News

ONE never associates the Chelsea Antiques Fair with thronged aisles and a rush of business, but after more than half a century it must be doing a lot right and the 97th staging from September 17 to 22 at the Old Town Hall in the King’s Road, SW3, did not disappoint most of the 35 exhibitors.

It is now 15 years since the Royal Academy mounted their landmark exhibition, The Age of Chivalry, covering the arts in Plantagenet England from 1200-1400. This week the Victoria and Albert Museum launches its chronological successor – Gothic: Art For England, covering the later medieval period from 1400-1547.

According to Themes & Variations, the West London dealers in 20th century decorative arts and contemporary design, for the past three decades minimalism has developed alongside a taste for baroque extravagance, but without converging.

The fair with the best chance of giving New York and the trade a much-needed lift: I REMEMBER clearly two years ago in the wake of the 9/11 attacks in Manhattan one of the most severe tests for the international trade was the cancellation of London organisers Brian and Anna Haughton’s International Fine Art and Antique Dealers Show, America’s top antiques fair.

September was football time for two of the London rooms, Sotheby’s Olympia (20/10% buyer’s premium) fielded a 437-lot sale on September 11 and Christie’s South Kensington (17.5/10% buyer’s premium), who followed on two weeks later with their 302-lot offering on September 23.

WHEN it comes to the traditional English country house nothing is more redolent of the look of the Victorian and Edwardian periods than the old tack and gun rooms of the country lodge, replete with saddles, whips, boots and mounted trophies such as perch and stag.

What a novel idea Kent dealer Neville Pundole has come up with for his current exhibition at the Neville Pundole Gallery, The Friary, Canterbury.