Fairs and Markets

PLANS to give a London antiques centre a makeover – turning it into an arcade for interior decorators – has meant six dealers getting their marching orders... or so it seems.

GOOD news for all those British dealers who are anxious to attend a fair in New York sooner rather than later. Back in February, David Lester, head of International Fine Art Expositions, organisers of the acclaimed Palm Beach fair, announced he was planning an autumn fair at Manhattan’s Jacob Javits Convention Center.

FOLLOWING the cancellation of Salon de Mars 2002 owing to a dispute with the venue over a clash with other fixtures, its organisers Association ARES have dissolved and Salon de Mars is no more.

A WEEK ago it was announced that Oxfordshire dealer Edward Reilly-Collins of Hallidays was negotiating a deal to launch a new fair in Chicago with the US-based Stella Show Management.

RESPONDING to the rise and rise of interest in 20th century design Le Salon du XXeme Siecle will be launched in Paris from June 6 to 9 at Le Carrousel du Louvre.

USA: New York may boast the nation’s glitziest antiques fairs in terms of snaring top-tier collectors and socialites, but The 41st Philadelphia Antiques Show tops virtually every single fair when it comes to choice Americana and folk art. Even dealers who participate in New York’s Winter Antiques Show praise the Pennsylvania event. “It’s the best show for Americana,” says Edwin Hild of Olde Hope Antiques based in nearby Bucks County.

EUROPE’s leading showground events organisers DMG Antiques Fairs have been oiling the wheels of their fixtures, and it is much appreciated at Ardingly where their fair has been going from strength to strength.

The elegant Château d’Enghien, 30 kilometres south west of Brussels, will once again play host to the Belgium ceramics fair next month, from May 1-5.

HAMPSHIRE organiser Valerie Sleeney of Grandma’s Attic Fairs holds the first staging of the year of her flagship event at The Pavilion Ballroom, Bournemouth on April 27 and 28.

WEST London’s The Old Cinema in Chiswick, billed by its owner Martin Hanness as the capital’s only antiques department store, is undergoing a major makeover not far off a century after it was opened in 1910.

Bigger stands - startling new stock: THE much-discussed new look for this June’s Olympia Fine Art and Antiques Fair was unveiled last week. This year’s event will combine a bolder more spacious look with a more relaxed attitude toward datelines.

USA: A new prestige antiques fair at Chicago’s Navy Pier next spring is just one of a series of new initiatives from one of the US Antique trade’s most energetic and dynamic figures, Leslie Hindman.

Florida-based Dolphin Promotions launch Great Lakes Modernism at the Southfield Civic Center in suburban Detroit, Michigan, from October 18 to 20.

FRANCE: FROM June 6 to 9 the inaugural Le Salon du XXeme Siecle (20th Century Design Show) will be launched at the Carrousel du Louvre in Paris.

Paris in late March held various attractions for art lovers outside the saleroom. Europ’Art, a new contemporary art salon (March 14-17), attracted 200 artists from 18 countries (40 of them from ‘guest nation’ Israel). The International Paris Print Fair (March 22-25) assembled 30 exhibitors from France, Germany, Spain, Italy and the UK (Elizabeth Harvey-Lee, Flowers Graphics, Garton & Co, Sims Reed, and William Weston).

London fair organisers Patricia and Ralph Harvey have sold Heritage Antiques Fairs, the business they founded 25 years ago as the first Sunday fairs circuit.

FRANCE: A remarkable 21 new dealers are joining this year’s 21st Biennale des Antiquaires, which will be held at the Carrousel du Louvre, in Paris from September 20 to 29.

THE organisers of next week’s Newark fair have been receiving calls from traders and buyers, who have heard that the event will only be open for one day because of the Queen Mother’s funeral on Tuesday.

AS New York’s Asia Week came to a close last week, early reports suggest the market for Oriental work is internationally still very strong and that in this field at least business is back to normal in the American capital.

THERE are no datelines at TEFAF Maastricht, which runs in the Dutch city until March 17, but Old Masters and top quality antiques are the stock that springs immediately to mind.