Fairs and Markets

WHAT business there was came on the final day of the Cheshire County Antiques Fair, staged by Cooper Antiques Fairs at Arley Hall over the weekend of March 14 to 16.

YET again the Bath Decorative and Antiques Fair, held at the Pavilion, North Parade from March 5 to 8, proved a huge success with both the 46 exhibitors and the myriad dealer customers.

ENERGETIC Essex organiser Robert Bailey is never more relaxed than at his London flagship fixture, the Claridge’s Antiques and Fine Art Fair which will be staged at the exclusive Mayfair hotel for the ninth time from April 2 to 6.

CONSIDERING the pervading gloom and doom, exhibitors at the private view of TEFAF Maastricht last Thursday night were surprisingly optimistic and the overall mood at the packed party was distinctly upbeat.

FROM April 10 to 13 the Glasgow Art Fair, the largest contemporary art fair outside London, will run for its eighth year in its pavilions in George Square in the heart of the city.

MORE than 250 dealers from across the US, Canada and Europe will stand at the 27th Annual Chicago O’Hare Spring Antiques Show at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, Rosemont, Illinois from April 25 to 27.

The organisers of the Newark fair have taken a tough stance on stallholders who leave their two-day event early. The clampdown comes after complaints from both stallholders and visitors who object to dealers leaving the fair before the official closing time of 4pm on Tuesday.

Bermondsey Market, a London institution since the 1950s, is to change its current format, downsizing from three to two separate trading areas next month. The move, part of a Southwark Council bid to revitalise the area, is in part a reaction to the decline in the size of the market.

A support group has been formed by the 100 or so dealers with claims against Anthony Gilberthorpe, the previous owner of Stonegate Antiques Centre in York.

WEST Palm Beach, Florida has become quite an international cultural destination in the past few years, largely due to the energy of local fair organisers International Fine Art Expositions, who have successfully staged the Palm Beach International Art and Antique Fair and ArtPalmBeach, an acclaimed Modern and Contemporary show.

TOP London specialist in English pottery Jonathan Horne exhibits at major fairs in London and New York and consistently comes up with top-of-the range stock, which he generally sells very well indeed.

MORE Deco news, this time from Wimbledon organiser Paola Francia-Gardiner who as P&A Antiques is seeing a deal of success with her West London decorative events.

Scrap it or at least make life easier for the trade, new study demands: THE European Union should look again at the whole issue of Import VAT and art market red tape, say The European Fine Art Foundation.

AS a one-off, the spring version of the twice-yearly Cardiff Antiques and Collectors’ Fair decamps to the nearby country town of Cowbridge. Carmarthen-based Robert and Carol Pugh, who operate as Towy Fairs, have been forced out of their regular venue, the Cardiff Bowling Club, by a rather rougher fixture than bowling, the Rugby League Cup Final which will be held at the Millennium Stadium on the same weekend – April 26 and 27.

PEOPLE are always coming up with new fairs, very few of them exciting, but last week I heard of one to be launched this spring, which does seem to have more than just a bit of flair. Boldly called Antiques & Audacity at Arundel Castle, it is organised by an outfit called Zygo.

THE country’s most famous antiques dealer David Dickinson, now a television superstar, did not work his magic on George Taylor, organiser of the Great Northern International Antiques and Collectors’ Fair at Harrogate’s Great Yorkshire Showground.

The Spring Fine Art & Antiques Fair at Olympia, which will be held in London from February 25 to March 2, has received a record amount of publicity thanks to this Graham Sutherland (1903-1980) portrait of Churchill, right.

UK: THE Thames Valley Antique Dealers’ Association have cancelled their Spring Fair at the Blue Coat School, Sonning-on-Thames, Berkshire. The fourth staging was scheduled for April 4 to 6.

CHOCOLATES and roses will be bought by the ton over the days leading up to St. Valentine’s on February 14. But for those looking for a more novel way of pleasing a loved one, Grays Antique Market in Mayfair offers plenty of scope.

A FURTHER reason to be cheerful about the fairs scene comes from America. More than 20,000 attended Florida’s sixth annual ArtPalmBeach fair of Modern and Contemporary art, held at the International Pavilion of the Palm Beaches in the Florida resort from January 8 to 14.