in existence, the phallic plate, pictured right, whose purchase grant of £100,000 is the highest ever given by the National Art Collections Fund for a piece of ceramics, dates to about 1536 and is attributed to Francisco Urbino, one of the leading maiolica painters of the period.

John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey-Oswald – political assassins have been among the most vilified men in American history. However there is something distinctly British about the strong sympathy vote received by the one man who has successfully done away with a Prime Minister of this country. The Staffordshire potters even made a jug to mark his passing.

IF the buzz and business achieved at last week’s opening night continued throughout, then the 20/21 British Art Fair at the Commonwealth Institute in Kensington should prove one of the fair hits of the year.

VINTAGE fashion seems to be one of the most vogueish collecting areas internationally, and I hear serious fashionistas queue up for hours to get among the frocks at the Manhattan Vintage Clothing Show, to be held on October 10 and 11 at the Metropolitan Pavilion, 125 West 18th Street, between Sixth and Seventh Avenues in New York City.