News

Beadwork by Pamela Clabburn, published by Shire Publications. ISBN 0747804818, £4.50.

AUSTRALIA: A COLLECTION of classic 18th century English and German porcelain gave a flying start to Christie’s Australia’s (17.5/10 per cent buyer’s premium) mammoth 575-lot, mixed-owner auction of Decorative Arts in Melbourne on May 28-29.

UK: A RARE example of Irish printing, this work by Hugh MacCaghwell, styled Aodh mac aingil, translates as A Mirror of the Sacrament of Penance and was printed at the Irish Franciscan College of St. Anthony of Padua at Louvain in 1618.

twrio, edited by Carol and Robert Pugh, published by Towy Publishing, PO Box 24, Carmarthen SA31 lYS. ISBN 952579022, £7.99 + £1 p&p (01267 236569).

A Pottery by the Lagan: Irish Creamware from the Downshire Pottery, Belfast 1787-c.1806 by Peter Francis, published by the Institute of Irish Studies, Queen’s University, Belfast. ISBN 0853896941, £10stg, sb.

Newlyn makes its mark as fine art sales move from Billingshurst to Olympia UK: SOMETHING of a landmark, this year’s annual Garden Picture sale at Sotheby’s South (15/10 per cent buyer’s premium) held on May 23 was the last fine picture sale to be held at Summers Place before operations move to Olympia in September. The Sussex rooms will continue to hold monthly general picture sales and quarterly print sales.

UK: TWO LOTS in this Norfolk sale stood head and shoulders above all others, at least in financial terms. One was a group of original illustrations by Charles Kerr for a Rider Haggard adventure story that made £3200 (see caption story below); the other a copy of John Arrowsmith’s London Atlas in modern half calf that reached £6600 (Heald).