Issue 1936 | 17th April 2010 UK £2.00 – USA $6.50 – Europe €3.95
ANTIQUES TRADE
international
page 48 | NEW YORK
Highlights from Asia Week in the Big Apple
Berry-Hill fall foul of their creditors again
■ Bank moves on gallery over $9.5m loan default
by Ivan Macquisten
NEW York art gallery Berry- Hill have had a number of artworks seized after a judge ruled it had defaulted on a $9.5m loan.
The seizure, which took place last week, according to the Wall Street Journal, is the latest episode in a series of misfortunes, including bankruptcy, that have blighted the Upper East Side dealership in the past five years. The March 30 court ruling authorising
the seizure stated that the gallery had continued to sell works of art after being notified of the default without setting aside funds for its creditor, the bank
American Capital Financial Services. It comes as a number of galleries have closed in the wake of the recession, most dramatically involving the $120m Lawrence Salander fraud case reported on these pages two weeks ago. In a twist, Berry-Hill’s chairman, James Berry Hill, appeared to deny that the artworks were being seized. He was also reported as saying that the firm were in negotiations to pay the bank in full. The gallery filed for Chapter 11 under the US Banking code in 2005 to protect it from creditors, with an eventual settlement in 2007 to creditors and costs running into millions of dollars. That cleared the way for a
reorganisation of the company with new backers, including American Capital Financial Services. But there was further discord when Frederick D. Hill and Daisy Hill Sanders left the firm last October, leaving James Berry Hill in full control as chairman.
the art MARKET weekly
A rare Derbyshire
signpost to £19,000
THIS previously unrecorded George II mahogany ‘sign post’ angle barometer was made by the gifted mechanician and scientist John Whitehurst (1713-1788) of Derby. Whitehurst, who made instruments for Matthew Boulton,
pioneered both the wheel and angle barometer as well as making a variety of stick and other types. The angle barometers were, however, his most accomplished pieces, and before the emergence of the present example, only 24 were known, just 11 of them dated. They are all in mahogany cases in two basic sizes, and the present example is of the smaller sort at 21in (53cm) high.
Whitehurst was a keen meteorologist and in the 1740s developed a 0-60 scale to express barometric pressure that he believed would be more practical than the usual 28-31 inch scale. It has been said that he invented the millibar a century and a half early – although ultimately it failed to catch on. Whitehurst’s nephew and successor continued to make barometers of this type for about a decade, before dropping them in favour of more conventional types. This example, inscribed to the silvered register Whitehurst, Derby 1757, is marked with Whitehurst’s unique 0-60 scale. Only two surviving examples of Whitehurst angle barometers
bear earlier dates, one sold in New York in 1985 dated 1747 and one in a Derbyshire country house dated 1751. The new discovery was found behind a wardrobe in a Derbyshire village and included in Bamfords’ March 17-19 sale in Derby, estimated at £5000-8000. Some restoration was needed to the crossbanded case but as an instrument it was deemed to be in wholly original condition. Interest arrived from many quarters including three museums – one local, one in London and one in the US. When bidding reached £19,000 (plus 15 per cent buyer’s premium) it sold to the Derbyshire museum who were underbid by a local collector.
www.17-21.com
Our buying prices against a fix of £751.27 are as follows am Thursday
9ct
14ct 18ct 22ct
per gram £8.70 per gram £13.53 per gram £17.39 per gram £21.26
Platinum per gram £30.23 H/M Silver per ounce £9.85
Antiques for
Interior Design
Exhibiting at the
Decorative Fair
April 20th–25th
Antiques Trade Gazette: 115 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, WC2H 8AF. PRINTED IN THE UNITED KINGDOM.
The best of the best from around the world
24–29 june 2010 preview: 23 june
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