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The British Antique Dealers' Association Antiques & Fine Art Fair

by Lita Solis-Cohen

The British Antique Dealers' Association (BADA) Antiques & Fine Art Fair, an annual March event, filled an enormous tent on the grounds of the Duke of York's Headquarters in Chelsea, March 21-27.

Last year, this show was voted "Fair of the Year" at the British Antiques and Collectables Awards. The short list for the award included the Grosvenor House Art and Antiques Fair and the Olympia Fine Art and Antiques Fair in June. The show was judged on its elegant design, first-class catering, and quality of events. This year, it was every bit as good, some said better.

In all, 99 members of BADA, top dealers from all parts of the U.K., showed at the fair. They offered good brown furniture, paintings, drawings, glass, ceramics, plenty of clocks and barometers, a selection of woodenware, textiles, silver, and jewelry. Most of it was English, but organizer Gillian Craig said there was an effort to show more Continental furniture, paintings, and works of art this year. The show is vetted, and each exhibitor guarantees what he or she sells.

Some of the most respected dealers in the country have exhibited at the show each of its nine years. Among them, Norman Adams Ltd., C. Fredericks & Son, and Richard Courtney Ltd. are well known for fine English furniture. Stewart Whittington of Norman Adams Ltd. stressed the importance of old finishes. He pointed to a chapter in his 1983 book, now in its sixth printing, in which he stresses the value of furniture fresh to market with its old surface intact.

Some of the BADA dealers are well known to Americans because they participate in shows in New York City. Alistair Sampson, H.H. Bourdon-Smith, and Jonathan Horne have shown at the fall International Fine Art and Antique Dealers Show. Horne, Howards of Aberystwyth, Janice Paull, Mark J. West, and Brian and Angela Downes were at the New York Ceramics Fair in January. Drawings and watercolors dealer Charles Plante, an American living in London, exhibited at the Nantucket (Massachusetts) Historical Association show last summer.

Half a dozen dealers were new to the show, and five had returned after an absence, keeping the show fresh.

The show coincided with London Design Week at Chelsea Harbour, and the two events shared ticketing and other marketing initiatives. The purchase of a ticket to the BADA show automatically entered the ticket holder in a drawing for lunch for two at the legendary Le Manoir Aux Quat' Saisons, near Oxford, sponsored by Relais & Chateaux, an association of over 400 hotels and restaurants worldwide.

American show committees and show managers could learn much from this show. The Dutch-built tent had heating and air-conditioning units. The portable bathrooms could have won a House and Garden or Good Housekeeping award. The design was brilliant, with broad gangways (as the aisles are called). There were restaurants in two corners of the tent. The Duke of York's Club, where sandwiches and drinks were available, was furnished with leather chairs and cocktail tables. The larger and more formal Cellini Restaurant was where dealers took their best customers for a long lunch. Jeroboams Champagne Bar was a smaller space with a few tables. The broad aisles, the attention to details, the tented stands, and the neat fascia boards created a sense of stability and elegance missing from some major shows in the United States.

The spacious, well-lighted reception area had chairs for those awaiting the arrival of colleagues. Gander & White Shipping had a stand there, as did the Gainsborough Silk Weaving Co. Ltd., a provider of upholstery fabrics, West Dean College, Chichester, and icollector.com. There was an attractive display of magazines.

The loan exhibition from the Victoria and Albert Museum, Masterpieces from the British Galleries, was in a special section adjacent to the Cellini Restaurant. It was sponsored by Aon Artscope, specialist art insurance brokers, with the transport sponsored by Gander & White Shipping.

The V & A lent 14 important recent acquisitions and newly restored items, and show visitors took time to look at them carefully. The items included the diarist John Evelyn's ebony cabinet with gilt bronze mounts and pietre dure panels by Domenico Benotti (active 1630-50). Evelyn ordered the panels in 1644 and probably had the cabinet made in Florence. During restoration, the conservator discovered a set of three secret drawers behind each outer pilaster.

There was also a cast bronze bust of King Charles I (1600-1649) by Francesco Fanelli (active 1605-circa 1641). (The bronze plaques on John Evelyn's cabinet are after models by Fanelli.) This sculpture is considered the finest likeness of Charles I to have survived. A fine silver wine fountain, cistern, and cooler made for Thomas Parker, 1st Earl of Macclesfield (1666-1732), is marked by Anthony Nelme (d. 1723), a leading London goldsmith. According to the show catalog, "This is the only known matching wine set of three pieces—a grand 18th century equivalent of dishwasher and refrigerator."

The smallest recent acquisition displayed was a Frost Fair glass dated January 1684 with a silver mount engraved "Bought on ye Thames ice Janu:ye 17 1683/4." Made in Southwark, London, this is a tiny souvenir of one of the most unusual fairs ever held in London, when the ice held on the frozen Thames for six weeks. John Evelyn in his diary described the river "planted with bothes in formal streetes...all sorts of Trades & shops furnished, & full of Commodities, even to a Printing presse, where the People & Ladys took a fansy to have their names Printed & the day & yeare set downe, when printed on the Thames."

This reduced version of an ale mug is important as the only known accurately dated piece of glass of the 1680's. The glass is slightly crizzled, indicating that it cannot have been made at George Ravenscroft's Savoy glasshouse, where a solution to that problem had been found in the late 1670's. It is therefore attributed to Bowles and Lillington's glasshouse in Stony Street, Southwark.

Throughout the week a steady stream of collectors and buyers, many from abroad, visited the show. BADA holds its charity party on the second night after serious buyers have had two days to spend at the show. Their Royal Highnesses Prince and Princess Michael of Kent were guests of honor at the charity reception and dinner, which benefited KIDS, an organization that works for children with special needs. The event raised <156>85,000 (approx. $127,500). Gerrard, a private investment management company, sponsored the party.

The BADA antiques fair is known for the special programs that accompany the show. This year, there was a highly successful fashion show, "Clothes and Jewels for an English Summer," showcasing couturier Samantha Shaw's latest collection, complemented by antique jewelry from Sandra Cronan, an exhibitor at the show. There were also lectures on architecture and interior design, and a wine tasting with Berry Bros. & Rudd.

Sales were made at all levels. London silver dealer Marks sold its best piece, a magnificent, massive French parcel-gilt jewel casket, circa 1824, to a private client for around <156>300,000 (approx. $450,000). C. & L. Burman (Works of Art) Ltd., London, sold a rare miniature croquet set, circa 1900, for <156>1500 (approx. $2250) during the opening minutes of the show.

Suffolk House Antiques, Yoxford, Suffolk, sold a rare Queen Anne stool for <156>40,000 (approx. $60,000) to a private client. Robert Hirschhorn, a private dealer in English furniture, reported his best BADA show ever. He sold, among other pieces, a 19th-century ash bureau for around <156>6000 (approx. $9000). Freeman and Lloyd, Folkestone, Kent, sold a drum table, circa 1820, for around <156>25,000 (approx. $37,500) to New York collectors.

Music Room Antiques, Horsham, West Sussex, specializes in early square pianos and sold an Adam Beyer five-octave square mahogany piano on a trestle stand, circa 1788, for approximately <156>7000 (approx. $10,500). Showing for the first time at the BADA show, Laura Bordignon of Finchingfield, Essex, sold a Tokyo school bronze and ivory figure of a man by Kaneda Kenjiro, circa 1880, for <156>17,000 (approx. $25,500).

Clocks traditionally sell very well at this show. Raffety & Walwyn, London, sold a George II teardrop tavern clock, 1780-90, for about <156>15,000 (approx. $22,500) as well as some bracket clocks and mantel clocks. Anthony Woodburn Ltd., Lewes, East Sussex, sold a rare ebony quarter repeating Tompion clock, circa 1680. Jillings, Newent, Gloucestershire, a new exhibitor, sold a Louis XVI ormolu mantel clock, circa 1775, signed "Viger A Paris" for about <156>6000 (approx. $9000). Barometers were sold for <156>8000 (approx. $12,000) and <156>3000 (approx. $4500). West End picture dealers also reported some sales.

English pottery dealer Jonathan Horne of London, who was in Philadelphia for the shows in April, said he sold well. English porcelain dealer Robyn Robb of London sold more than half her stock, her finest wares first.

Many of the country shows and auctions were canceled because of the outbreak of foot and mouth disease, so the London marketplace is more important this season than ever before. Those with shops in the countryside depend on the London shows. The BADA show had a gate of 16,000, about the same as last year's record attendance. The right people came to the BADA show, and they bought.

There is hope that trade throughout the U.K. will be back to normal by the next BADA Antiques & Fine Art Fair, March 13-19, 2002. For more information, write to BADA, 20 Rutland Gate, Knightsbridge, London SW7 1BD, or check the Internet (www.bada.org) or (www.bada-antiques-fair.co.uk).