Offered for £14,000 by Mayflower Antiques at the CADA Antiques Fair, this Spanish colonial mother-of-pearl casket with silver mounts was made in 17th century Mexico.
Two of the UK’s leading antiques trade associations are staging their annual events on the same mid- November week.
The Cotswold Art & Antiques Dealers’ Association (CADA) holds its well-established fair, and the British Antiques Dealers Association (BADA) stages the fourth edition of BADA Week.
It’s the perfect time to meet the dealers - whether at a fair, gallery hopping in the Cotswolds, or whizzing across the country to see it all.
Museum venue
The CADA fair hosts 27 dealers from November 17-19 at Compton Verney museum, Warwickshire. Most exhibitors are CADA members, but an assortment of guests will stand as well.
Among the highlights is an exhibition devoted to Spanish and Portuguese colonial items, staged by Mayflower Antiques, a specialist in Renaissance and Baroque works of art.
The in-fair show comes complete with a catalogue and features items such as a Spanish mother-of-pearl casket with silver mounts, from 17th century Mexico, which is offered for £14,000.
Another exhibition is staged by Shaw Edwards Antiques, which showcases a small collection of primitive chairs, mostly Welsh. Highlights include a primitive comb-back chair with good patination, c.1780-1800, available for £4950.
Shaw Edwards Antiques offers this primitive comb-back chair, c.1780-1800, for £4950 at the CADA fair.
Other notable objects are provided by Elizabeth Harvey-Lee, who offers etchings by Rembrandt and Pissarro, and WR Harvey, whose selection of furniture features a pair of mid-18th century mahogany Gainsborough chairs available for £12,500.
Among the exhibitors are Architectural Heritage, Jacksons Antique, Haynes Fine Art and Freya Mitton. Guests include Blackbrook Gallery and Mark West. The fair coincides with History in the Making: Highlights from Woburn and the Crafts Council Collections at the museum.
Organised by Ingrid Nilson (fresh from overseeing the Northern Antiques Fair, see story on p38), the fair aims not only to bring buyers through the door but encourage them to get out to visit the galleries of non-participating dealers in the area.
Activity week
BADA Week runs from November 13-17, with a concentration of events in London, but galleries across the country are also included.
Cromwell Place, for example, the South Kensington arts hub, hosts an exhibition by Edinburgh dealership Harvey and Woodd.
In BADA Week Harvey & Woodd showcases this Portrait of Cyril McCormack (1907-90) by John Lavery (1856-1941), oil on canvas, £350,000.
The firm features a portrait of Cyril McCormack (1907-90), son of legendary Irish Tenor John McCormack, by Irish painter Sir John Lavery (1856-1941), the artist who had a studio at No 5 Cromwell Place. It marks the painting’s return to the place of its creation for the first time.
A panel discussion on the importance of connoisseurship in the 20th century takes place on November 14 in the South Kensington venue, with representatives from ArtAncient, Rosemary Bandini, Somlo & OMEGA Vintage and Karen Taylor taking part.
This large ceremonial horse head Kasa or Kjenge is fashioned from dug-out, hand carved and painted birchwood. The Norwegian drinking bowl is inscribed and dated 1791. It retains its original ‘rosemaling’ decoration and is offered by Robert Young Antiques during BADA Week for £4500.
Over in Battersea, Robert Young Antiques stages Stories, Beer, Courtship and Ceremony, an exhibition on Scandinavian folk art, while on Kensington Church Street, Jan Fine Art holds Tenrei: Elegance, focusing on Chinese and Korean ceramics.
Offered for £8500 in BADA Week by JAN Fine Art is this Cizhou dark brown glazed jar from the Jin Dynasty (1115-1234).
Rounding out the week is the presentation of the BADA Art Prize, a Contemporary art award, presented during a reception in Mayfair. The judges for this year are artist Anish Kapoor, Alain Dominique Perrin of the Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art, TV host and pianist Jools Holland and Scottish sculptor Philip Jackson.
Further Cotswolds fair
Meanwhile, also in the Cotswolds as the name certainly suggests, the next Cotswolds Decorative Antiques & Art Fair takes place earlier in the month.
This George III satinwood bonheur du jour writing desk, c.1780, is offered at the Cotswolds Decorative Antiques & Art Fair by WR Harvey Antiques for £7500.
The sold-out event runs at Westonbirt School in Gloucestershire from November 3-5.
It is the third fair that Cooper Events holds at the venue this year. The autumn event was brought back after an absence of more than five years. Organiser Sue Ede says that “the time is right to reintroduce an autumn visit to the Cotswolds”.
Not only is it accessible to many buyers, she adds, it is a chance for her to open the fair to more exhibitors.
Penny Clover from Goodwin Adams Antiques poses with a shield, probably from the Papua New Guinea area, c.1900 or a little later, which is priced £195 at the Cotswolds Decorative Antiques & Art Fair She says: “The shield is carved with skill from one piece of wood. I almost like the back better than the front as that shows traditional skills. The large handle/ arm rest is mainly carved out of the same wood as the actual shield.”
This edition hosts 42 dealers including two fresh faces: Julian Green Gallery and Gray-Webster Gallery. Also standing are John Read-Smith Antiques, Plaza Jewellery, Lesley Blackford and Opus Antiques.
This Swiss Impressionist landscape, c.1900, by Francois Jacques is offered for £2800 at the Cotswolds Decorative Antiques & Art Fair by The Julian Green Gallery.
WR Harvey, also a regular, says that the firm has “acquired several excellent new clients” after exhibiting at previous fairs.
