Print Edition

Petworth has faced some speculation about its future as a hub from members of the trade during the past few years. Once a celebrated spot for art and antiques, the closure of several local shops led to fears that it was losing its footing as a destination for collectors.

The first of the biannual Antique Scientific Instrument Fairs due to be held on Sunday, April 30, at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel in Bloomsbury, London, has been cancelled owing to unexpected refurbishment work at the hotel, advises Don Edwards, the organiser.

The apparent decline in passing trade is a subject occupying the minds of many shop-owning dealers. But some, such as Brentford’s Hill House, have taken matters into their own hands by staging promotional events to encourage attendance.

MADAM – As someone with a foot in both artist and auctioneer camps, I’d like to add a contrary view to the often one-sided debate on Artist’s Resale Right (ATG No 2287).

ATG’s selection of auction lots bought by internet bidders on thesaleroom.com from the period March 30-april 5, 2017. This includes both the highest prices over estimate and the top prices paid online.

Charles Rattray was a tobacconist and blender of fine tobaccos at 160 High Street, Perth. The firm occupied these premises from c.1915 until 1981.

MADAM – Having read your story about the reappearance on the market of boatswain whistles that had been pulled from sale in 2008 by the Antique Plate Committee (ATG No 2282), I would like to draw the attention of your readers to the work of this committee and the Hallmarking Act 1973.

Charles Hunt’s evocative painting All the Fun of the Fair was among the major sales at the recent Antiques for Everyone fair in Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre (NEC).

A round-up of art and antiques news from the previous seven days.

“Seeing the vans arrive and all the wonderful things being unloaded and then built into something beautiful on their stands is a real buzz: we can’t wait.” These are the words of Richard Burgoin, director of Arthur Swallow Fairs, when talking about his ‘summer of salvage’.

This pastel portrait by Maurice Quentin de la Tour is the potential star of the auction taking place at Drouot held by Kalck & Associés.

ATG’s weekly selection of items on sale at auctions and dealerships.

Helen Bowman and Ben Wray of Bowman Fairs launched their first fleamarket earlier this month in the unusual setting of the Skipton Auction Mart in North Yorkshire. In its daily life, the venue is a cattle market.

A 600-lot sale devoted to Asian art held by Tremont auctions in Newton, Massachusetts, on April 23 will include a 4ft (1.2m) high vase made in the late 19th century.

ATG’s weekly selection of items on sale at auctions and dealerships.

A framed limited edition print is Cattle Market by Jo Willis priced at £170, measuring 12 x 12in (30 x 30cm). It will be for sale at the Reading Contemporary Art Fair this weekend.

Waterhouse & Dodd’s upcoming exhibition focuses on the influence of David Bomberg’s (1890-1957) paintings on a wide circle of artists.

ATG’s weekly selection of items on sale at auctions and dealerships.

This weekend Oxford hosts the PBFA’s 100-dealer antiquarian and out-of-print book premier fair, one of the largest in the association’s calendar. It is held at the Oxford Brookes Wheatley Campus on Saturday and Sunday, April 22-23.

The cusp of March to April is traditionally photo time in the Big Apple. It is the period when AIPAD (The Association of International Photography Art Dealers) stages The Photography Show, which is the main US fair for photography, and the point when the major New York auction houses put on the first of their biannual stateside series of photo auctions.