Antiques Trade Gazette 31

years

Rollitt rocks up to RIBA to showcase architects

ENTERPRISING and versatile Hampshire dealer Max Rollitt, as well known for the look he achieves when he stands at fairs as his stock, has been invited by three architects who are having an exhibition at the Royal Institute of British Architects to furnish the exhibition space with his antiques and bespoke furniture. Three young classicists whose skill as architectural designers is matched by an exceptional talent for drawing, present a show of their work at the RIBA, 66b Portland Place, London W1 from May 6 to 29.

Intricate life-size studies of friezes and columns will hang alongside delicate sketches and presentation drawings to demonstrate not all traditional drawing techniques have been lost as young architects concentrate on computer design.

The three, George Saumarez Smith,

Francis Terry and Ben Pentreath,

wanted the gallery to emulate the look of a grand room in an English country house. They turned to Max Rollitt to transform the space. Max seemed an ideal choice, because he is a trained furniture designer and successful interior designer as well as an antique dealer. A long-time fan of Sir John Soane, the dealer’s interiors are grounded by classical principles.

Top: a pair of French c.1910 iron urns with later paint, standing on c.1820 English plinths, for which Gallery 1930 ask £3950.

Above: one of a pair of mid-19th century Regency revival ebonised and brass inlay armchairs which cost £2950 from Kiki Design at the decorative fair.

Above left: on his decorative debut Spencer Swaffer asks £390 each for these c.1920 German sycamore milliners’ heads.

Incidentally, this is the first time in 30 years that Robert has not exhibited at the June Olympia, so he is throwing all his creative energies into the foyer venture. He is working closely with artist Peter Woodward, whose mixed media, Pompeii-inspired murals form the backdrop to the display. Mr Woodward also exhibits at the fair selling pictures and decorative antiques as

3details.

Admission is £10.

His pieces, which are for sale, will only be at RIBA for the first three days.

Below: when he furnishes a room at the RIBA to host an exhibition of architectural drawings by three young classicists, Hampshire dealer Max Rollitt will ask £4800 for this Regency black and gilt side cabinet, 2ft 4in (71cm) wide.

Right: Billy and

Tracey (1983), an oil by Billy Childish, 2ft x 173

/4 in (61 x

45cm), for which newcomers David

Lilford Fine Art

ask £9000 at the Chelsea Art Fair.

Chelsea welcomes Childish and Co

LAST month Caroline Penman held her oldest fixture, The Chelsea Antiques Fair, at Chelsea Old Town Hall in London’s Kings Road, SW3 but next week from April 23 to 25 she returns to the venue with a more recent and very different event.

The Annual Chelsea Art Fair was

launched by Caroline in 1996 and is established as an eminently approachable 20th and 21st century art event. Some 40 galleries participate and while there will be works by the likes of Lowry, John Piper and Mary Fedden costing many thousands, these are not the norm, and there is ample opportunity for first-time buyers to acquire a piece of art for less than £200.

A contemporary sketch can be found at around £50 and, who knows, the artist could be the next Peter Howson, whose work is well represented at the fair by Alpha Art from Edinburgh.

This is not an elitist showcase for the big-name galleries, which is part of the fair’s strength, but there is plenty of quality by emerging and established artists, the big difference to the grander fairs being it is affordable quality.

London dealers include Gagliardi

Gallery, Enid Lawson and The

Russell Gallery, who bring work by Mary Fedden, while among the better- known provincial galleries are Cube from Bristol and Neptune from Derbyshire, the Lowry specialists. Newcomers include the Driftwood

Gallery from Truro in Cornwall, who strike a populist note with pictures by Jack Vettriano and Rolf Harris, and David Lilford from Canterbury, who specialise in the works of Billy Childish, a prolific musician and poet as well as an increasingly recognised artist, but still probably best known as a former lover of Tracey Emin. Admission is £6.

Asian celebration in W1

The first Asia House Fair will be held on April 23 and 24 at Asia House, 63 New Cavendish Street, London W1 and thereafter every six months. This is not an antiques fair, it is a celebration of Asian traditional and contemporary art, crafts and design, bringing together 25 dealers, designers and artists.

The show is curated by Pimlico specialist in antique Asian textiles Joss Graham and his wife Jayne but is the brainchild of Sir Peter Wakefield, one-time chairman of the National Art Collections Fund,

who ten years ago set up the Pan- Asian organisation whose headquarters are at Asia House. Some of the participants are familiar from the now defunct Hali fair, like Joss himself, Christopher

Legge and Mary Deeming, but

most, like Janet Chisholm with her designer Turkish slippers, have no links with the antiques world. The event is a bazaar rather than standfitted. Joss Graham says: “The business model is more a farmer’s market.”

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