Fairs and Markets

Scrap it or at least make life easier for the trade, new study demands: THE European Union should look again at the whole issue of Import VAT and art market red tape, say The European Fine Art Foundation.

PEOPLE are always coming up with new fairs, very few of them exciting, but last week I heard of one to be launched this spring, which does seem to have more than just a bit of flair. Boldly called Antiques & Audacity at Arundel Castle, it is organised by an outfit called Zygo.

THE country’s most famous antiques dealer David Dickinson, now a television superstar, did not work his magic on George Taylor, organiser of the Great Northern International Antiques and Collectors’ Fair at Harrogate’s Great Yorkshire Showground.

AS a one-off, the spring version of the twice-yearly Cardiff Antiques and Collectors’ Fair decamps to the nearby country town of Cowbridge. Carmarthen-based Robert and Carol Pugh, who operate as Towy Fairs, have been forced out of their regular venue, the Cardiff Bowling Club, by a rather rougher fixture than bowling, the Rugby League Cup Final which will be held at the Millennium Stadium on the same weekend – April 26 and 27.

The Spring Fine Art & Antiques Fair at Olympia, which will be held in London from February 25 to March 2, has received a record amount of publicity thanks to this Graham Sutherland (1903-1980) portrait of Churchill, right.

UK: THE Thames Valley Antique Dealers’ Association have cancelled their Spring Fair at the Blue Coat School, Sonning-on-Thames, Berkshire. The fourth staging was scheduled for April 4 to 6.

CHOCOLATES and roses will be bought by the ton over the days leading up to St. Valentine’s on February 14. But for those looking for a more novel way of pleasing a loved one, Grays Antique Market in Mayfair offers plenty of scope.

MEDIA star and Deco expert Eric Knowles officially cut the ribbon when popular Oxfordshire antiques centre The Swan at Tetsworth unveiled its new Art Deco Showroom on January 13.

English glass doesn’t generally compete with Continental for price, so anyone just looking at the top results from Sotheby’s mixed-owner auction held the day before their Japanese museum dispersal might have got the erroneous impression that home-produced material had played a low-key role.

A familiar and dashing figure at Olympia fairs James Brett, the grandson of the founder of the long- established and highly respected Norfolk antique furniture dealership Arthur Brett & Son, has “de-merged” from the family firm, which was founded in 1870.

A FURTHER reason to be cheerful about the fairs scene comes from America. More than 20,000 attended Florida’s sixth annual ArtPalmBeach fair of Modern and Contemporary art, held at the International Pavilion of the Palm Beaches in the Florida resort from January 8 to 14.

ENERGETIC Essex organiser Robert Bailey has been increasingly active on the marketing front and received praise for the gate at his recent Tatton Park fair, following the targeted mailing of nearly 4000 home-owners.

CLARION Events, organisers of the Olympia Fairs, introduce a new initiative at their Spring Olympia to further emphasise their conviction that presentation and creative stand display in a no-dateline context are the way forward.

VETERAN organiser Donald Bayliss, who put together his first fair in the 1960s and now operates out of Ludlow as Continuity Fairs, is launching a new event in mid-Wales in the Spring.

ORGANISERS Gay Hutson and Angela Wynn, who run the successful 20/21 British Art Fair, had fairly modest expectations when they launched their Art on paper Fair at London’s Royal College of Art four years ago but, as you will see at its fifth staging from January 30 to February 2, it has very much found a niche in the crowded London fairs scene.

NOW in its 42nd year, the Stuttgart Antiquarian Book Fair will be bigger than ever when it runs from January 31 to February 2 at Wurttembergischer Kunstverfein.

There were two surprising results at the Lempertz Asian Art sale in Cologne on November 22-23. This large, anonymous Japanese 17th/18th century Indian ink and watercolour, Daimyô in Kamishimo with tachibana weapons and two swords on a tatami mat, paper 4ft x 2ft 10in (1.22m x 86cm), right, soared 100 times estimate to make €80,000 (£51,300).

BUSINESS was not bad but security was even better at the North Cotswolds Antiques Fair held in a maarquee at Stanway House on January 11 and 12.

NEIL Munro, the former managing director of DMG Antiques Fairs, has joined Shropshire-based Wellington Market Company, the owners of Town and Country Fairs, to create a dedicated antiques division.

Contemporary Decorative Arts, Sotheby’s annual showcase for new craft and design, gets underway for its seventh successive showing next month. For a week from February 13-21, the Bond Street rooms will be given over to the latest in furniture, lighting, ceramics, jewellery, glass, silver and textiles by over 50 designers from round the world, all for sale.