This is the 97th staging of what is an antiques world institution which follows a tried and trusted formula. Some 35 dealers in mainly traditional, good-quality stock will show in this strictly vetted show which has evolved a characteristic relaxed – at times even somnambulent – ambience.
Organised and owned by Caroline Penman, this will be the last six-day Chelsea fair and next September it reverts to its customary 10-day run. It was after consultations with her dealers that Mrs Penman changed to six days, but it did not take long for the regular exhibitors to state their preference for the old duration.
The September Chelsea formula has worked for over half a century but another Chelsea formula will change from next year. Since the late 1950s, the Chelsea Antiques Fair has been held in March and September but next year the March fair will be dropped.
March has become a busy month for fairs in London. The Spring Olympia is now firmly ensconced early in the month and the BADA Antiques & Fine Art Fair – three times the size of the Chelsea fair and staged at the same time – has gone from strength to strength over the past decade.
Very wisely, Mrs Penman looked at market forces and decided to concentrate on September. Last year the organiser toyed with a more modern, new look Chelsea but she realises tradition is Chelsea’s strength and this will be emphasised.
The September Chelsea is recognised as an event based on period furniture and this aspect is reinforced this month with the inclusion of David Foord-Brown and Roger Carling, and the return of Freeman and Lloyd, all noted furniture dealers. But it is not all about furniture – also joining are Bell Fine Art from Winchester, the Hunt Gallery from Kent with contemporary art (pictures are not datelined) and East Sussex clock specialists David and Sarah Pullen.
They join such well known regular exhibitors as W.R. Harvey, Robert Young, Serendipity Antiques, Peter Bunting, Denzil Grant and Paul Hopwell.
Admission is £8 on opening day and £5 thereafter. Incidentally, in case anyone gets the impression that with the dropping of the March Chelsea, Caroline Penman is downsizing her operation I can reveal that she will be announcing four new fixtures for 2004, one of them in London.
Chelsea plays to September strengths as March fair is abandoned
FIRST out of the pack of September quality fairs is the oldest, The Chelsea Antiques Fair, which was founded in 1950 and runs again at Chelsea Old Town Hall in the King’s Road, London SW3 from September 17 to 22.
