Over almost half a century, Anne Crane has written about an enormous range of subjects.
This is my final weekly column for Antiques Trade Gazette as I am now retiring as a staff journalist after 49 years on this publication. Instead, I’ll be writing less frequently as a freelance contributor.
When I joined the Gazette in 1975, four years after it started, the first issue I worked on had around a dozen pages put together by about half a dozen staff. The editorial was slimmer and a central focus was the all-important Auction Calendar which remains a key part of the newspaper’s content even today (many subscribers tell us in our regular reader surveys how important it is to them).
Those were the days of manual typewriters, Tipp-Ex correction fluid, carbon paper copies, index cards, visits to the reference library and black and white photographs that had to be sent by rail to the printers. Obviously there was no internet; no computers, not even faxes – just phones, pens and paper.
It was a very different, slowerpaced world but one where a fledging reporter could learn their trade on the job. I started writing auction reports and set up a weekly column titled London Selection which featured sales in the capital’s main auction houses and ran for more than three decades. I have also been the ATG’s main international correspondent covering events in Europe and America for over a decade.
Anne Crane in her early ATG days.
In those pre-internet days the best way to build up knowledge and find out what was going on in the art and antiques world was to get out of the office, visit auctions, fairs and shops and to talk to the specialists in order assemble material for an article.
Things have changed radically since the arrival of the internet but the reporting and analysis of art market prices combined with knowledge of art and antiques has always been the bedrock of the ATG’s editorial and remains so.
Significant sales
Over almost half a century I have written about an enormous range of subjects. I’ve covered landmark auctions such as the sales at Elveden Hall, the Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé and Hubert de Givenchy collections and major fairs in London, Paris, Brussels, Florence, Milan and New York.
I’ve also written reams on specialist collecting fields such as early English delftware and 19th century photography as well as delving into antique lace and fans, French shop signs, pot lids and Popeye toys. Not surprisingly, it has been possible to record many individual items that have gone under the hammer multiple times and to chart the rollercoaster ride as different sectors go in and out of fashion.
It has been a long and fascinating journey. I count myself lucky to have found a career from an early age that has been continuously rewarding, one where I have been fortunate to meet so many interesting people and to have worked with an amazing and friendly group of colleagues.
While I shall no longer be writing in every issue, my byline won’t completely disappear as I shall continue to cover the French market for ATG on a freelance basis.
I should like to take this opportunity to thank the many professionals who have shared their knowledge and helped me to put all those column inches together over the past 49 years and also all the ATG subscribers who have read them.
Readers and former colleagues add their tributes to Anne
The first time I met Anne Crane was at Sotheby’s, some 20 years ago, when I was the youngest at the catalogue desk at Sotheby’s.
There was a ripple of excitement going through the department.
A hushed whisper, ‘She’s coming in, make sure she sees the highlights..’. I was expecting an aloof figure surrounded by an army of flunkies, but nothing could be further from the truth.
In came a truly interested, very well-informed and very approachable person. I was amazed how someone who was covering such a wide variety of subjects seemed to know the ins and outs of the art world, not only from an ‘object’ perspective (though I suspect she is pretty much a walking encyclopedia on the history and development of European decorative arts), but also with an astute knowledge of the major sales, auction and trade.
She knew all the major players and was always discreetly aware of the ‘inside know-how’ that makes up our world. My admiration for her breadth of knowledge and stamina only grew when I developed in my career and moved to Bonhams. Where others in the mid/late 2000s gave in to the distractions of the contemporary art and design market, she remained a steadfast supporter of the decorative arts, covering the big splashes with as much flair as the smaller, less highprofile but interesting ripples in the art market.
She covered many of our sales, and in every piece brought a new insight. When we expanded our business, she didn’t bat an eyelid and reported with the same gusto on our newest ventures in Paris. I will miss her contributions very much and I am so grateful for all the support she has given our little corner of the art market for so many years.
Bonhams, director, Decorative Arts, UK and Europe, head of department, European Ceramics
Joining ATG in the last years of the Whitcomb Street days, I found myself sharing an office with Anne – it was just the two of us with everyone else in a slightly larger room next door.
It was a joy to me to find myself back in an atmosphere of dedicated journalism with experts who really knew their stuff. At the heart of that was Anne, who had invented the auction report in its modern form – still used today – and who took a lot of time out of her busy schedule to help me settle into the unique ways of ATG.
I was struck then, as now, not just by her vast knowledge and attention to detail, but also by the impressive network of friends and contacts she had developed over the years and the very high esteem in which they held her. All richly deserved.
My 17 years at ATG were the happiest of my career as an employee, and Anne played a major part in making them so. For that she has my enduring gratitude.
Ivan Macquisten
I spent many happy years working at ATG and some of the fondest of those memories date from when I was sharing an office with Anne. For Anne, of course, every day in that office was a living hell, but somehow she managed to get through it and as a result I managed to learn a tremendous amount about the antiques trade and how to write about it.
It’s thanks to Anne that I can now talk with great authority and at fascinating length about 18th century Vauxhall soft paste porcelain shards. It was a delight and privilege working with Anne. We had a lot of laughs.
Scott Reyburn
Anne was a permanent fixture during my 20-year career at ATG, always available to share her extraordinary knowledge of auction markets the world over. Her contacts in the London rooms were legendary and her advice was always sound and always well-received.
Anne’s dedication to her craft has been heroic and her search for accuracy in her reporting played a major part in the success of ATG and helped cement its pre-eminence reporting the global auction market.
She was always careful around the office and was often the last person to turn the lights out when she left after another late shift to make her deadlines. Before the internet age she would often go round the office unplugging all the computers; eventually we persuaded her that the office wouldn’t burn down overnight if they were left on.
In a world where some employees think that they are demonstrating great loyalty after 18 months’ service, Anne’s 49-year career is a monumental achievement.
Simon Berti
There are many good reasons for reading ATG; Anne has certainly been one of them with her insightful, thoughtful and informative columns. Anne, the paper without you will just not be the same. I sincerely hope you enjoy retirement, we will miss you.
Guy Schooling, Chairman, Sworders
Anne was already a stalwart of some three years when I joined ATG in 1978. At that time, although she was still considered a junior journalist, she had already shown her dedication to accurate reporting, always checking and double checking her facts before clearing any proofs.
It was a small and close-knit team in those early years. With the three-day week still fresh in our publisher’s mind, he had installed gas lamps in our offices so that our journalists could keep pounding away at their typewriters even if the electricity was turned off. I don’t think they were ever used, but as a true professional, Anne often stayed late and would have typed by candlelight to meet press deadlines.
Anne has always been a caring colleague, and very safety conscious. She could see the potential for a situation to become a problem before it happened. In the days of smoking in the office I recall one of her fellow journalists leaning out of the window with a cigarette, trying to avoid filling the small office they shared with smoke… and she leaned too far! Teetering on the ledge, Anne leapt up and grabbed her colleague’s legs to haul her back inside. Disaster avoided!
Over the years Anne has grown to be one of the most well-known and respected journalists in our industry; a constant in the lives of the auctioneers and dealers she has interviewed and reported on over the years. Known for her balanced and fact-based reporting, this eminence is well deserved. She will be missed on the circuit, but after 49 years of being tied to press deadlines, she well deserves a long and stress-free retirement.
Anne Somers
Anne is a hugely respected and knowledgeable stalwart of the art world – and we have shared many fascinating discoveries and market moments together over many decades.
I cannot thank her enough for her support and coverage of the decorative arts fields over so many years – her support has been invaluable and insightful. And while I am only sorry to hear that she is moving to pastures new, I am heartened to hear that she will continue to write occasional epistles covering Paris. So, a huge thank you from me personally – and all of us at Christie’s – for championing the more esoteric and traditional of collecting fields, which we all share a passion for.
Orlando Rock, Chairman Christie’s UK
I’ve been a reader of the ATG since the 1970s and have always been impressed by how thorough Anne is in her research for auction reports etc. She is always fair-minded, astute in her conclusions and, of course, an excellent prose writer.
In short, she is a credit to ATG and, more widely, to journalism.
Readers often take conscientious journalists for granted and I’m sure that she will be missed by her colleagues and readers alike.
Simon Spero
I have had the pleasure of working with Anne all the time that she has been at ATG which is for more years than I care to think about. I even remember the launch and the various parties for special anniversaries, most notably an evening do on a boat along the Thames. Throughout her time at ATG, she has been totally professional, charming and really does not look a day older!
Best wishes for the future.
Gay Hutson
From my earliest days at Sotheby’s, a call from Anne about a forthcoming sale was always eagerly hoped for and, when it came, always met with a certain amount of relief: it meant that the sale might be good enough to warrant a mention or included something of particular merit.
In the days before the internet, especially, a story in the ATG was the best way to reach beyond our usual group of buyers and catalogue recipients. Anne’s reports were always knowledgeable and authoritative and carried weight with collectors (to say nothing of colleagues); and they paid deserved attention to some of the less modish areas of collecting that were ignored elsewhere.
Nowadays, with the blizzard of information that is now available on the internet, Anne’s brand of thoughtful, informed and considered journalism is needed more than ever!
Sebastian Kuhn, Bonhams
Anne: it was an honour and privilege to work with you at the ATG in the early 1980s and to have had your precious, loyal and supportive friendship ever since. The bond of working together for so many years on saleroom reports, with dear Ivor at the helm, has lasted over 42 years and is one that will last all our days.
Congratulations on achieving 49 years of service. You set the bar high for us all and no one who has worked with you will ever forget the extra hours you put in to always ensure that your sales reports were excellent.
With your priceless recall of 49 years of furniture, jewellery, silver, porcelain, glass, sculpture and works of art sales, especially of many of the major ones you attended in person, surely there cannot be anyone else with this in-depth historical knowledge.
I especially recall your diligent, persuasive and persistent questioning of the auction house PR departments, the auction house specialists, the dealers and buyers about each and every sale, in order to dig down and reveal the full story about the sale results and not just the top prices. In the end all admired, appreciated and respected you for this journalistic excellence and that is why you can count so many press officers, auctioneers, saleroom experts and dealers among your good friends.
You will have mixed memories of so many changes in the art world and the ATG and, some will be of challenging times, but hopefully most will be of the fun times we had and of the camaraderie among the staff that made the ATG what it is today.
You must rightly be so proud of all you have achieved and I am very happy that I will see more of you now you are retiring!
Anna-Mei Chadwick
