TEFAF, Maastricht, 2019: a full two-day installation
We have been flattered and delighted by the response of our colleagues to this year’s presentation. But none of this would have been possible with out our team: K-Pak for transport and Nicky Aubury and colleagues for creating a more…
Read More...
English Arts & Crafts design at the Winter Show
During the day on Tuesday, the team made light work of turning tool boxes, lighting tracks and crates containing furniture and works of art into an elegantly decorated black box. One day, perhaps, I’ll arrive on a stand believing that…
Read More...
As 2018 draws to a close…
Benin bronze on display at the British Museum [Credit: Son of Groucho/Flickr] On the big global issues, 2018 is drawing to an uncomfortable close. And on undoubtedly more parochial matters, of cultural significance, the zeitgeist seems to be driving us…
Read More...
PAD London, 1-7 October 2018
London is the next stop for the the international art market circus, with big tops for PAD in Berkeley Square, and for Frieze Masters and Frieze in Regent’s Park. As ever, October in London is the place to be. Our…
Read More...
Masterpiece, London, 2018
However well we plan in advance, it is always daunting to arrive in a half-built hall, surrounded by machinery, pots of paint and lengths of uncut timber, all of which need to be negotiated by precious works of art. As…
Read More...
The Elephant in the Room: Ivory and the Art World
Queen Mother Pendant Mask, Nigeria (Benin), Edo peoples, 16th century. Metropolitan Museum of Art, gift of Nelson D. Rockefeller, 1972. On 22 March, the Courtauld Institute, London hosted a debate on how we should consider historic works of art…
Read More...
TEFAF, Maastricht (2018): all set
Our shippers, stand builders and lighting specialists have overcome the hazards of late winter weather to help us to create, we hope you will agree, another beautiful display in our familiar corner of the MECC. The backdrop to our stand…
Read More...
‘Works of art and ivory: what are the issues?’, Curator: The Museum Journal 61 (1), January 2018
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna Attempts formally to remove bona fide antique ivory from the raging debate on the preservation of the African elephant, threatened by poaching and illicit trade, rumble on confusingly. In the United States of America the ban on imports…
Read More...
Winter Antiques Show: we got there in the end
It seems that no Winter Antiques Show is complete without the intervention of weather-related issues. Perhaps the clue is in the timing: winter. This year, our sea container was diverted to Virginia and only docked in New York on the…
Read More...
China announces ‘total ban’ on ivory, or does it?
Eighteenth-century Anglo-Indian furniture at the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Mass. Since the turn of the year, the British press and conservation groups have been justifiably applauding China’s ‘total ban’ on the trade in ivory. The stringent Chinese onslaught on their…
Read More...
Yesterday in Parliament: ivory
In one of the final debates in the House of Lords before the Christmas recess, peers discussed the impact of the ivory trade on an elephant population under siege. Lord Carrington of Fulham (no relation of the former Foreign…
Read More...
A pen (and paint brush) made by William Morris
In 2012, when the Brandon-Jones collection was acquired by the Nation through the Acceptance in Lieu scheme, Red House in Bexleyheath (designed by Philip Webb for William Morris) was allocated several personal items that had belonged to Morris’s close associate…
Read More...
PAD London, 4-8 October 2017
Thanks to some careful planning, and expert technical assistance from Aston Spinks (logistics) and Nicky Aubury (lighting), the set up for PAD 2017 was completed speedily, and with remarkable ease. By 8 am Berkeley Square was lined with trucks grabbing…
Read More...
An anonymous workshop Daybook, 1851-1885
While considerable evidence, such as insurance records, bills (perhaps matched to surviving furniture), letters, rate books and, sometimes, personal accounts, exists for the activities of larger cabinet-making firms, day-to-day records for smaller, more general workshops are far scarcer. Thus, it…
Read More...
Circle of George Bullock: a Regency sarcophagus-form strong box?
Although, for now, the precise origins of this remarkable and perhaps unique masterpiece remain unknown, it is clearly an exceptional work by a talented designer and maker, and was surely commissioned for the grandest of interiors. Since this seemingly unique…
Read More...
Expertise and enthusiasm: present and future appreciation of the decorative arts
For many years now, there has been a perception that so-called ‘traditional areas’ under the umbrella of the ‘decorative arts’ have fallen from favour. But what does this mean? Is this a reference to the market, or to public appreciation?…
Read More...
Page 2 of 6Prev12345...NextEnd