More than 24,000 guests attended the Berkeley Square event, which featured 66 dealers exhibiting art and design including anything from historic sculpture to contemporary jewellery.
Around the World
The fair takes place during Frieze Week and, as well as bringing in a number of international dealers, caters to the international crowd that shows up for the raft of early-October auctions and events.
Modernity (Stockholm), specialists in Scandinavian design, sold out their entire stand, including a 1930s chest of drawers attributed to Oscar Nilsson for £30,000 and a 1930s armchair by Axel Einar Hjorth for £27,000.
Tribal art dealer Lucas Ratton (Paris) described this fair as his “best edition yet; every year it gets better”. Ratton sold more than 15 pieces to clients more than half of whom were new. Included in his sales were a late 19th century Baule maternity sculpture from Ivory Coast which sold for €100,000.
Pre-Columbian specialist Santo Micali from Galerie Mermoz (Paris), meanwhile, sold a collection of six ancient Mexican sculptures, dating from 350-100 BC, to a British collector. The sculptures sold for between €50,000 and €200,000 each.
Still in the Americas, buyers at the fair showed a special interest in Brazilian design. Among the sales in that category was a yellow jacaranda dining table by Joaquin Tenreiro, which sold for €70,000 from Galerie James.
“London is one of the few places in the world where one finds real collectors, said Paul Viguier of Galerie James (Paris). “They buy because they understand when a piece is special.”
Modern Material
Dealers in modern art reported a growth in sales at the fair’s 10th edition with De Jonckheere, whose offerings in this category ranged from £10,000 to £2.5m, reporting that they made sales every day.
Among the sales made by Laszlo von Vertes (Zurich) were a 1963 Yayoi Kusama sculpture, Untitled, which sold for £250,000, and a 1962 Alexander Calder, La Vache, which went for approximately £490,000.
Other strong sales in the modern sector included the sale of Juan Miró’s 1944 Personages, Birds, Stars for £1m at the stand of Mayoral (Barcelona). Jean Dubuffet’s 1974 Promenade Agrete, which was on the stand of Opera Gallery (London), is currently under offer for £1.73m.
Around the rest of the fair were strong sales for London galleries including several of Nobuyoshi Araki’s works, each approximately £11,000 at the stand of Michael Hoppen (London); necklaces by Christopher Thompson Royds, which started at £10,000, from the stand of Louisa Guinness (London); and pieces by Irish designer Joseph Walsh, priced between €14,000 and €60,000, which sold from the stand of PAD newcomer Sarah Myerscough (London).
