Fairs and Markets

The Florida organisers International Fine Art Expositions (IFAE) have teamed up with the French dealer association Syndicat National des Antiquaires (SNA), organisers of the Paris Biennale, to launch a Miami fair in 2014.

A gang of robbers wearing ‘Halloween’ type masks and dressed all in black got more than they bargained for when staff at the well-known Hemswell Antiques Centre fought back to foil their raid.

The strong historical appeal and the internet are two reasons for the growing interest in postcards, says David Smith, who runs IPM Promotions’ monthly postcard and collectors’ fair in Central London.

Newbury may have had Kirstie Allsopp, Ardingly may have had Cara Delevingne and many a London fair or market can boast of celebrity visits – but far-off Anglesey has now trumped them all.

It seems only yesterday that the June Olympia fair closed its doors at the West London venue, but its wintry cousin is almost upon us.

The specialist Old Master fair ‘Paris Tableau’ set up last year in the French capital is about to embark on its second staging.

Birmingham’s NEC is once again about to host the egalitarian jamboree of the antiques world.

It was only after an epic battle for Spitalfields’ rich heritage by local conservationists that many of the area’s 17th and 18th century houses were preserved from redevelopment ten years ago.

Sheffield Antiques Quarter is planning a November 25 Christmas fair as its official opening, but it has effectively already relaunched.

For ten years now, London’s ‘Frieze’ art fair has been a temple that consigns itself strictly to the new and the now. Dedicated to art produced after the year 2000, collectors, curators and the general public have flocked to see the spectacle and view the next big thing.

The popular ‘Antiques & Home Show’, held six times a year at the Lincolnshire Showground, is to change from a three- to a two-day event.

The Scottish organisers and dealers Arte in Europa, best known for organising the ‘Edinburgh Art Fair’, are expanding south of the Border with a new fair in Cheshire.

While most initiatives connected with the Asian art market continue to expand apace, the ‘New York Arts of Pacific Asia Show’ – since 1995 a lynchpin of New York Asia Weeks – has announced that it will not run in the spring of 2013 due to lack of a suitable venue.

A 51-year-old man has been arrested in connection with ‘bounced cheques’ at an antiques fair.

International Antiques and Collectors Fairs (IACF) have announced three additional dates for 2013 at their Swinderby, Ardingly and Shepton Mallet events.

Every October for the past decade, the excitement whipped up by the arrival of ‘Frieze Art Fair’ in London has been the envy of many a fair organiser and the wider art world.

“We had the idea of bringing speciality markets into the city before Mary Portas,” says Jackie Edwards, who runs two booming Sunday monthly markets in Winchester.

Last month, we reported on Sue Ede’s purchase of The Bath Decorative Antiques Fair from Robin Coleman, the Bath-based dealer who has organised the event for the past 23 years.

There was a positive air as the third ‘Masterpiece London’ fair closed after a week’s run in its lavish purpose-built pavilion at the Royal Hospital Chelsea.

Following the successful inaugural fair at the venue earlier this year, the Cotswold Art & Antique Dealers’ Association have finalised a date for the second ‘CADA Antique and Art Fair’ at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, next year.