Fairs and Markets

FOLLOWING rumours in the trade, London-based fair organisers Brian and Anna Haughton have confirmed exclusively to ATG that they will launch a high-end international fair in Dubai next February.

CHICAGO-based art event promoter Mark Lyman has been appointed vice president of International Fine Arts Expositions (IFAE) by owner dmg world media. IFAE’s American flagship event is The Palm Beach Fair and Palmbeach Contemporary Art Fair.

The increasingly prosperous North East of England will receive its first high-end antiques fair next February when 27 LAPADA or BADA dealers descend upon Linden Hall, near Morpeth in Northumberland.

ARTHUR Swallow Fairs are having free entry on Wednesdays at their two-day Tuesday/Wednesday events at RAF Swinderby.

PRESTIGE Ceramic Fairs have a new and attractive venue; in Kent at the 16th century Sutton Valence School which is set in 100 acres of grounds in the Weald of Kent, near Maidstone.

THE winter Antiques For Everyone fair at Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre has been brought forward a month to November 1 to 4 from November 29 to December 2.

FLORIDA-based art world entrepreneur David Lester has put back the launch of SeaFair, his fine art yacht, from June to September.

THE Buxton Antiques Fair has been running for 43 years, which must make it one of the UK’s longest established dateline fairs.

“WE’VE got 1700 exhibitors at our March fair at the East of England Showground and we’ve been fully booked for six weeks now, with 1100 stallholders inside three large halls – including the Cambridge Suite with fine quality pieces – and marquees, and 600 dealers outside,” said Chris Hart of Bob Evans Fairs , the organiser of the twice-yearly Peterborough Festival of Antiques.

One of the highlights of this year’s TEFAF (The European Fine Art Fair) in Maastricht was this delightful Chinese Warring States bronze wine pourer formed as a tapir on the stand of St James’s, London Oriental specialists Littleton and Hennessy.

FOR the third successive year, dealers from the UK’s two major antiquarian bookselling organisations, ABA and PBFA have combined forces at the Edinburgh Book Fair which this year takes place on March 23 and 24 in Edinburgh’s Assembly Rooms.

Exhibitors find a fortnight in London too costly to bear

SILKS from China, carpets from Persia, cottons, shawls and kilims from India, Euopean embroidery and lace, antique buttons and bows – some of these fine textiles, fabrics and accessories are now an essential part of any vintage fashion fair.

BELGIAN art dealer Maximin Berko is the driving force behind the Shanghai Fine Jewellery and Art Fair which will be launched at the Shanghai Exhibition Centre from October 13 to 21 this year.

ON Friday and Saturday, February 23 and 24, the Royal Bath and West Showground at Shepton Mallet will host the largest postcard, tradecard, postal history and ephemera fair in the UK.

THE untimely death on January 16 of Robert Noortman, the charismatic Dutch picture dealer who co-founded of the TEFAF Maastricht art fair, inevitably raises questions about the controversial relationship between Noortman Master Paintings and its owners Sotheby’s.

ROBERT Noortman, the high-profile Maastricht picture dealer and one of the founding fathers of the TEFAF Maastricht fair, has died of a heart attack, aged 60.See next week's ATG for a full report.

WE regret to announce the death on January 5 of long-time exhibitor and chairman of TEFAF Maastricht Dave Aronson. He was 60.

“Dealers in fear of a turfing-out” ran the story in ATG No 1722, January 14, which told the story of the Somerton Antiques Centre, home to 27 dealers.

“We've timed it just right, opening a new fair,” said Trevor Vallis of Wyefairs, who is adding to his portfolio of events in Kent this year.