To print, your print settings should be ‘fit to page size’ or ‘fit to printable area’ or similar. Problems? See our guide: https://atg.news/2zaGmwp 7 1 -2 0 2 1 9 1 ISSUE 2474 | antiquestradegazette.com | 9 January 2021 | UK £4.99 | USA $7.95 | Europe €5.50 S E E R 50years D koopman rare art V A I R N T aannttiiqquueess ttrraaddee G T H E KOOPMAN (see Client Templates for issue versions) Paul de Lamerie, 1737 TTHHEE AARRTT MMAARRKKEETT WWEEEEKKLLYY [email protected] +44 (0)20 7242 7624 www.koopman.art Sotheby’s outpaces Gilbert’s Christie’s across St George ‘transformative’ year by Laura Chesters brings Sotheby’s edged ahead of Christie’s in terms of annual turnover in 2020, with private and online sales helping both firmsoffset declines in totals £1m from live auctions. Sotheby’s reported turnover for the year at $5bn (£3.6bn), a 4% rise on 2019 – when total sales were $4.8bn (£3.5bn). In contrast, Christie’s reported a fall Art historian Richard of 25% in its total sales on the previous year, to £3.4bn Dorment, curator of ($4.4bn) in 2020. Charles F Stewart, Sotheby’s CEO, said: “In a matter the exhibition Alfred Gilbert: of months, our worldwide team united to implement a Sculptor and Goldsmith at sweeping set of transformative changes to our business, the Royal Academy of Arts in many of which will continue long after the pandemic is 1986, described this parcel behind us. Following these innovations, we ended the gilt bronze as “that rare Continued on page 4 thing, a fully documented Gilbert cast from the 1890s”. The probably unique double- ‘Earliest dated Irish size model of St George sold for a record £1m at Bonhams glass’ sells at auction on December 16. What is perhaps the earliest dated piece of Irish glass sold See page 8. at auction in Lewes, writes Roland Arkell. The documentary wheel-engraved goblet, dated 1697, is attributed to the enigmatic Odaccio glasshouse that operated in Dublin from c.1675. There was plenty of interest both on the phones and the internet at Gorringe’s on December 8 before it sold to a European bidder at £9500 (plus 23% buyer’s premium) against a £1000-1500 estimate. More complex story Pick Most earlier histories of glass give the credit for the of the development of lead crystal to George Ravenscroft at the Savoy glasshouse in 1674. week Today’s scholarship points to a more complex story Continued on page 5 50,000 Auction catalogues Scanned or hard copy thecatalogstar.com Tel: 01225 829 090 PROOF OF PROVENANCE. INCREASE VALUE PAGE 001, 004, 005 2474.indd 1 05/01/2021 14:47:24 Follow us on Twitter Antiques Trade Gazette is published and originated by Metropress Ltd, Contents@ATG_Editorial Issue 2474 trading as Auction Technology Group Ltd Read top stories every day on our website antiquestradegazette.com auctiontechnologygroup.com Find us on: Follow us on Twitter Chief Executive Officer John-Paul Savant Chief Operating Officer Richard Lewis @ATG_Editorial Find us on: Publishing Director Matt Ball Editor-at-Large Noelle McElhatton Deputy Editor, News Laura Chesters Deputy Editor, Features & Supplements Roland Arkell Commissioning Editor Anne Crane Chief Production Editor Tom Derbyshire Digital & Art Market Editor Alex Capon Reporter Frances Allitt In The News page 4-5 Marketing Manager Beverley Marshall Print & ProduCtion Director Justin Massie-Taylor Rorke’s Drift VC hero’s memorabilia sold SUBSCRIPTIONS ENQUIRIES Firms focus online as tier systems kick in Polly Stevens +44 (0)20 3725 5507 [email protected] Independent condition reports demand rises EDITORIAL +44 (0)20 3725 5520 [email protected] News Digest page 8-9 ADVERTISING Includes our pick of the week +44 (0)20 3725 5604 [email protected] AUCTION ADVERTISING Auction Reports Charlotte Scott-Smith +44 (0)20 3725 5602 [email protected] HAMMER HIGHLIGHTS Cooper not Coper NON-AUCTION ADVERTISING Waistel Cooper gains the attention page 10-12 Dan Connor +44 (0)20 3725 5605 Studio potter Waistel steps out [email protected] ART MARKET of the shadow of the great Hans CLASSIFIED page 10 Rebecca Bridges +44 (0)20 3725 5604 Stanley Spencer’s bizarre family life page 14-15 [email protected] INTERNATIONAL ADVERTISING BOOKS AND WORKS ON PAPER Susan Glinska +44 (0)20 3725 5607 Evolutionist before Charles Darwin page 16-17 [email protected] Francine Libessart +44 (0)20 3725 5613 [email protected] Previews page 18 CALENDAR CONTROLLER & FAIRS AND MARKETS ADVERTISING Rachel Tolley +44 (0)20 3725 5606 Dealers’ Diary [email protected] ATG PRODUCTION +44 (0)20 3725 5620 Picturesque photographs of PH Emerson page 20 Muireann Grealy +44 (0)20 3725 5623 International Events page 22-25 SUSTAINABLE RESOURCES This product is produced from sustainably managed UK Auction Calendar page 26-30 forests and controlled sources. It can be recycled. recycle Fairs, Markets & Centres Escape to the country Antiques Trade Gazette, Busy times for Cornwall’s dealers page 31 The wonderfully evocative Harlequin Building, 65 Southwark Street, photographs of PH Emerson London SE1 0HR page 35 page 20 +44 (0)20 3725 5500 Letters & Obituary antiquestradegazette.com Printed by Buxton Press Ltd SK17 6AE Get your Morning Briefing from Antiques Trade Gazette If you want to keep on top of the latest news in the art and antiques world, signing up to Antiques Trade Gazette’s Morning Briefing email is a must. Free and delivered straight to your inbox on any device – mobile, tablet, laptop – the Gazette Morning Briefing keeps you informed with the latest news while at home and on the move. Sign up today for FREE and stay one step ahead antiquestradegazette.com/morningbriefing 2 | 9 January 2021 antiquestradegazette.com PAGE 002 2474.indd 1 23/12/2020 16:34:33 WWAdFREE ATG 244x335mm.qxp_Layout 1 16/12/2020 17:07 Page 1 FURNITURE, WORKS OF ART & CLOCKS 13TH & 14TH JANUARY 2021 AT 10AM A William and Mary marquetry chest of drawers A Regency rosewood, ebony and brass inlaid mirror A large bronze figure of Milo of Croton Provenance: The estate of the late Jane Sumner by George Bullock after Jacques­Edme Dumont (1722­1775) One of over 100 lots in the sale Estimate £10,000­15,000* Estimate £2,000­3,000* Estimate £4,000­6,000* A rare William and Mary studded leather linen chest A 17th century Flemish mythological tapestry A George II mahogany travelling bureau attributed to Richard Pigg Estimate £4,000­6,000* Estimate £3,000­5,000* Provenance: The estate of the late Jane Sumner One of over 100 lots in the sale Estimate £3,000­5,000* Viewing by appointment only ENQUIRIES Mark Yuan­Richards | +44 (0)1722 411854 | [email protected] 51­61 Castle Street, Salisbury, Wiltshire SP1 3SU www.woolleyandwallis.co.uk *Visit woolleyandwallis.co.uk/buying for additional charges on final hammer price LIVE PAGE 003 2474.indd 2 22/12/2020 16:01:31 News Christie’s boss: ‘The future will be omnichannel’ Continued from front page Right: Bidding at Sotheby’s year as market leaders.” It is Old Master sale the first time since 2011 (when in London in the totals were $5.8bn and December 2020 $5.7bn) that Sotheby’s has took place on finished ahead of Christie’s. the phone, in Sotheby’s said it experienced the room and a record year for private sales, online. totalling more than $1.5bn (£1.1bn), a 50% increase on 2019. Left: Sotheby’s said online biding and buying would continue to Christie’s reported close to grow. Among the highest-value bids placed through Sotheby’s app £1bn of private sales in 2020 was an underbid of almost £4m for this Rembrandt self-portrait from (up 57% on the previous year), 1632 that eventually sold for £12.6m at Sotheby’s live-streamed with three individual sales cross-category evening sale in London on July 28, 2020. With buyer’s above $100m. premium added, the price was £14.6m. Private sale certainty Guillaume Cerutti, chief executive officer at Christie’s, three times the volume and At Christie’s, online-only live auctions “are the essence” in 2020, both auction houses said: “We have seen a rare over seven times the value for sales jumped 262% in 2020 to of what Christie’s does and predict the mood will change in phenomenon of high-end 2019”. Average lot value in £243m, with more than 200 they will return. “The future 2021. private sales. The uncertainty Sotheby’s timed online sales timed sales during the year. will be omnichannel,” he said. Cerutti added: “The and the environment has led had more than doubled from Cerutti believes the shift to Both auction houses appetite for objects and works clients to choose private sale under $10,000 to over $20,000 online auctions is permanent; highlighted Asia as a of art is very strong across the over auctions in some and 70% of its auctions were the coronavirus pandemic continuing source of growth, world. On the supply side we instances.” held online in 2020 (up from accelerated the pace of a with Sotheby’s Asian clients believe it will be a much better Sotheby’s reported it had 30% in 2019). Sotheby’s said change already well under way. accounting for over 30% of its year. Delayed decisions to sell held more than 400 timed improvements in its web and He predicts half of Christie’s worldwide auction sales. For are expected and some online auctions, which it said mobile applications meant auctions will be timed online Christie’s, 34% of global spend important estates are coming produced sales that were an 80% of bids received across all next year with fewer live auc- in auction sales came from up in the US.