US

NEW YORK: MARINE paintings are a specialist area which have received plenty of attention from auction houses eager to tap into the wealth of those rich enough to enjoy mucking around in boats.

VICTORIA Borwick, until last autumn director of the Olympia Fine Art and Antiques Fairs, has joined Florida-based IFAE (International Fine Art Expositions) as a fair director.

USA: Wedgwood wares formed a significant slice of Skinner’s (17.5/10% buyer’s premium) 890-lot auction of English and Continental furniture and decorations on January 19. Of the 230-odd lots of ceramics that featured in the sale, two-thirds comprised works from that factory.

In the second major Internet shill bidding case, three people have been charged with running a scheme that boosted the sale prices of hundreds of pieces of Lalique glass auctioned on eBay.

British Art Market Federation lobbying has persuaded the Department of Trade and Industry to provide grants for 13 LAPADA members to exhibit at a Chicago antiques fair.

USA: The annual general sale of good quality classical coins (446 lots) hosted by the triumvirate of Baldwins (London), Markov (New York) and M&M (Washington DC) took place in the Big Apple on January 17.

The conviction of New York antiquities dealer Frederick Schultz on charges of conspiracy and trading in stolen and smuggled artefacts has sent shockwaves through the trade.

USA: A NEW auction house specialising in what it dubs ‘Landmark’ sales of arms and armour has risen in San Francisco from the ashes of the former top management team of Butterfield’s.

FLORIDA-based organiser David Lester launches his first New York fair next autumn with a broad-based event at the Jacob Javits Center from September 10 to 15.

Last summer Christie’s Old Master drawings expert Nicolas Schwed was sitting at his desk in Paris checking through his e-mails when he came across this 460-year-old face staring back at him from his computer screen.

USA : It was no surprise that the star lot in a star-studded Americana sale at Christie’s New York on January 18 and 19 was the Lafayette-Washington pair of saddle pistols which fetched $1.8m (£1,285,715) and established a new world auction record for a firearm.

USA: Butterfields Auctioneers are cutting their Los Angeles staff by more than half as part of a major restructuring programme that will lead to a greater focus on San Francisco.

A NEW survey of US auctioneers shows distinct trends developing in online auctions that should help them establish their presence long term as part of the selling process for antiques.

First antiques event set for early February: Scott Sandman, media relations chief at the New York State Division of Military and Naval Affairs, has confirmed that New York City’s armories are once again open for business.

A court decision to proceed with a case against a member of the trade is expected to deal a major blow to the United States’ antiquities business.

In October 1987, Christie’s embarked on a series of six sales to dispose of the Doheny library, a spectacular series of auctions that ended in May 1989 and raised a grand total of $38m – a sum that remains to this day a record for any library sold at auction.

ONE of only 50 copies of Proceedings of a General Court Martial.... for the Trial of Major General Arnold that came up for sale in a Swanns Americana sale of November 29 was ex-library, bound in later half morocco with assorted stamps and various defects, but this Philadelphia imprint of 1780 is an extremely rare and historically significant item and attracted a lot of interest.

ED GILBERT, a Californian book dealer, became a fan of Edgar Rice Burroughs when he read The Gods of Mars in 1925, aged just 12 years. Shortly thereafter he was introduced to ERB by his elder sister, Florence, who in 1935 became the writer’s wife.

The decorative approach to antique buying has been given a firm nod of acknowledgment by Christie’s. In New York next month they launch the first of a new category of “one-stop shopping” sales, where they will be offering property from a wide range of collecting fields with an equally broad price range aimed at “lifestyle clients looking for the perfect object to decorate their homes”.

Alfred Taubman has tendered his widely expected appeal against his price-fixing conviction. The 76-year-old former chairman of Sotheby’s, who could face up to three years in jail when he comes up for sentencing on April 2, has objected to the use of a quotation from 18th century Scottish economist Adam Smith.