Dealers

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.

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.

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.

James Butterwick is a dealer in Russian art of the early 20th century in London.

An 1817 miniature of Napoleon by British painter Henry Bone (1755-1834) is among the highlights at Ellison Fine Art’s exhibition of portrait miniatures this month.

'What Happened to Good Design', a summer selling exhibition at Hill House in Kensington Church Street, was inspired by a show at design shop Heal’s in 1982 of the same name. It offers works from the Arts & Crafts period and beyond.

Jane Alexander of Dovehouse Fine Antiques Fairs is always pleased to welcome new faces to her antiques fairs at the Dorking Halls in Surrey.

Giorgio de Chirico’s 'Nudo dormiente', c.1930, is among the works included in Galerie Alexis Pentcheff’s erotic art exhibition 'Qriosa: Secret Room of Indecent Objects', where it is offered for €200,000.

This abstract oil on paper is among the works on paper by the modern British painter Adrian Heath (1920-92) currently on show at St James’s gallery Alan Wheatley Art.

Six months ago a small town on the edge of Dartmoor with a population of 4000 launched an antiques trail to promote all 11 of its antiques and vintage shops. Now the Ashburton Antiques Trail includes both the expansion of one of its existing businesses into larger premises and the arrival of a 12th antiques shop.

Connect – The Independent Art Fair, which debuted at London’s Mall Galleries in January, has added a June event to the 2020 calendar.

Thousands of items are available to buy from dealers online. Here we pick out one that caught our eye this week.