Fairs and Markets

A silver casserole tureen was among the highlight sales during the early hours of The Art & Antiques Fair Olympia.

Organiser says expectations are high for new showground fair starting at end of the month.

This c.1800 flintlock pistol below by James Wilkinson, London, was used on packet ships to protect the General Post Office mail.

Among stand-out exhibitions in the well-represented area of works on paper at this year’s London Art Week (LAW) is a collection of drawings by the German artist Adolph Menzel (1815-1905).

Urban Art is London’s largest annual open-air contemporary arts fair, pictured above. It runs every year in July showing 1000-plus pieces of work along the walls and railings on both sides of the tree-lined Josephine Avenue and neighbouring streets in Brixton.

A group of pictures by self-taught Mendip artist John Caple is offered at Albemarle Street’s John Martin Gallery during this year’s Mayfair Art Weekend (MAW), the three-day festival event dedicated to the galleries in the heart of London.

An artwork painted with oil and sand is among the offerings at the inaugural Fair for Saatchi.

A festival of rugs and textiles organised by HALI magazine joins the busy line-up of London events this summer.

Britain still has many ‘antiques’ towns and streets – those picturesque corners of the island populated by shops, galleries and centres that together act as a magnet for antiques tourists. Two of the largest communities of dealers close to London are Petworth and Hungerford, while a busy schedule of regular fairs and markets takes place to the south-west of London.

Housed in a remarkable purpose-built marquee, Masterpiece London returns to the grounds of the Royal Hospital in Chelsea for its tenth anniversary

For close to three centuries buyers of art and antiques have been spoilt for choice in London. A city synonymous with archives, galleries, museums, conservators and curators, it continues to support long-standing streets of antiques dealers, centres and a plethora of regular fairs and markets. As this guide to the hotspots suggests, most of them are complementary rather than in competition, and all budgets are catered for.

For the British art and antiques trade, the summer ‘season’ still carries plenty of resonance, particularly in London. The days of rowing club colours at Henley and Georgian walnut at the Grosvenor House Hotel have given way to the plethora of June and July showpiece auctions and a clutch of fairs and dealer-led events – London Art Week, Olympia, Masterpiece London, and new kid on the block Fair For Saatchi.

With a longer run and back to being branded as an independent event, the venerable Art & Antiques Fair Olympia remains a stalwart for both the collector’s market and the decorative trade.

The International Antiques & Collectors Fair (IACF) has added the Peterborough Festival of Antiques to its extensive portfolio.

Visitors to the ABA’s 'Firsts: London’s Rare Book Fair' spent more than £3m over the events three days.

Caroline Penman, organiser of the Chelsea Antiques Fair since 1983, is hoping to find a new owner willing to maintain the venerable event.

When Sir Robert Burdett (1716-97), 4th Baron Bramcote, undertook the remodelling of his early 18th century home Foremarke Hall from 1759-62, he contracted Thomas Chippendale to refurnish the house. The cabinet maker – one of several employed in the project – was paid around £1000 for the giltwood seating furniture which is thought to have included at least 10 elbow chairs, two window seats and a sofa.

A rare early Worcester plate, c.1752, painted in Chinese famille verte style is offered by dealer Robyn Robb at 'A Collectors’ Paradise', the annual group selling show of pottery and porcelain in St James’s. Offered for £9500, it features a bird perched on a flowering prunus tree.