News

UK: A COUPLE of weeks ago the Antiques Trade Gazette recorded the sale of the Joe Marshall Collection which put an extra sheen on the January sales at Sotheby’s South (15/10 per cent buyer’s premium). Among the goldmine of antiques veteran dealer Mr Marshall had shown Billingshurst chairman Tim Wonnacott in 1996, in a secret vault at his Blackburn shop, were a couple of oils by Charles Spencelayh R.M.S. (1865-1958) one of which was Mother shown here, which led the sale.

ONLY two weeks ago I featured Antique Networking and their plans for the year. What they could not reveal then but have now is their merger with GoAntiques, allowing them to claim the title “largest online antiques business on the Web”.

Photographic Design Cases: Victorian Design Sources 1840-1870 by Adele Kenny, published by Schiffer, distributed by Bushwood Books, 6 Marksbury Avenue, Kew Gardens, Surrey TW9 4JF. ISBN 764312677. £49.95

UK: FURNITURE provided the bread and butter at Exeter in January where, as so often, dependable sets of dining chairs, tables, linen presses and longcase clocks brought the best bids.

UK: “THIS was a small working sale with no astounding lots”, said Cheshire auctioneer Patrick Cheyne (12.5 per cent buyer’s premium) of his 378-lot sale in Altrincham on January 19, but there was one entry which did create plenty of interest.

US: OVERLOOKED in our recent report on the New York Old Master sales, this Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806) oil sketch for a much-admired, but now lost painting of The Visitation is worth putting on the record after it fetched an upper estimate $280,000 (£197,185) at the New York rooms of Doyle’s (15/10 per cent buyer’s premium) on January 24.

US: FEARS of an economic downturn seem to have almost as much effect in the United States as any downturn itself, and there was much talk of recession in the run-up to this year’s Palm Beach International Art and Antiques Fair, the Florida phenomenon which organiser David Lester has taken to the premier league in just five years.