Antiques
Les Grands Boulevards, Theatre du Vaudeville in the Winter Antoine Blanchard (1910-1988), oil on canvas, 31.5 cm x 44.5 cm
PARIS IN WINTER
B
Richard Bromell ASFAV, Charterhouse Auctioneers
ack in 1985, when I started working for Phillips Auctioneers in Long Street, Sherborne, there were seasonal variations in the auction market. You generally did not conduct auctions in the summer or December. Moving forward to the 21st century, this has changed. The change has primarily been due to the arrival of the internet, resulting in dealers, collectors, museums and institutions being able to surf through online auction catalogues 24/7, as the Americans like to call it. And this is a good thing. With the volume of business we carry out each month, if we were not to hold auctions in two months of the year, we would soon run out of space! With a broad range of specialist auctions and departments, we do not just enter any lots into any auctions. A good example of this would be the gardenalia auctions – rather like kitchenalia relates to items from the kitchen, gardenalia relates to items from the garden. Back in November, we cleared a large country property which included a great range of garden statuary and benches. The next available auction was in December, but having discussed their sale with the owner, we stored them until our March gardenalia auction where the days are longer, the grass is growing, the bulbs are out, and we are all spending time in the garden feeling the joys of spring and not counting down to the shortest day.
66 | Sherborne Times | April 2021
