News

UK: A George III Chippendale style giltwood wall mirror with a swan neck and cartouche pediment, 7ft 10in high by 3ft 5in wide (2.39 x 1.04m) was consigned to Gorringes’ sale in Lewes on April 21 with expectations of £2500-3000 and sold to a telephone bidder at £22,000 plus 10 per cent premium.

UK: DURING the past few weeks rumours have been circulating among British dealers, Internet specialists and the art press that the British trade associations have been in talks with San José-based online auction giant ebay with a view to establishing a Web-site for the international art trade.

UK: THE contents of Higher Farm in the Somerset village of Hornblotton provided the venue and the entries for auctioneer Peter Hobden’s sale.

UK: AT this two-day, 1112-lot sale in East Sussex auctioneer Mark Hudson was pleased to see a broader buying base than has been the case at many rooms of late saying: “Middle-range furniture featured at the beginning of the furniture section was easy to sell.”

UK: THE VALUE of art and antiques imported into Britain from outside the EU last year came close to parity with exports for the first time since 1973, when the UK was last a net importer in this field. According to Customs & Excise records for 1998, exports of art and antiques rose slightly to £1318m, but imports were up by 52 per cent at £1316m.

GERMANY: SOME of the most unusual and fascinating military vehicles ever built are to be auctioned on May 15 when the contents of the Historical and Technical Museum of Nümbrecht are sold off.

Bearnes, Exeter, March 23 Buyer’s premium: 15 per cent UK: HIGHLIGHTS of this sale included Thomas Short’s Comparative History of the Increase and Decrease of Mankind in England... and also a Meteorological Discourse, 1767, which, in the process of assembling historical and medical information, advocates early marriage and denounces alcohol as ‘a Stygian poison’. It sold at £100.