Fairs and Markets

SUSSEX-based Caroline Penman, that doyenne of fair organisers, moved into Uckfield last year and it has not taken her long to stamp her identity on the small market town.

MOVING from its usual September slot, the autumn Decorative Antiques and Textiles Fair – the last of the three annual stagings – will be in its trademark marquee in Battersea Park, London SW11 from October 5 to 10.

VETERAN organiser Fred Hynds of Wakefield Ceramics Fairs holds a ceramics event at Burford School, Burford, Oxfordshire this weekend on October 2 and 3.

OCTOBER is the busiest month in New York for London-based organisers Brian and Anna Haughton who, as Haughton Fairs, brought quality, vetted fairs to Manhattan in 1989 with the launch of their International Fine Art and Antique Dealers Show at The Seventh Regiment Armory on Park Avenue.

NEW YORK’s pioneer organisers Wendy Management have been putting antiques fairs together for 70 years but they are not resting on their laurels.

FROM October 1 to 5, for the fifth year running, West Country organiser Louise Walker stages The Harrogate Antiques Fair at the International Centre in the heart of the North Yorkshire town.

CLARION Events, who run the Summer Olympia Fine Art and Antiques Fair, are to cut the number of stands at next year’s staging.

SOMETHING for nothing is seldom attainable but always desirable and David Fletcher of Unicorn Fairs promises just that at his Lancashire fixture on Sunday October 10.

MORE good news for standholders, this time from Ruth Thurman of Field Dog Fairs.

NOW well established, the twice-yearly Petersfield Antiques Fair, organised by Caroline Penman at the Hampshire town’s Festival Hall, is a traditional fair which usually ticks over to the general satisfaction of its 43 or so exhibitors.

PLANS are advanced for a new international London art fair next summer at the Royal Academy’s Burlington Gardens premises.

DERBYSHIRE dealer and now organiser, Nicholas Gent started Prestige Ceramics Fairs last June when he took over the London Ceramics Fair at the Lancaster Gate Thistle Hotel from veteran specialist fairs promoter Fred Hynds. He will be back in the capital next January, but, in the meantime, he launches a new event nearer home with the first Derbyshire Ceramics Fair at the Cavendish Hall, Chatsworth on October 9 and 10.

NOW well established, the twice-yearly Petersfield Antiques Fair, organised by Caroline Penman at the Hampshire town’s Festival Hall, is a traditional fair which usually ticks over to the general satisfaction of its 43 or so exhibitors.

SWITZERLAND hosts a new international fair later this year with the launch of The Basel Ancient Art Fair from November 12 to 17 at the historic Wenkenhof, just outside the city of Basel.

FRIEZE, the contemporary art fair launched to much critcal and commerical acclaim in Regent’s Park last year, is to have a supporting act this October.

SOME weeks ago, I reported that preparations were going well for Robert Bailey’s 54th annual Northern Antiques Fair which this year leaves Harrogate and moves to, arguably, the most prestigious venue in the county, Harewood House, near Leeds, stately home of Lord and Lady Harewood.

AFTER two and a half years of exile from organising (following the sale of Cooper Antiques Fairs to Sue Ede) Reg Cooper, is delighted to be back on the scene.

OVERLAPPING with the start of the Biennale (September 15-19) will be the third annual Parcours des Mondes, a Left Bank gallery trail featuring 50 tribal art dealers.

CHELSEA antiques centre Antiquarius has been looking a bit tired of late but its new manager Neil Jackson is determined to put the pep back into the enterprise, which was launched at 131-141 King’s Road, SW3 in 1970 by antiques market pioneer Bennie Gray and is now owned by Atlantic Antiques Centres.

ANTIQUES never have a low profile in Harrogate, but over the next few weeks they will dominate the North Yorkshire town with three fairs in the vicinity and the numerous antiques shops and galleries making a special effort to impress the autumn visitors, traditionally many of them antiques tourists.