The new fair will feature around 65 exhibitors and will be held in Mr Lester’s own purpose-built International Pavilion in West Palm Beach.
The new event comes just a month after the fifth staging at the same venue of the organiser’s highly successful Palm Beach International Art & Antique Fair and is intended to complement that prestigious fair.
According to Lester, the Town & Country fair will feature a range of art and antiques from the 18th to 20th centuries with prices from $500 to $500,000, whereas his International fair is hallmarked by very much top-of-the-range stock with many seven-figure prices.
He told the Antiques Trade Gazette: “This fair is more decorative and will have something for everyone. If I had to differentiate between the two fairs, the International fair is of the calibre of Grosvenor House while Palm Beach Town & Country resembles Olympia. It’s for the ordinary millionaire.”
Having made an impression at the very top end of the international trade, Mr Lester’s bid to secure the middle range is firmly targeted on the UK, with British dealers expected to make up around half the exhibitor list. It is telling that many familiar names from Olympia are among those who have already signed up.
The British contingent includes Jay Arenski, Peter Petrou, Waterhouse & Dodd, Adrian Alan,
The Silver Fund and June and Tony Stone Fine Antique Boxes from London; Colin Stodgell Fine Art from Devon and Haynes of Broadway from Worcestershire.
In addition to the International fair, which is previewed in this week’s Dealers’ Diary on page 57, Mr Lester also runs a successful contemporary art fair ArtPalmBeach in his International Pavilion in early January.
Lester launches new quality Florida fair
USA: FLORIDA-based organiser David Lester launches a new quality fair in the state when an international roster of dealers show at the first Palm Beach Town & Country Art and Antique Exposition from March 8 to 13.
