Events and conferences

Before the poet Edward Lear sent the owl and the pussycat out to sea in a beautiful pea green boat in his 1867 poem, he combined them in this c.1846 watercolour.

The time has come for the second of Robert Young Antiques’ three annual events. The Exhibition of Antiques Folk Art is the only one to take place in the dealer’s Battersea gallery and this year runs from May 11-20.

For the second year running, two major events – the ABA’s London International Antiquarian Book Fair, running from June 1-3 at the National Hall, Olympia, and the London International Book Fair organised by the PBFA at the ILEC Conference Centre in SW6 on June 2-3 – will run under the marketing umbrella Rare Books London.

The English porcelain specialist Simon Spero opens his 37th catalogued exhibition this week in his Kensington shop.

James Howe’s (1780-1836) c.1817 All Hallow’s Fair on Calton Hill shows an event that was already a thing of the past when the picture was completed.

Maastricht in March. It’s difficult to think of anything other than TEFAF within this setting, but one local dealer has established his own tradition, coinciding with but apart from the fair.

The apparent decline in passing trade is a subject occupying the minds of many shop-owning dealers. But some, such as Brentford’s Hill House, have taken matters into their own hands by staging promotional events to encourage attendance.

Waterhouse & Dodd’s upcoming exhibition focuses on the influence of David Bomberg’s (1890-1957) paintings on a wide circle of artists.

A ground-breaking Mayfair exhibition takes a rare focus on first examples of the maiolica technique.

Two versions of Edgar Degas’ (1834-1917) statue of Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans exist. The traditionally recognised example, one bronze of which stands in the Tate Modern, was the only one known for many years and is a posthumous cast of Degas’ wax sculpture.