Auctions

CHRISTIE'S sold 93 per cent by value of its Modern Brit paintings last Friday (80 per cent by lot), which augurs well for Sotheby's 'mid-season' sale (mostly below pounds 20,000) on Thursday (2pm). Jonathan Horwich of Christie's said that Friday's private bidders had been intent on buying (unlike the same sale last year, when they were 'just looking').

There are signs that, as the recession's dam of pent-up demand begins to crack, those safe, traditional picture prices will be the first to be pushed up. Sporting and pretty genre pictures have strengthened in recent weeks. A David Shepherd (Buffalo Disturbed, est pounds 8,000-pounds 12,000) fetched an artist's record pounds 35,600 on Friday. A rather untraditional Munnings of a sea of red poppies, est pounds 15,000-pounds 20,000, soared to pounds 128,000, while a thickly applied, pastel-toned Interior (Mrs Mounter), by Camden Town artist Harold Gilman, est pounds 20,000-pounds 30,000, reached pounds 111,500.

Stunning Munnings hunting scenes at pounds 20,000-pounds 30,000 make a timely (market-wise) appearance in Sotheby's Thursday sale, while at Christie's sale of Victorian pictures (plenty of sentimental doggies and toddlers for a couple of thousand pounds), Friday (2pm), Sir Edwin Landseer's much-copied stag in Scene in Braemar - Highland Deer, awaits a buyer able to come up with pounds 800,000-pounds 1.2m.

More signals are expected from New York on Wednesday, as to how much American chatter about the demise of Modernism is costing the trade. Sotheby's sale of contemporary prints (2pm) is provocatively subtitled 'revival', but offers a Warhol print of Marilyn Monroe at an unconfident estimate of dollars 9,000-dollars 11,000.

Simultaneously, in London, Sotheby's sale of Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary Art, Wednesday and Thursday (10.30am daily) ranges from Ed Ruscha's outrageous acrylic stencil Carrots (1990), est pounds 15,000-pounds 20,000, to - incongruously - a Victorian seascape by Stanislas Lepine (pounds 25,000-pounds 35,000).

Musical instruments: Monday, Christie's South Kensington (2pm); Tuesday, Sotheby's (10.30am) and Bonhams (3pm); Thursday, Phillips (11am).

COUNTRYWIDE

Malmesbury: Complete contents of a novelty warehouse; videos, toys, teddies, photograph frames, mirrors, Tuesday (10am). Hilditch, Gloucester Road Trading Estate (0666 822577).

Woodbridge: Remaining contents of the home of Lieutenant-General Sir Ian Jacob, former director-general of the BBC, Wednesday (10.30am). Neal, Sons & Fletcher, Theatre Street (0777 708633).

RAF Molesworth, Cambridgeshire: US government surplus sale of vehicles, trailers, tools, televisions, medical equipment, office supplies, floor cleaners, Thursday (10am) in Building 51 (0480 842635).

Alnwick: Sale at Chillingham Castle of the contents of Bridge House, with other properties, 720 lots, today (9.30am). Jim Railton (0668 5390).

Lichfield: On-site farm dispersal - combine harvester, horse- drawn dray and plough, machinery, building materials -

at Fosseway Farm, Fosseway Lane, next Saturday (11am). Howkins & Harrison (0788 560321).

Bristol: Two 13th-century English panel paintings from the Palace of Westminster among general antiques, Tuesday and Wednesday (10.30am daily). Bristol Auction Rooms, St John's Place, Apsley Road (0272 737201).

Manchester: New and used catering and restaurant equipment, 450 lots, Tuesday (10.30am) at Auction International, 51a Broughton Lane, Strangeways (061 832 2400).

Bradford: Liquidation stock of Keighley Tool Hire, Wednesday (10am) at The Salerooms, 12 New John Street, Westgate. De Rome (0274 734116).

Penzance: General antiques, strong on furniture and household, Thursday and Friday (10am). David Lay, Penzance Auction House (0736 61414).

FAIRS

Luton Hoo Antiques: Three days, last day tomorrow. Bailey Fairs (0277 362662).

London Camera at the Copthorne Tara Hotel, Scarsdale Place, Kensington, W8, tomorrow (9.30am). London Camera Fairs (081-675 9323).

Contemporary Print Show until 10 April, Concourse Gallery, Barbican, London EC2.

Haydock Clock and Watch at the Park Racecourse tomorrow, 92 stands (0895 834357).

Countrywide: Antiques Trade Gazette (071-930 4957) and Government Auction News (071-928 9001, hotline 0891 887700).