Fairs and Markets

ARGUABLY the most apt backdrop for an art fair anywhere in the world is the Renaissance city of Florence, and the city can be seen at its best at this time of year when, from September 26 to October 5, the 23rd Florence Biennale takes place at the Palazzo Corsini on the Arno.

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.

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.

FLORIDA has a new quality fair with the launch next February of the Palm Beach Jewelry and Antique Show. It will be held from February 13 to 17 in the newly built Palm Beach Convention Center at West Palm Beach and is intended to become an annual event.

The fire that destroyed three exhibition halls and two thirds of exhibits at the National Motorcycle Museum last week has led to the postponement of one antiques fair and the relocation of another.

LONDON organisers Brian and Anna Haughton long ago conquered the Manhattan fairs scene, first with their flagship International Fine Art and Antique Dealers Show, which celebrates its 15th anniversary next month, then with their specialist fine art and Asian art fairs.

IF his 34th Cheshire Autumn Antiques and Fine Art Fair at Tatton Park over the weekend of September 4 to 7 was an indicator then Robert Bailey’s Harrogate fair should turn over nicely.

ALL 43 exhibitors at Caroline Penman’s Petersfield Antiques Fair enjoyed some business at the Festival Hall from September 5 to 7 with a majority reporting good sales.

International Fine Art Expositions are to repackage its portfolio of Palm Beach art and antiques fairs as the events move to a new venue for 2004. In an effort to distinguish the top-tier fairs from the proliferation of ‘tailgate’ events in southern Florida – and allowing IFAE’s vice-president Lorenzo Rudolf to place his own stamp on the fairs pioneered by David Lester – the three events held this year in a marquee will become two next year at the Palm Beach County Convention Center.

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.

OF all the imminent fairs, the one for which market omens are most favourable is the popular 20/21 British Art Fair, which will take place at the Commonwealth Institute, Kensington High Street, London W8 from September 17 to 21. While the art and antiques industry has been reeling in recent years, one area which has consistently bucked the trend is 20th century British art.

ONE thing you cannot accuse DMG Antiques Fairs of is resting on their laurels. Their Newark International Antiques & Collectors Fair, held six times a year at the Nottinghamshire showground, is Europe’s biggest.

While the antiques trade no longer totally shuts down during late July and August it really gets into gear in September, a particularly intensive time for antiques fairs. There are three major fairs in the capital this month, The Chelsea Antiques Fair, The Decorative Antiques and Textiles Fair and the 20/21 British Art Fair.

AFTER more than 40 years the Chelsea Antiques Fair is to become an annual rather than bi-annual event. From next year owner Caroline Penman will drop the March staging.

NORFOLK-based Joy Fletcher has been involved with antiques fairs in the past but not to the extent of her commitment to a brand new quality event she is launching later this month.

IN A month when keen collectors and scholars of glass – that ancient but sometimes-overlooked fraternity – are coming into the picture in a big way, glass dealer turned specialist fairs organiser Paul Bishop is holding his second Cambridge Glass Fair.

The Stuart Sutcliffe archive received a lukewarm reception at Bonhams Knightsbridge, but Sotheby’s Olympia (20/12% buyer’s premium) are hoping a stamp design by his famous art college friend, John Lennon, will generate more frenzied bidding in their 201-lot Rock ’n’ Roll and Film Memorabilia sale on September 24.

THERE will be fairs aplenty in Harrogate this month, generally of the standfitted type one associates with that elegant Northern venue. First up, however, is an unashamed showground event from September 5 to 7 when Lincolnshire organiser George Taylor, who operates as Grosvenor Exhibitions, stages his Great Northern International Antiques and Collectors Fair at the town’s Great Yorkshire Showground.

MADRID organisers IFEMA stage what is arguably Spain’s top fair, Feriarte, at the Juan Carlos I Exhibition Centre in the Spanish capital from November 22 to 30.