30 17th April 2010

dealers’ diary

Still fresh after 25

David Moss

email: davidmoss@ antiquestradegazette.com tel: 020 7420 6624

A crafty crossover

SELDOM do I write about the

annual Sculpture Objects and Functional Art Fair (SOFA) which

runs next week at New York’s Park Avenue Armory from April 16-19. It has little to do with the mainstream art and antiques world and, in early years, had the flavour of a crafts fair, with all those connotations of sandals and worthiness, a field I stay away from.

But one must think again. SOFA has been going for 13 years and while recent years were bleak for much of the antiques trade, especially the New York trade, it pulled in the crowds and thrived. A supreme achievement in itself is that it manages to hang on to the prohibitively expensive Park Avenue Armory. I am not sure whether Manhattan’s chosen location for high-end art fairs is deliberately trying to price itself out of the market, but its increased rents have seen the demise of a number of fairs in the past couple of years. To be fair, SOFA is far from a sandal and straps crafts fair. It has a deal of flair and glamour. And the crossover with more traditional fields is apparent.

Among the 54 exhibitors is

Adrian Sassoon of London,

whose contemporary ceramics and glass made an impact when they entered Maastricht a few years ago. And both New York Japanese specialists Joan Mirviss and the

Santa Fe TAI Gallery, whose

crafts include in-demand Japanese baskets, have shown at major fairs which feature antiques and design. This week I also mention the

launch of The Asia House Fair, a

forum for traditional and contemporary Asian works. With Asian, and even more markedly with tribal work, the line between craft and art is often barely perceptible. You can’t ignore any area nowadays.

■ Idea ahead of its time can still be cutting edge today…

■ …even the tradition of welcoming four-legged friends

AFTER a quarter of a century,

clearly The Decorative Antiques & Textiles Fair is

doing not just something, but quite a lot, right.

For a start, though this tri-annual event is now a London trade institution, it retains a freshness and distinct identity which is especially hard to maintain in this fickle niche of the market. When launched by Patricia and Ralph

Harvey in 1985 it had a then radical brief, to service the interior decoration industry. That was then a burgeoning if largely American trend, but the launch proved prescient as over the decades since the decorator has become a dominant force internationally. Wisely, when decorative dealer and long-time exhibitor David Juran of

Marylebone’s Magus Antiques bought

the fair at the end of 2008, the transition was seamless and the appeal of the event remains intact – including the long- standing custom of welcoming well- behaved dogs to the show. The Spring version of the fair runs

from April 20 to 25 in its trademark marquee in Battersea Park, SW11. The fair is full to capacity with 130 stands and hosts ten newcomers. These include Spencer Swaffer from Arundel, one of the UK’s busiest and best-known decorative dealers who is standing at his first fair in 20 years.

Others joining include Olympia regular David Bedale from Cheshire with an eclectic decorative stock; Martin Johnson from East Sussex with garden and architectural items; David Foord- Brown from West Sussex with a variety of more formal period stock, including a French Empire desk which once belonged to the Queen’s couturier, Norman

Hartnoll, and Angus Adam from East Sussex, formerly Chevertons, with largely period furniture. Among those returning are one-time

regular Carol Ketley from London with mirrors and glassware; London’s Linda Gumb with textiles and decorative furniture and Julia Bennett from Derbyshire with English period furniture. You might have noticed among those making their debut and those coming back that there are a number of dealers in the traditonal, and not the decorative.

St James’s hails Russian specialists

ST James’s may be one of the capital’s most concentrated districts for upmarket art dealing, but since the recession set in there has been a remarkable flurry of activity around its many gallery premises. I hear prices are down at present and art dealers are taking any opportunities. The latest recruit to St James’s, SW1 is The Aktis Gallery, which opens on April 14 at 11 Park Place (Tel: 0207 629 6531). It will focus on Russian artists who have worked in exile since 1900.

For the opening exhibition, which runs to June 1, the directors, Iana Kobeleva and Anna Chalova, show previously unseen drawings by nonconformist Russian artist Vladimir Yankilevsky. His drawings seldom come on the market.

Decorators do, increasingly, buy traditional antiques, but for a few years now a number of traditional dealers have enjoyed very good business with the increasing number of private buyers who frequent the fair. However, the modish decorative items aimed at the decorator remain the backbone of the event, although, all round, private buying has become an important aspect, attracting younger, more adventurous customers who often do not visit other antiques fairs. For the past five years the foyer exhibition has become a worthwhile ingredient of the fixture because all items are drawn from exhibitors’ stands, so everything is for sale. This month’s should be well worth

noting. Robert Barley, veteran antiques dealer and successful sculptor, will create a classical garden in the foyer with a display of statuary, columns, gates, urns, benches and the like, all redolent of an ancient Roman villa but also very much the stuff of this fair. Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72