38 29th May 2010

dealers’ diary

David Moss

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

Just the ticket

BY now anyone with even the vaguest interest in antiques is aware that there will be more quality works on sale at fairs around the capital in June than ever before. And sales are what fairs are all about.

But two of the summer fairs

offer non-selling attractions which are both welcome and relevant.

Modern British Masters:Pictures

from the Bryan FerryCollection is

a loan exhibition at Olympia and it showcases 15 rarely seen paintings from the acclaimed collection of the rock star. The Roxy Music singer’s passion for eartly 20th century art is well known and he has been collecting for 30 years. Orpen, Wyndham Lewis and Sickert are among the names in the show curated by Richard

Shone of Burlington Magazine.

An inspired choice, as Ferry is an

international celebrity and style icon as well as a familiar figure at the London fairs where he is a very good customer indeed. And the exhibition won’t harm Modern British sales around the fair.

Art Antiques Londonopens to

the public on June 10, as does Phase 2 of the V&A Ceramics Gallery. Organisers the Haughtons have arranged that visitors to the fair can use their ticket for a unique pre-opening viewing of the new galleries on June 9. With some 26,000 objects in beautiful new displays this is a real treat for ceramics buffs, and it is

appropriate since Art Antiques

Londonincorporates the long-

running International Ceramics Fair and Seminar.

Exhibitors from the ceramics fair have a dedicated following who are committed and actually spend every year. The ceramics collectors will appreciate the chance of a private glimpse of the new galleries which should whet the appetite to make a purchase the following day.

BEFORE the June fairs are upon us with an assortment of new events which make this summer the most remarkable for years, let us look at how a venerable niche fixture fared in the run-up to the summer season.

The 25th London Original Print Fair,

the longest-running print fair in the world, ran at the Royal Academy from April 29 to May 3 and, with 67 exhibitors, was the largest ever.

And for many of them it was also the most successful ever.

Mayfair gallery Osborne Samuel

described the six days as “our best fair ever three times over”.

They sold major linocuts by Cyril Power and 30 copies of the new

publication Henry Moore: Prints andPortfolios, each

with two previously unpublished prints by the artist.

London dealers

Advanced Graphics sold

45 works with total sales figures well above previous years, while Frederick Mulder also had sales higher than ever before, including 25 Picassos (ten on opening night).

First-time US exhibitor

Mary Ryan reported

exceptionally strong sales, including to UK museums, and was thrilled to meet the

artist Paula Rego who

came to see the Andrew Raftery engravings on her stand.

Alan Cristea Gallery came close to

selling out some of his new editions, including a Jim Dine, while fellow Mayfair

A Parisian night to celebrate

FOR more than 15 years, dealers and booksellers in the 8th Arrondissement, which includes some of Paris’s most salubrious shopping thoroughfares, have mounted a joint celebration on the evening of the first Wednesday in June. This year’s Nocturne Rive Droite will be

held from 5pm to 11pm on June 2 with 70 participating galleries and no fewer than 35 vernissages. Those joining in for the first time include Belgian Guy Pieters and Tornabuoni Art who have moved into Avenue Matignon, Maurizio Nobile from Italy who has opened on rue de

Penthièvre, Guy Bellou and Tatiana

Tournemine on Faubourg Saint-Honoré and Atelier 17 of Rue de l’Arc de Triomphe.

Oldest, biggest and best yet – the fair that prints money

Left: underscoring the current strength of linocuts by British Futurist artist Cyril Power (see Art Market page 42) was the success of Mayfair art dealer Osborne Samuel at the London Original Print Fair.Among some major Power linocuts which helped them to their best-ever fair was this signed 1930 print The Eight from an edition of 50.

Venice etching and two Samuel Palmers which went to new clients. Old Masters also had their moments with Christopher Mendes selling a Goya self-portrait to a collector while French Old Master dealers A&D Martinez sold prints up to £21,500 with the British Museum and the V&A among their customers. Fair director Helen Rosslyn said:

dealers Fine Art Society, veterans of

many big fairs here and abroad, reported their best sales ever.

Among them was an early Bridget Riley screenprint priced at £36,000, a Whistler

“There was a palpable sense of optimism when we closed our doors and a belief that the fair has developed into a very significant event over the years. “The fair’s success confirms the good health of the international art market and the level of sales and attendance is testament to the fact that London is the place in Europe to stage an international art fair of this calibre.”

Fogg carves his own niche

AMONG the London dealers eschewing June fairs in favour of their own shows is Mayfair medievalist Sam Fogg who, from June 3 to July 30, holds his annual

sculpture show Sculpture: Romanesque to

Renaissanceat 15D Clifford Street, W1. Exhibits in ivory, alabaster, marble, stone, wood and stucco range mainly from the 11th to early 16th centuries, but one of the most impressive pieces comes from within Sam’s particular speciality, 11th and 12th century carvings.

This is the 12th century limestone font,

right, carved in relief all round with birds, flowers, trees and beasts. Supported by four crouching lions, it was probably once set in the centre of a large piazza. Earlier than the main time range is a 4ft 9in (1.44m) high Byzantine tomb door,

probably from Syria or the Holy Land and dating to c.400-600 AD. It is made of basalt and carved with six relief panels. Monumental stone doors such as this one have been found in Christian, Jewish and pagan contexts and there is a comparable door in the Metropolitan Museum, New York. The exhibition features a group of English alabaster carvings and of special note is a tonsured St. Dominic. While such carvings were produced in some quantity during the 15th century this subject is very rare, making it an important work. Among the Renaissance works on show

are examples of Italian and North European sculpture, a field close to Sam Fogg’s heart since Northern Renaissance art is one of his main areas of expertise. One of the Italian 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  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80