Antiques & Interior Design Diary

Spring has Sprung: The Decorative Fair Blossoms in London’s Battersea Park

M R Antiques at an earlier Decoratve Fair

By the time you read this they’ll have been queueing and by now they’ll be inside the Spring 2012 Decorative Fair with around 140 exhibitors showing their latest wares…

Many exhibitors are long-time regulars and many are spanking new to the 2012 fairs with many others of course somewhere on the spectrum between.  It’s the 27th year of the Decorative Antiques & Textiles Fair in London, though I’m not sure how long it’s been in Battersea Park at the current location. It’s certainly well known now as the “Battersea” Decorative Antiques Fair, though it’s also known as many other variations on the theme too.

If you’ve never been before, then please come along. The Decorative Fair is open from today (Tuesday) all the way through to and including Sunday. See our Antique Fair opening hours here.

2012 Antiques Fair Countdown: Hours Now…

As the sun sets on the weekend before the Spring Decorative Fair, starting Tuesday morning, a last few words to wish everybody at the fair good luck and good fortune – visitor and exhibitors alike.  Some of us won’t be able to make the opening day when there’s always a great queue (though no crush inside) and a great atmosphere. But don’t worry if you can’t make the first day, there’s five more and everybody’s got plenty of replenshing stock!  Recently the weekend has been getting more and more popular with visitors and sales go right through to the last minutes, so feel free to come on any day and to come back too for more at the weekend. Your  pass gets you in more than once…

Also a last reminder that there’s a free (we call it “courtesy” but it’s the same) shuttle service from Sloane Square, from just outside the Slaone Sq. Hotel. The shuttle service is regular and all day. You shouldn’t ever wait for more than ten minutes at the outside.

For those of you who haven’t visited the Decorative Antiques & Textiles Fair before (why not?!), there are more details on the main Decorative Antiques Fair site page. Don’t forget you can make a day of it with the licensed bar, bistro-restaurant and coffee bars. If the sun shines you can eat and drink out doors and watch the antique world pass by…

Have (antiques) shippers… will deliver (antiques)…

Just by the entrance to the Decorative Fair, where the queue starts and people often rush straight past, are our resident shippers, Simon Hall ltd.

At the fair you see a consistent daily stream of furniture and larger items going out as they sell, and our fair’s official shippers, Simon Hall Ltd, are there to help our visitors and buyers.  So have no worries about a fast and professional delivery of your new pieces from the Decorative Fair. If it’s too big to carry, you know where to go.

See our Decorative Antiques Fair Shipping comment here.

Decorative Antique Fair Exhibitors Have Their Say

Decorative pieces and dealers that specialise in this look enjoy excellent sales throughout the week at our Decorative Fairs. Exhibitors such as Fontaine, Martin D. Johnson, Lorfords, Maggie Charpentier, Puckhaber Antiques, Hilary Batstone, Alston & Ashton, Antique French Chair & Sofa Company, Brownrigg, Blacks, Blanchard Collective, Lee Wright, Seventeen-Twentyone, Nick Mellors, Monique Relander, Gary Wallis, Richard Steenberg and Magus Antiques all report pleasingly strong sales at our antique fairs.

Some of our exhibitors comment on the Decorative Antiques & Textiles Fair…

• Andrew Collier, who sells very traditional but affordable smaller items from antique wine glasses and globes to antlers and mirrors says it’s a “remarkable week”
• Gray Modern & Contemporary Art reported their “best ever opening day” at the last fair, helped by the sale of a large group of important 1930s wood engravings
• Katharine Pole said she could have sold her major textile pieces “dozens of times over”
• Rosey Ford of Serendipity long-term exhibitor at the Decorative Fair (as well as Olympia fairs), say they have “met fabulous people”

“We couldn’t have hoped for a better crowd visiting the fair” says David Juran, the Decorative Fair organiser, talking of the last antiques & collectibles fair in January.  “Even Friday was our busiest on record.  Whilst times may be tough, we continue to attract good quality new visitors, many from the younger age bracket whom our exhibitors are delighted to meet, as they see so few of them at other Fairs at which they exhibit.  Clearly many consumers are being careful with their money, but here at the Decorative Fair, we do seem to have a good recipe for successful sales of interesting useful pieces at accessible prices”.

NB. In the main, furniture sales are at prices between £1500 and £5000 for good quality pieces which customers could buy with ease and use immediately, and a great volume are sold. Sales of high quality and rare items of antique furniture and works of art at prices around and over £10,000 are reported as sold at the Decorative Fair by Brownrigg, Lorfords, Serendipity, Guy Dennler, Richard Steenberg, Blanchard Collective and Robert Barley, amongst others.

See  a full list of exhibitors at the Spring Decorative Antiques Fair - April 24th ~ 29th 2012 - next week!

The Decorative Fair Starts One Week Today: Battersea Park, London…

Another little bit of antique fair/sleb name-dropping… television personality Mark Hill, has chosen The Spring Decorative Fair (one week to go…) to exhibit as his first fair. And to keep up our thoroughly modern millie image you can read all about it and get more up to date news about the Decorative Antiques & textiles Fair at our Facebook group… Why not join the group?

There’s an amazing looking piece of glass shown there (as here), which is by Ladislav Oliva for Exbor from Mark Hill. As many will know, Mark is the glass expert as seen on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow, where he features in the “Miscellaneous” area. Mark can also be seeen as the resident expert co-presenter on BBC2′s Cracking Antiques, the interior design and antiques show.

We also have Mark Stacey another familiar face with television viewers. Mark will also be exhibiting at the April 2012 Decorative Fair with an extensive range of painted furniture from the C18th  AND C19th.

Spring Antiques Fair: Battersea, London: Foyer Theme…

Come into the garden Maud...

The Spring 2012 Decorative Antique Fair takes place from 24-29 April 2012, at the Battersea Evolution (the marquee) in Battersea Park.  A garden theme will take centre stage in the Foyer, designed and co-ordinated by works of art dealer Robert Barley, who has planned a wonderful homage to Her Majesty The Queen, in celebration of the Diamond Jubilee.

We are expecing that the Spring fair will, like the Winter Decorative Antiques & Textiles Fair, buck the trend with high visitor numbers and bouyant sales.  The last few fairs, have been noticeably buzzing with a great crowd of visitors, many in the younger (30′s) age group.  Exhibitors have commented how busy the Fair has been and on the overall quality of the visitors.

“We were selling quality items that are hard to find and at a fair price,” said Toby Lorford, which epitomises the majority of sales at the fairs.  Customers are definitely looking for, and buying, good examples of practical yet unusual furniture and decorative items to use in their homes.  Decorators and leading trade buyers attend in droves on our opening days and are always very much in evidence during the whole six days of the fairs.

Ten days to go until the 2012 Spring Decorative Antiques & Textiles Fair

From Timothy Langston in January… An Italian floral chandelier, c.1930 , painted with nine candle holders each cast in a flower head, with stylised rose buds and leaves

How time flies when you’re an antique like me… Wasn’t it winter a while ago? Now it’s less than a fortnight to the Spring Decorative Fair, once again in Battersea Park.

What snippets can I offer our readers to titilate… How abut a little name-dropping?

At the January Decorative Fair, amongst a good number of important trade buyers in the queue , decorators, (and more American buyers than we have seen for a while) there were some famous faces including Jemima Khan, Richard E. Grant and Karen Millen. Russian businessman Evgeny Lebedev came in with his interior decorator Martyn Lawrence-Bullard (an award-winning and highly-rated talent in architecture and interior design who has also worked for the likes of Hollywood superstar Cher).

Exhibitors were pleased with sales in January, which favoured the decorative vein: Painted furniture was popular, Continental commodes and cupboards, large mirrors and statement lighting. Dealers in 20th century design  also made good sales, especially accessories and smaller furniture such as pairs of chairs.

The January Decorative Fair foyer display of Italian design was very well received, and sales from the display included two mid-century desks, an antique carved and gilded wall cabinet, a very chic 1950s floor lamp, and several smaller decorative items.

What will you see at the April 2012 Decorative Antiques Fair?

The Decorative Antiques Fair: Where Decorative Meets Interiors

Interiors style pundit Barbara Chandler revealed her top design trends for 2012 in the London Evening Standard newspaper at the beginning of the year and apparently ‘Tangerine Tango’ is the colour being touted by Pantone (the colour systems and technology experts) as the shade for 2012 that will help banish the economic blues…

Whilst we at the Decorative Fair can’t necessarily promise you tangerine dreams, we can provide many elements of Barbara Chandler’s other style trends for the coming year: namely “extreme interiors” as she dubs them – which are “swinging the pendulum away from controlled minimalism” to embrace “vivid clashing hues, huge patterns, coloured lights, sparkle and glitz”.

Stock at the Decorative Fair tends to err on the side of classy rather than brash, but you can expect to find wonderful patterned textiles, colourful 20^th century design pieces such as glassware, ceramics and upholstered furniture, and to bring extra colour to more traditional interiors, search out beautiful painted antique furniture.  A wide selection of  modern paintings and prints can also bring colour and texture to a design scheme, and can be found aplenty at the Fair in Battersea.  Sparkle and glitz we do with panache, featuring a host of decorative items, and furniture, which are gilded or silvered – lighting and mirrors play a big part in the stock at the Decorative Antiques & Textiles Fair, and we are renowned for the selection our dealers offer.  Smaller accessories in this theme include candlesticks and chandeliers, antique and vintage glassware and glass sculptural pieces.

Over-sized details are also part of this trend, and at the Decorative Fair you will find large display bookcases, vast glazed cabinets, huge wing-back chairs and generously-sized sofas.  Extra-large mirrors, tables and paintings can also be found.

The editor in chief of Elle Decoration describes this growing style trend: “This is about exuberant individualism… Extreme is beautiful”.  We love the notion of individualism and buying antiques and vintage design is the way to go to achieve this wonderful look!

NB You can read about Barbara Chandler, her photography and her books at www.barbarachandler.co.uk.

Who Remembers The Autumn Heatwave?

What with the weather all up and down at the moment with hot and cold in the same breath, it reminded me of the hot temperatures at last summer’s Decorative Antiques Fair.

Thank you to all our fans...

I didn’t count the fans but they were there in all shapes and sizes. I can’t think of a bad pun which would make this sound like a benefit to the fair so I’ll satisfy myself with a few pictures.

…Of course! (He says suddenly remembering the bad pun… ) The Decorative Antiques & Tetxiles Fair has always had many fans.

PS At the Decorative Fair, there is always a chance of course that several dealer/exhibitors will have fans for sale, whether 20th Century electric fans or what people normally refer to as fans (Victorian fans for example). What I might call “ladies’ fans”.

If You Like Our Antiques Fair Please Say A Few Nice Things About Us…

These days on the tinternet and the interweb (as Andrew Neil would say) nothing helps like other people talking about you and when there’s the opportunity, leaving favourable reviews in places like Google Places. If you do happen to like the Decorative Fair ~ and thousands of you do ~ then please leave a review and give us five stars!

Search for us on in your favourite search engine and if we come up with an entry in the maps area go to our Places Page and Write A Review. Thank you in advance!