News

Most celebrated for his murals in the café at Tate Britain, Rex Whistler (1905-1944) was also a fine draughtsman and illustrator as is shown in this pen, ink and watercolour drawing, Netherhampton House in the County of Wiltshire, right

Zurich auctioneers Hess-Divo (15% buyer’s premium) held their fourth annual sale of 100 Raritäen on May 7. These events stand apart from their general sales and the catalogues are a mine of information.

Galloway Antiques Fairs of Harrogate travel to the heart of the Home Counties for the weekend of July 25 to 27 for the Cranleigh School Antiques Fair. Galloway hold two fairs a year at the famous Surrey school, a 42-exhibitor event at Easter and this summer fixture which hosts around 35. Both are generally fully booked with a waiting list.

Clarice Cliff and Moorcroft: THE majority of Clarice Cliff’s colourful and highly decorative pottery may be financially accessible to large numbers of enthusiasts for three-figure sums, but the top end of the market is driven by a relatively small number of wealthy buyers.

Dollar rate deters American teddy bear enthusiasts: Daniel Agnew, the teddy bear specialist at Christie’s South Kensington (17.5/10% buyer’s premium), felt the market was a bit softer than usual for the first of his bi-annual teddy sales on June 10.

On September 16, Doyle New York will sell the F. Gordon Morrill collection of Chinese and Chinese Export porcelain. Considered to be one of the last great collections of early blue and white Chinese porcelain still in private hands – the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston has described the Morrill collection as “equal in quality to the superb collection at the Ardebil Shrine in Tehran, Persia” – the archive was assembled during the 1960s and 70s, when many notable collections came onto the market.

FOR 35 years known simply as The Snape Antiques Fair, for its 36th annual staging, from July 17 to 20, East Anglia’s premier antiques event will be re-labelled the Snape Maltings Antiques and Fine Art Fair.