UK

BEFORE I am inundated with complaints that Cotswolds clock specialists Jeffrey Formby Antiques are not members of CADA (although they are members of BADA) I know they are not, but their selling exhibitions held over two weekends in October do neatly complement the CADA shows which do not include a clocks dealer.

NOW operating as Continuity Fairs, veteran organiser Donald Bayliss has been putting fairs together for at least three decades, but seldom has he been as excited as he is about his second International Antiques and Collectors Fair of Wales, which will be held in Builth Wells on October 11 and 12.

A series of 73 stereoscopic photocards of Captain Scott’s first expedition to the Antarctic in Discovery, the National Antarctic Expedition of 1901-04, was sold at £1250 in a book, card and ephemera sale held by Acorn Auctions of Salford on September 9, where a collection of 19th century stereoscopic photographs of Sussex scenes, 51 in all, reached £200.

AS usual, hot on the heels of Caroline Penman’s Chelsea Ant-iques Fair at the Old Town Hall in the King’s Road, London SW3, comes The Little Chelsea Antiques Fair on October 6 and 7.

THE pleasingly freely painted, if sometimes rather dark, evocations of the English countryside by Wiltshire artist Harry Fidler ((1856-1935) regularly fetch respectable prices in the £1000-5000 range when they come up for auction.

THE Edinburgh firm of Shapes’ (15% buyer’s premium) September 6 sale of the contents of Glencruitten House, Argyll, the former country home of the Dundee venture capitalist, Alexander Mackay, was one of those rare opportunities for dealers and private individuals to buy paintings and prints by sought-after artists that, in a number of cases, were bought directly from the artists and had never been offered for sale before.

Greater levels of trade and private interest in what were fairly routine silver outings at Christie’s South Kensington and Bonhams Knightsbridge on September 9 gave specialists at both houses cause for optimism.

Two historic, finely carved Mughal emeralds were the highlights of Christie’s Arts of India sale in London on September 24. Topping the bill was a 17th century wine cup made from a 408.5ct carved emerald mounted in gold and enamel that sold to a Middle Eastern buyer on the phone for £1.6m (plus 19.5/12% buyer’s premium).

ONE of the oldest provincial vetted fairs, the annual Surrey Antiques Fair, moves for its 37th staging next year to Farnham Castle. It has always been held at Guildford Civic Hall, which is due to close for redevelopment, and while the closure has been on the cards for some years, it was finalised earlier this year. The last Surrey fair in Guildford is held this week from October 2 to 5.

Rubbing shoulders with racing stables, vineyards and Spanish holiday homes at the ExCeL exhibition centre on September 19-21 were dealers John Bly and Wakelin & Linfield, LAPADA and toy auctioneers Vectis. But an opportunity missed was the general consensus of the event among a dozen or so representatives from the trade who took part in the first Leisure & Alternative Investment Show.

Sotheby’s will sell the contents of Fawley House, Fawley, near Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire on October 14-15. Their vendor, David McAlpine of the construction dynasty, has collected for 30 years.

TRAVEL POSTERS: The annual travel poster sale held by Christie’s South Kensington (17.5/10% buyer’s premium) usually enjoys a keen collectors’ following, with buyers drawn by the evocative nostalgia and romance of a bygone age when the train rather than the car was the principal method of reaching one’s holiday destination.

VETERAN Chelsea organiser, Hove-based Cindy Mainwaring, is delighted to announce that as from this Sunday, September 28, the newly-formed Fulham branch of the Women’s Institute, universally known as the WI, will run the catering at her monthly fairs at Chelsea Old Town Hall.

THERE were very few books in the September 9 antiques sale held by Sworders of Stansted Mountfitchett, but one of them was a copy of Charles Dickens’ The Chimes that was signed and inscribed to a man with whom Dickens was later to become involved in a tiresome and disagreeable round of threats of litigation – an episode that was categorised in the title of a 1996 American book on the subject as The Charles Dickens-Thomas Powell Vendetta.

IF the buzz and business achieved at last week’s opening night continued throughout, then the 20/21 British Art Fair at the Commonwealth Institute in Kensington should prove one of the fair hits of the year.

The Lewes auctioneers Gorringe’s (15% buyer’s premium) experienced one or two pleasant surprises in the third-day picture section of their September 9-11 sale. Alan Windsor’s Handbook of Modern British Painting and Printmaking 1900-1990 describes the Wakefield-born, Slade-trained Mark Senior (1862-1927) as an artist whose “early painting was influenced by Clausen whilst later work reflected the techniques of Steer, Whistler, Boudin and the Impressionists”.

ONE of the Home Counties’ longest running vetted, quality events, the Surrey Antiques Fair, will be held for the 36th year from October 2 to 5 and it will be the end of an era as this is the last staging at its original venue, the Guildford Civic Hall.

AT a time when much talk has been about the contraction of the antiques industry, John Lewis, one of Oxford Street, London’s top department stores, have just opened a dedicated antiques department in the main room on their third floor. The John Lewis Partnership operate 26 department stores across the UK and this is their third antiques operation.

Edinburgh-based auctioneers Lyon & Turnbull are set to expand out of Scotland, having made appointments in London, Devon and Newcastle. The bold move – claimed as a first for a Scottish auction house – comes close to the fifth birthday of an ambitious vision that has grown into a £5m business.

Weller King will erect a marquee in the grounds of Dial Post House, Horsham on September 23 to sell period oak furniture and works of art belonging to the West Sussex dealer Alex Sloane. A regular on the quality fairs circuit since his shop in Robertsbridge, East Sussex closed in 1996, the vernacular furniture specialist is retiring from the antiques business to live in Spain.