Fairs and Markets

For close to three centuries buyers of art and antiques have been spoilt for choice in London. A city synonymous with archives, galleries, museums, conservators and curators, it continues to support long-standing streets of antiques dealers, centres and a plethora of regular fairs and markets. As this guide to the hotspots suggests, most of them are complementary rather than in competition, and all budgets are catered for.

With a longer run and back to being branded as an independent event, the venerable Art & Antiques Fair Olympia remains a stalwart for both the collector’s market and the decorative trade.

For the British art and antiques trade, the summer ‘season’ still carries plenty of resonance, particularly in London. The days of rowing club colours at Henley and Georgian walnut at the Grosvenor House Hotel have given way to the plethora of June and July showpiece auctions and a clutch of fairs and dealer-led events – London Art Week, Olympia, Masterpiece London, and new kid on the block Fair For Saatchi.

Britain still has many ‘antiques’ towns and streets – those picturesque corners of the island populated by shops, galleries and centres that together act as a magnet for antiques tourists. Two of the largest communities of dealers close to London are Petworth and Hungerford, while a busy schedule of regular fairs and markets takes place to the south-west of London.

Housed in a remarkable purpose-built marquee, Masterpiece London returns to the grounds of the Royal Hospital in Chelsea for its tenth anniversary

The International Antiques & Collectors Fair (IACF) has added the Peterborough Festival of Antiques to its extensive portfolio.

Visitors to the ABA’s 'Firsts: London’s Rare Book Fair' spent more than £3m over the events three days.

Caroline Penman, organiser of the Chelsea Antiques Fair since 1983, is hoping to find a new owner willing to maintain the venerable event.

When Sir Robert Burdett (1716-97), 4th Baron Bramcote, undertook the remodelling of his early 18th century home Foremarke Hall from 1759-62, he contracted Thomas Chippendale to refurnish the house. The cabinet maker – one of several employed in the project – was paid around £1000 for the giltwood seating furniture which is thought to have included at least 10 elbow chairs, two window seats and a sofa.

The annual three-day Kent County Show is a big favourite in the southeast of England and has been held at the Kent County Showground, near Maidstone since 1964.

Six months ago a small town on the edge of Dartmoor with a population of 4000 launched an antiques trail to promote all 11 of its antiques and vintage shops. Now the Ashburton Antiques Trail includes both the expansion of one of its existing businesses into larger premises and the arrival of a 12th antiques shop.

Jane Alexander of Dovehouse Fine Antiques Fairs is always pleased to welcome new faces to her antiques fairs at the Dorking Halls in Surrey.

MADAM – I am mortified to find myself at the cusp of ending one of London’s oldest and favourite art and antiques fairs, unless someone would like to take it on?

A testimony to its popularity, the small weekly fleamarket in Buckingham has been running for more than 25 years.

A three-day biannual vintage and collectors’ fair held outdoors on a farm near Hailsham in East Sussex is now in its second year. It runs this weekend from Friday to Sunday, June 21-23.

A rare early Worcester plate, c.1752, painted in Chinese famille verte style is offered by dealer Robyn Robb at 'A Collectors’ Paradise', the annual group selling show of pottery and porcelain in St James’s. Offered for £9500, it features a bird perched on a flowering prunus tree.

Connect – The Independent Art Fair, which debuted at London’s Mall Galleries in January, has added a June event to the 2020 calendar.

Organisers report that all of their events are fully booked as far ahead as October this year