The shape of things to come

Who would have thought that the battle of the auction houses would bring us such variety in catalogues? To us it began with Webb’s standalone photographic auction last year followed by the Jim Fraser collection sale and then Art + Object’s first auction catalogue with the stunning Peter Robinson glass work on the cover. Now in the mail a large format catalogue from Art +Object and a compact new photography offering from Webb’s. We remember years ago talking to Peter Webb and complaining that some of their catalogues were slightly larger or smaller than others (it created problems if you wanted to bind them together). Times change. Now we all expect auction catalogues to surprise and delight us as much as the events themselves.