22 30th June 2012 dealers’ dossier


Anna Brady reports


email: annabrady@atgmedia.com tel: 020 7420 6625


Party that was a cut above


DURING that first week of June, as Art Antiques London and Olympia opened, the hot topic of conversation at both fairs was not the demand for Meissen, the fortunes of Georgian mahogany or Turner’s cloud studies. No, instead tongues were wagging


about the impending performance by glamrock band, the Scissor Sisters, at Art Antiques London’s Party in the Park on June 12 – certainly one way of injecting a younger, fresher edge into a specialist ceramics and glass fair. Although the cheekily hip New York


band have performed at contemporary art fairs such as Art Basel/Miami Beach and curated a show of photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe at Alison Jacques Gallery in London last year (titled Filthy Gorgeous, the name of one of their best-known singles), this was their first appearance at a traditional antiques fair. The event was in aid of JDRF,


the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and the charity’s impressive contacts in the music industry helped bring about both the Scissor Sisters’ live acoustic set after dinner and some of the prizes in the charity auction, which included a private performance with Florence and the Machine. The evening has already raised


£460,000 and, although some guests may not have known who the Scissor Sisters were, apparently the night went off with some pretty intense dancing.


A lot of goodwill...


■ Full marks for effort and direction, now we have to tackle the recession


NOSTALGIC references to the ‘good old days’ were flying around on preview day of the far healthier-looking Olympia International Fine Art & Antiques Fair in West London


on June 7. Organisers Clarion Events ensured


that the 40th Summer Olympia, from June 7-17, certainly looked fantastic and, in terms of dealers, was the largest and most diverse spread at the fair for a good few years. A continuing effort to listen to past


grievances, reduce stand rates and woo back dealers, many of whom were disillusioned by the controversial 2010 fair, led to a broader trading platform of just over 200 dealers, compared to 150 last year. They included 40 new exhibitors and 30 returnees. Preview day attracted 6768 people,


contributing to the final total of 32,272 visitors over the course of the fair, although the enormous Grand Hall swallows up people, inevitably leaving the aisles looking pretty empty at quieter times. Olympia’s location is still an issue for


some people, and some exhibitors had hoped for more prominent advertising, but the emphasis this year was on keeping costs low and the fair affordable for exhibitors, and more advertising means a higher marketing levy. There’s no clear answer to this conundrum – the efficacy of various forms of advertising is the subject of ongoing debate and besides, the size of the gate doesn’t necessarily reflect how many ‘quality’ clients visit.


Above: the 40th Olympia International Fine Art & Antiques Fair in West London. The buoyant optimism and nostalgic


sentiments at the beginning did, perhaps inevitably, give way to a more jaded mood among many by the end of this gruelling 11-day fair (does it have to be quite so long?), as the grizzled state of the wider European economy could not fail to impact upon on sales. “The feeling among buyers and sellers


was at times cautious, which is to be expected in the current economic climate,” commented Chris Gallon, Clarion’s fair portfolio director. “Impulse sales of larger pieces were rarer than in previous years; but some areas did exceptionally well and interest in others suggest strong potential post-fair sales.” Each of the 200 dealers will, of course,


tell you a different story but, in a nutshell, while there was praise for getting the event back to something akin to its old self, trading was tough. Furniture dealers, of whom there were around 70 this year, along with 20th century design specialists, were having a particularly difficult time. Most were philosophical – we’re in a recession and art and antiques are, for many, luxuries. As the saying goes you can lead a horse to water... But there were still some good and


Above: Anna and Brian Haughton, organisers of Art Antiques London, with Jake Shears and Babydaddy from the Scissor Sisters before the New York band’s performance at the fair’s Party in the Park in aid of JDRF, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, on June 12.


steady sales throughout, the biggest being a 32-piece toilet service by Benjamin Pyne of London offered by Hawkins and Hawkins of Tasmania and Scotland, which had a red dot on it the moment the fair opened and sold for around £1.5m to a private overseas buyer. The set was commissioned in 1708 by the Duchess of Norfolk’s father for the marriage of his 16-year-old daughter to the Duke of Norfolk. Father-and-daughter team John and Emma Hawkins were among the returning dealers at the fair, having last exhibited in 2005, and they created a pretty fascinating stand – period furniture intermingled with a menagerie


“The feeling among buyers and sellers was at times cautious, which is to be expected in the current economic climate”


of taxidermy, skulls and skeletons. Their other sales included the skeleton of a baby elephant which took centre stage at the front of the stand and a blackbuck skeleton from 1901, originally in the Loder Collection and sold for around £2000. For obvious reasons, the sale of


furniture, whether period or modern design, is inherently linked to the housing market and if people are not moving house, as is generally the case at the moment, there is less demand for furniture. John Hansord from Lincolnshire sold


40 objects and works of art, but very little furniture apart from a Regency Ceylonese


Above: 18th century mahogany table with needlework top, sold with a ticket price of £18,500 by Solomon Bly at Olympia.


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