The sale of antiquities took a nosedive in 2009. Christie’s and Sotheby’s combined achieved a mere $20 million worth of sales, down by some $8.5 million from the previous year. Indeed 2009 was comparable with 2003 and 2006. 2007 had been an exceptional year with the sale of the Guennol Lioness at Sotheby’s. Sotheby’s offered relatively few items for the June 2010 sale. Just three items accounted for over $14.5 million. These included a Roman head of the goddess ... Read The Full Story

A brass alms dish decorated with the arms of the French national heroine and Catholic saint, Joan of Arc (1412-1431), is to be sold at Bonhams at its monthly Period Design sale on 6 July 2010. Believed to date from the early 15th century and inscribed 1429, the dish has attracted a pre-sale estimate of £3,000 – 5,000. The dish commemorates Joan of Arc’s victory at Orleans in the Hundred Years’ War in 1429, which resulted in the coronation of Charles VII. It is inscribed with 18th ... Read The Full Story

The 21st annual Old West Show brings together 200 dealers from across the country selling their best Western art, antiques, apparel, jewelry, furnishings, cowboy gear, historic firearms, books, boots and more. In addition to merchants, there will be book signings, museum exhibits, and live demonstrations by Navajo Master Weaver Mary H. Yazzie. Other special guests and exhibitors continue to be added. A Friday night art-walk in Denver’s LoDo arts district kicks off the festivities ... Read The Full Story

On Sunday, August, 1, 2010. Come spend the day with us. At the second indoor Delaware Summer Antique Show, It will take place from 10am to 4pm at the Nur Shrine Temple, Route. 13 / 198 South DuPont Highway, New Castle, DE. 19720. Admission is $4.00, $10.00 for 9am Early Buyers. 60 of our best antique and collectible dealers from the region will be offering a wide variety of merchandise sure to please enthusiasts and shoppers with varied tastes. Vintage furnishings, artifacts, jewelry, ... Read The Full Story

A glittering exhibition of paste and other jewellery dating from the golden years of the 18th and 19th centuries will be staged by S.J. Phillips Ltd., 139 New Bond Street, London, from Tuesday 15 to Tuesday 29 June 2010. Founded in 1869, S.J. Phillips is a leading dealer in antique and modern silver, jewellery and objets de vertu and one of the oldest family-owned antiques shops in the world, run by Nicolas, Jonathan and Francis Norton, great-grandsons of S. J. Phillips. The exhibition, ... Read The Full Story

For the last year, auctioneer and appraiser Martin Willis and co-host Phyllis Kao have reported on nearly every facet of the antiques hobby through their independent Website www.antiqueauctionpodcast.com Across 35 different segments, the two record and broadcast live interviews with notable personalities, dealers and artists on topics ranging from $1 million comic books to what it’s like to be a real-life American picker. Guest range from Reyne Haines on her book Vintage Watches, ... Read The Full Story

Dan Morphy Auctions 1,300-lot July 16-17 Premier Auction is a collection of mostly mint/boxed toys that has flown under the radar for nearly three decades. Running the gamut from European, early American and Japanese toys to pressed steel, pedal cars and even two actual hot rods, the collection was amassed by retired California architect and Victorian home restorer Michael O’Hearn. It will be offered at auction “unpicked and in its entirety,” said auction company CEO Dan ... Read The Full Story

Sotheby’s two-day auction of The Collection of Patricia Kluge, held in Charlottesville Virginia, concluded bringing $15,158,227, exceeding pre-sale expectations (est. $9/14 million). The historic sale was the first on-site house sale conducted by Sotheby’s in North America in over 20 years, and more than 2,000 people attended the week-long public exhibition at Albemarle House, Mrs. Kluge’s 45-room English country manor. Collectors, interior designers, and dealers from all over the ... Read The Full Story

Skinner, Inc. one of the world’s leading auction houses for antiques and fine art, today announced it will host an auction of Asian Works of Art on Friday, June 25th and Saturday, June 26th in the Boston gallery. The sale boasts more than 1,700 works to be offered over the two days. Featured is the personal collection of the late Charles J. Chu, admired professor, painter, calligrapher, curator, scholar, and educator. Chu taught at Yale for fifteen years before establishing and ... Read The Full Story

Christie’s New York announced that it has been entrusted with the sale of The Sze Yuan Tang Archaic Bronzes from the Anthony Hardy Collection on September 16 as part of Christie’s Fall Asian Art Week. This collection of approximately 120 lots valued in excess of $15 million will be led by a very rare and important archaic bronze ritual tripod food vessel, ‘Li’, from the late Shang dynasty, 12th century BC. Theow H. Tow, Honorary Chairman of Asia and Deputy Chairman of Americas, ... Read The Full Story

Art Antiques London will be held in a beautiful custom-built marquee opposite the Royal Albert Hall, adjacent to the site of the Great Exhibition of 1851. The Fair’s participants are leading specialists in a wide range of disciplines, including furniture, paintings, jewellery, clocks, textiles, silver and ceramics, as well as rare books and modern and contemporary objet d’art. Every object exhibited at the Fair is rigorously examined and vetted for quality and authenticity, so ... Read The Full Story

An historic Colt 1862 Revolver that belonged to Lieutenant A. Sinclair of the Confederate States Navy, who served aboard the Alabama, the famous Civil War raider, is estimated to sell for £10,000 to £15,000 at Bonhams sale of Antique Arms and Armour on July 28th. CSS Alabama (1862-1864), a 1050-ton screw steam sloop of war, was built at Birkenhead, England, for the Confederate Navy. After leaving England in the guise of a merchant ship, she rendezvoused at sea with supply ships, was ... Read The Full Story

To Live Forever explores the age-old questions of immortality and life after death through the customs and funerary beliefs observed over nearly four thousand years. The exhibition answers questions about the afterlife, mummies, funerals, and tombs, as it illustrates the variety of strategies used to evade death and, ultimately gain eternal life. Open through September 12, 2010. All ancient Egyptians desired to live after death but not everyone had access to the elaborate funeral ... Read The Full Story

Nearly 800 fresh-to-the-market lots in a wide variety of categories will be sold at a two-session Fine & Decorative Arts Catalog Auction slated for Saturday, June 19, by Leland Little Auction & Estate Sales, Ltd. The auction will be conducted in the firm’s spacious new gallery, located at 620 Cornerstone Court in Hillsborough, N.C. The first session will begin at 9 a.m. Headlining the event will be the private collection of Daisy Wade Bridges. Over 200 lots will be dedicated ... Read The Full Story

The J. Paul Getty Museum announced the installation of the Gela Krater in the permanent collection galleries at the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Villa. The loan of this celebrated object is part of a long-term collaborative agreement between the Getty Museum and the Sicilian Ministry of Culture and Sicilian Identity, which was announced earlier this year. Open through through October 2010. Attributed to the Niobid Painter, the monumental red-figure volute-krater (wine mixing vessel) ... Read The Full Story