Antiques Trade Gazette 27 at the double...


Penman puts prices as key to Chelsea’s 70-year appeal


IT first opened at Chelsea Old Town Hall in 1950, and Penman Fairs’ Chelsea Antiques Fair is still going into its seventh decade. Caroline Penman took on the event


in 1984 after the death of Josephine Graham-Ballin, who had run the fair for 33 years. The next Spring Chelsea Antiques Fair


will roll around at the Chelsea Old Town Hall from March 23 to 27 with 36 dealers standing, most of them specialising in smaller, portable items, better suited to this venue which is by no means enormous. And of course, providing pieces in a


lower price bracket than the BADA fair, it benefits from running alongside the grander event taking place an easy walk up the King’s Road. “The Chelsea Antiques Fair is


Above: although period furniture proliferates at the BADA fair where buyers tend to have traditional tastes, more modern design also appears such as this Corinthian column chair by Piero Fornasetti (1913-1988) on the stand of Holly Johnson from Macclesfield, Cheshire. The 3ft 1in (94cm) high chair, constructed from lithographically-printed lacquered wood, was produced after Fornasetti’s death in 1990, and is priced at £3500.


seems a popular tactic with organisers, and this year the BADA fair’s loan show will be Private Passions – Two Great Private Collections, including Lord Ashcroft’s collection of medals awarded to the SAS and other British Special Forces and silver, bronzes and maiolica from The Schroder Collection. Michael Naxton, curator of the Lord


Ashcroft Collection of gallantry awards, will give a talk about the collection at the fair at 11am on Monday, March 28, and Deborah Lambert, curator of the Schroder Collection, will give a talk entitled The Schroder Collection: A Family Affair at the fair at 11am on Thursday, March 23. Tickets for both talks have to be


booked in advance. Prices per person per lecture are £15 (including admission to the fair) or £10 for those who already have an invitation to the fair. Admission £10, £15 for two. www.bada-antiques-fair.co.uk


synonymous with the UK antiques market and an established event on the famous King’s Road,” says Caroline “We eschew the grand displays and


formalities of larger fairs to focus on informality, approachability and, most of all, keeping exhibits competitively priced.” Key to this fair are ceramics, and this


year specialists including Roger de Ville from Staffordshire with British 19th and 20th century pottery and Jupiter Antiques from East Sussex who will bring selected pieces from the recently purchased Langmead Collection of blue and white and transfer printed Worcester porcelain. Australian dealers A & M Antiques


will be making their debut with Royal Worcester, Peter Jackson from Oxfordshire has Derby porcelain and Carolyn Stoddart-Scott of London brings 19th century porcelain. But while the fair is ceramics heavy,


there is a greater range on offer, as illustrated by the specialisms of some of the new exhibitors this year. Anthemion Antiques from Cumbria


and Cantelo from the Isle of Wight will both bring period furniture, while Stratford Armouries from Stratford upon Avon continue their calendar of fair debuts this year with antique armour, cannon and decorative objects Another person upping their fair


Continued on page 28 Q


ANGELIKA FRIEBE Antiquarian maps, books and prints dealer


www.mapwoman.com 10 uestions


1. Where are you based? Dorking, Surrey and online at www.mapwoman.com and www.online-galleries.com.


2. What do you deal in? I specialise in antique maps and prints, from the 16th to the 20th centuries, representing a variety of areas and subjects.


3. How long have you been dealing? My late partner and I founded the company in 1996 and I have been running it on my own for the last nine years.


4. Do you do any fairs? Three or four times a year I show at the PBFA fairs and I am a regular exhibitor at the London Map Fair at the Royal Geographical Society in June. I will be exhibiting at Caroline Penman’s Chelsea Fair in March and later in the year at the Battersea Decorative Fair.


Above: towards the top end of the price range at the Chelsea fair is this Chinese Transitional blue and white double-gourd bottle vase, Chongzheng period (1628-1644), 8½in (21.5cm) high, which will cost £18,000 from J.A.N. Fine Art.


Below: meanwhile, at the lower end of the Chelsea prices is this c.1880 cranberry over citron preserve jar, with an EPNS plated top, collar and handle. The 4½in (11cm) high jar is unmarked but is thought by exhibitor Richard Hoppé, a glass specialist from North Devon, to be the work of Stevens and Williams and it will be priced at £325.


5. What was your first job? I am a fully trained dental nurse who got exposed to the nicer things in life while I was working for a dentist in Bond Street, whose wife was running an antique porcelain company. Though, actually, I came into maps through – wouldn’t you have guessed it? – a man!


6. Best thing about being a dealer? Being your own master. Spending money on items of good stock knowing they are appreciated. Searching for the unusual, doing the deal.


7. And the worst? Balancing the books – just ask my accountant!


8. What has been your best buy? Finding some very rare and unusual maps in a job lot – in a grotty old folder.


9. And your biggest mistake? Buying a very expensive map for a client who then declined the offer.


10. Guiltiest pleasure? Turning collector and finding it very hard to part with a desired object.


If you are a dealer and would like to be featured in 10 Questions email annabrady@atgmedia.com


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