Events and conferences

WELL-known London dealer in all things quirky and decorative, Daniel Mankowitz, has just finished his stint at Olympia and returns to the Battersea gallery he has just opened at Studio F1, The Imperial Laundry, 71 Warriner Gardens, London SW11 4XW (Tel: 0207 498 0000).

November’s Asian Art in London series will again include an Award for Asian Art presented by AXA Art Insurance, the sponsors of the event for the third time. Dealers and auction houses participating in Asian Art in London are invited to enter two separate categories of the award – best two-dimensional object and best three-dimensional object – designed to reward excellence in the selling of Asian Art.

“Mr Woilde, we ’ave come for tew take yew Where felons and criminals dwell: We must ask yew tew leave with us quoietly For this is the Cadogan Hotel.” These lines by John Betjeman form part of a poem that marks one of the most notorious incidents in late Victorian society – The Arrest of Oscar Wilde at the Cadogan Hotel.

Many Antiques Trade Gazette readers will be familiar with the name Francis Raeymaekers of ADC Heritage from his days as a dealer in antique silver. After a sojourn in New York, he is back in London with a new venture.

HOPEFULLY with a host of international collectors and dealers in town for the fairs, there is business to be achieved back at the London shops, and a number of them will be mounting special selling exhibitions during June.

SHOWHOUSES in new housing developments are often a depressing, formulaic affair but this is not the case at the best designed showhouse in town at 20 Aubrey Square, a new residential development of 20 town houses at Campden Hill, Kensington, London W8.

BATTERSEA dealer Robert Young, the country’s only specialist in English and European folk art, holds his fourth annual Exhibition of Antique Folk Art from May 16 to 24 at his showrooms at 68 Battersea Bridge Road, London SW11.

THE British Antiques and Collectables Awards have come round again, with judges from across the trade and auctioneering profession singling out the cream of their colleagues for praise.

FOR the fourth year the Oxfordshire specialist in sporting antiques Manfred Schotten and the London picture dealer Nick Potter have got together for a selling exhibition of golfing art and memorabilia, but for the first time this year the show, which runs until April 17, will be held at Mr Schotten’s shop in Burford.

NEW YORK: EARLY sales at the exhibitions participating in New York’s Asia Week indicate that in this field at least business is very brisk indeed.

MAHOGANY is synonymous with the finest 18th century English furniture and its supreme place in English furniture history is celebrated from April 8 to 25 with a selling exhibition, Magnificent Mahogany – Two Centuries of English Furniture, at Mayfair’s Windsor House Antiques.

COLLECT is the simple name of a new annual event to be launched at the V&A in London in February next year. The Crafts Council say it will be the premier showcase for unique and limited edition contemporary objects.

Caughley Porcelain has been on the up recently, gaining in followers and in value. Enthusiasts for this Shropshire factory will doubtless want to make their way to Stockspring Antiques next month for what looks to be an interesting loan exhibition under the title Paul Sandby and Caughley Porcelain.

HOTELIER Sarah Barrington, who owns the venue, still owns the fair, but David Smith of E.W. Services now organises the popular Thame Easter Antiques Fair, which will run at the Spread Eagle Hotel in the picturesque Oxfordshire town over the Easter weekend of April 18 to 20.

KENSINGTON-based English porcelain specialist Simon Spero is known internationally for the selling exhibitions at his gallery at 109 Kensington Church Street, London W8, and this month he holds one with a guaranteed appeal.

Newly-formed organisers Antiques Fair Management, a division of Shropshire-based Wellington Market Company, have acquired a series of one-day Sunday fairs at Birmingham’s National Motorcycle Museum.

FOR nigh on a decade ceramics dealer Andrew Dando’s Spring exhibition, Animal Dando & Friends, has been a West Country institution, but since the firm moved from their long-time premises in Bath to Wiltshire last September many customers wondered if the show would go on.

NEW YORK specialist dealers in movie posters Posteritati hold some beguiling selling shows, but they look like being onto an international winner with their current one – French Gangsters & The New Wave – which runs at their gallery at 239 Centre Street until March 4.

MAYFAIR’S only specialist in tribal art, the Gordon Reece Gallery, hold an exhibition Gabbehs: an idiosyncratic art form from February 21 to March 29.

The Bank of England Museum was the host and Spink were the auctioneers on Friday, January 24 at one of the most unusual sales seen in London. It was a sale of special number Bank of England notes sold to bolster the funds of the Commonwealth Education Fund.