Antiques

Ventriloquist’s dummy sells for £40,000

2005-12-15T06:44:00.000-08:00

‘Archie’ a ventriloquist doll made famous in a 1950s radio show was sold at auctioneers, Greenslade Taylor Hunt in Somerset, United Kingdom, on November, 22, for £40,000.
Dressed in a broad stripped blazer Archie and his mentor, Peter Brough’s, show ‘Educating Archie’ attracted an audience of 13 million and was voted the most popular show on radio in 1952 and was transferred to television in 1958.
Colin Burnett-Dick who remembered the show back in the 1950s as well having a life long interest in ventriloquism and puppets bought Archie. He arranged for his wife to bid on his behalf at the sale.
The Sunday Times wrote after the sale asking if this result was yet more evidence of an upturn in the auction market in the UK. This year the provincial auction rooms are certainly giving the London rooms a run for their money.
There are several of the UK’s top provincial auction rooms who provide images to www.drummondread.com an interactive website dedicated to antiques and collectables. Conceived as an alternative to ebay and other wide-ranging websites, Drummondread.com offers the general public, dealers, traders and collectors alike a world-wide on-line community which is open for business 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Register FREE at www.drummondread.com and subscribe to one of our specialist Collector Rooms or the General Sale Room for just £5 per month and you can buy and sell for NO COMMISSION

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE

2005-12-02T03:16:00.000-08:00

A set of 11 plates made at The Imperial Porcelain Factory in St Petersburg in 1872 have been sold at Lawrences of Crewkerne, Somerset, United Kingdom for £165,000. Each 9 3/4in (24.5cm) diameter plate featured an individual military scene painted in enamels. The rims were lilac decorated with gilt laurel swags, flanking medallions containing black Imperial eagles. The plates were marked with a blue and green cipher and variously dated between 1872 and 1875.

The plates were in the Gatchina Palace in the mid 19th century and were acquired by the vendor’s family in the 1920s when many Russian art treasures were sold following the Revolution. The Gatchina Palace was turned into a museum and opened to the public in May 1918.

There was much pre-sale interest in the plates and they were bought eventually by a buyer with Russian interests from New York. The market for Russian items has risen sharply over recent years. A plate from the same service was offered for sale at Sotheby’s in New York on December 1, 1998 but failed to sell at an estimate of $6,000-8,000. On May 23, 2002 at Sotheby’s Olympia (London), a more desirable example marked for 1830, signed Shchetinin, sold for £19,000 against an estimate of £7,000-9,000.

Is this recent rise in the prices being paid for Russian artifacts a sign of a booming Russian economy or just a rise in the super rich Russians now becoming active in the art market? Why not visit http://www.drummondread.com/ and enter one of our Discussion Forums to air your views on this and many other topics. Drummondread.com is an exciting interactive website dedicated to antiques and collectables. Conceived as an alternative to ebay and other wide-ranging websites, Drummondread.com offers the general public, dealers, traders and collectors alike a world-wide on-line community which is open for business 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Register FREE at http://www.drummondread.com/ and subscribe to one of our specialist Collector Rooms or the General Sale Room for just £5 per month and you can buy and sell for NO COMMISSION.

Drummondread.com Open New General Sale Room on Website

2005-11-25T05:57:00.000-08:00

Drummondread.com has opened a new general sale section on their website specifically aimed at the general dealer and public. The site now boasts areas for all sections of the antiques and collectables market, catering for the specialist collector and dealer, as well as the generalist.

Managing Director, Mr Colin Read, says “from the site’s instigation our aim has been to keep the costs of trading on the site to a bare minimum.”

The general sale room will allow users to sell ten items or more for only 5GBP per month, with no commission charged by Drummondread.com. The aim is to be as flexible as possible. Once an item has sold, users can immediately replace it with another.

By not charging commission on sales Drummondread.com is making the site cost effective for all areas of the trade, whether selling low or high priced items.

In addition, Drummondread.com offers an interactive Events section, where subscribers can organize and publicise fairs, gallery openings, exhibitions, car boot and garage sales.

All users need to do is register with the site, subscribe to the general sale room, or room of their choice and they can start trading immediately for only 5GBP

Drummondread.com launches unique specialist website for Art, Antiques and Collectables

2005-11-25T05:53:00.000-08:00

Drummond Read, specialist antique valuers, has launched a new interactive website dedicated to antiques and collectables. Conceived as an alternative to ebay and other wide-ranging websites, Drummondread.com offers the general public, dealers, traders and collectors alike a world-wide on-line community which is open for business 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

‘The interest in antiques and collectables has grown considerably over recent years’, says Colin Read, Managing Director, ‘We have identified the need for an all encompassing one-stop shop for the art world where people can not only buy and sell antiques and collectables but can also find out how much an item is worth, learn about different aspects of art and antiques, advertise events and enter into discussions, all from the comfort of their own home or shop. We have spent two years developing this website and believe we have produced a totally unique and new concept.’

Drummondread.com offers the opportunity to buy and sell antiques and collectables within dedicated Collector Rooms for £5 per month for up to ten items – that is as little as 50p per item – and no commission is charged. The site also offers subscribers the opportunity of emailing a specialist a question or obtaining a valuation from specialists who range from well-known BBC Antiques Roadshow personalities to enthusiasts with expert knowledge.

In addition, Drummondread.com offers an interactive Events section, where subscribers can organise and publicise car boot sales, gallery openings and exhibitions, and enter into Discussion Forums with like-minded people.

Drummondread.com are also proud to announce that Sotheby’s Institute of Art – London are sponsoring the Master Class element of the website, which provides short on-line audio-visual lectures written by leading specialists on various topics. Sotheby’s Institute offers Post-graduate Diplomas, BA and Master Degrees, PhDs and public programmes: evening, day-time and short courses in the areas of art business, fine and decorative art, contemporary art and East Asian art.

Drummondread.com is a fun, user-friendly and cost-effective website solely dedicated to art, antiques and collectables.

Drummond Read Associates was founded in 1992 initially to provide valuations following theft, loss or damage and for litigation purposes using a team of professionally academically qualified associates. In 2002 Drummond Read formed Drummond Read Recruitment and Training, the first recruitment agency for the fine arts, antiques and related professions.

http://www.drummondread.com/

£1 million private treaty sale of important folio of watercolours. Largest private treaty sale ever negotiated by a United Kingdom regional auctione

2005-11-25T05:47:00.000-08:00

Dreweatte Neate Fine Art of Newbury, Berkshire, United Kingdom have arranged the sale by private treaty of 56 watercolours dating from the time of the First Fleet, the seven ships which took the earliest convicts and settlers from England to Australia in 1787. They are attributed to George Draper, midshipman on the flagship Sirius and one of the First Fleet’s most talented artists.

The sale was arranged on behalf of a prominent UK family to the National Library of Australia.

Dreweatte Neate Fine Art provides images to http://www.drummondread.com/ an interactive website dedicated to antiques and collectables. Conceived as an alternative to ebay and other wide-ranging websites, Drummondread.com offers the general public, dealers, traders and collectors alike a world-wide on-line community which is open for business 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Register FREE at http://www.drummondread.com/ and subscribe to one of our specialist Collector Rooms or the General Sale Room for just £5 per month and you can buy and sell for NO COMMISSION.

Silver gilt horse racing cup designed by Robert Adam sells for £90,000.

2005-11-25T05:45:00.000-08:00

The Richmond Gold Cup, 1767, sold at Woolley & Wallis, Salisbury, United Kingdom, on October 19. It is one of perhaps only half a dozen of these cups made and one now resides in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

The cup stands 18.75in (48cm) high and its combination of superb cast, engraved and chased decoration weighs in at 132oz. The sketch executed c.1763 by Robert Adam, which is in the Sir John Soanes Museum in London, is possibly the first directly attributable neoclassical design for a piece of silver.

Are you interested in finding out more about Horse Racing Memorabilia or perhaps you have a question or require a valuation? Why not visit http://www.drummondread.com/ an interactive website dedicated to antiques and collectables. Conceived as an alternative to ebay and other wide-ranging websites, Drummondread.com offers the general public, dealers, traders and collectors alike a world-wide on-line community which is open for business 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Our Horse Racing Memorabilia specialist is Graham Budd. Graham runs his own auction room in association with Sotheby’s specialising in sporting memorabilia, Graham Budd Auctions. He held a sale on behalf of Ascot Racecourse in May 2005 where they sold the iron racetrack gates for £280,000.

Register FREE at http://www.drummondread.com/ and email one of our specialists today.