From the carpet specialist Gallery Yacou who join us again at the Winter Decorative Fair.

As Italian carpets are few and far between, we have selected this Turkish carpet for the foyer display as it would be a piece typically enjoyed by Italian home owners in the C19th…

It’s an attractive late 19th Century Ushak carpet from Turkey measuring 5.44 x 3.41 metres (17′ 10″ x 11′ 2″ ) ~ a highly decorative early piece with a rare ivory field and spacious large pattern and an unusual square format.

Amongst the secrets and pleasures you can see in the Winter Decorative Antiques & Textiles Fair, alongside other pieces from three centuries of Italian design in the foyer display you might catch sight of this large (height:2.26m x width:4.3m) Mario Fortuny block printed cotton panel from c1920 as shown by Rhona Valentine. Rhona Valentine has an important collection of rare early Mariano Fortuny panels, documents and costume for sale dating from the early 1900’s up to 1949. They also have a large selection of cushions made from early fragments by Mariano Fortuny.

Rhona, based in Petworth, has an extensive collection of 17th, 18th and 19th century European and Islamic textiles and costume pieces including embroideries, needlework, crewelwork (see below), velvets, paisley shawls, cushions & hangings.

PS For my information as much as anything… you may all know this already…  but I didn’t: According to Wikipedia: Crewelwork, is a decorative form of surface embroidery using wool and a variety of different embroidery stitches to follow a design outline applied to the fabric. The technique is at least a thousand years old. It was used in the Bayeux Tapestry, in Jacobean embroidery and in the Quaker tapestry… The crewel technique is not a counted-thread embroidery (like canvas work), but a style of free embroidery. It was in the 17th Century, its heyday, and now traditionally worked on a closely woven linen twill ground “Jacobean linen twill” fabric, typically linen or cotton. This linen is part of the design and many stitches allow the sight of the linen through and around the design.

A pair of military hat boxes C.1880 from Millers Antiques

Antique Fair Weather Friends…

… it’s not sunny today but it’s warm and dry inside…

The first of our 2012 antiques fairs is off the mark, this morning. We’re open from 12 noon today and from 11 am every day until Sunday. We’re open until 8pm today, tomorrow and Thursday and then until 7pm Friday and Saturday and then 6pm on Sunday. That gives everybody plenty of time to get to Battersea Park to see us.

Don’t forget that there’s a courtesy shuttle bus from Sloane Sq. regularly during the fairs’ opening hours (and back of course).

The Decorative Antiques & Textiles Fair Battersea is one of very few antiques fairs to have continued growing in scale in the last four years, increasing overall the average exhibitor numbers across the three annual fairs  (Winter, Spring, Autumn) from some 125 to 140 (there were 142 at the Autumn 2011 Decoratiuve Fair).  Attendance has been increased too, and sales volumes have remained very buoyant for exhibitors across all shapes & sizes and styles.

The Decorative Fair features a wider range of antiques than ever before, now including a good selection of fine English Georgian furniture from LAPADA and BADA member exhibitors alongside avant garde 1970s pieces such as designs from the Italian-based and museum-collected Memphis Group (the dateline for modern furniture has been extended to 1980).

The core of the Decorative Fair’s stock remains decorative of course, and the painted, upholstered and Continental pieces still serve as ‘bread & butter’ sales for many dealers as they are much loved by interior decorators and home owners looking for more unusual furniture than designer high street stores provide – but at comparable prices.

The variety and quality of art offered for sale has also developed in recent years, with a number of top quality art dealers, both traditional and modern, selling works by internationally-renowned artists at prices that have been known to break the £20,000 price point.  Whilst on the whole visitors may not necessarily view the Fair as a destination for art purchases, sales of art are now considerable, especially at the weekends. Whether customers are buying the art to decorate or as collectors, they are willing to pay good prices for good examples of all styles.

This week’s Decorative Antiques & Textiles Fair will have over 135 exhibitors, with five new to our Battersea, London fair:

from Jenna Burlingham Fine Art : Leonard Appelbee (British, 1914 – 2000), Landscape at Orovide, Var, 1951

Sue Killinger from Great Missenden, Bucks, who is well known on the antique fairs circuit but makes her first ever appearance at Battersea, with a pleasing mix of smaller antique furniture and antique accessories.
Jenna Burlingham Fine Art (with a gallery in Kingsclere, Hants) specialises in 20^th Century British paintings, sculpture, prints and ceramics as well as work by selected contemporary artists. “We aim to make the art world more accessible by providing friendly, expert advice and guidance.”  They feature many established modern British names with proven market records as well as carefully selected emerging artists working in the Modern British tradition and whom Jenna believes “have future potential”.  A wide variety of art across the £500 to £30,000 price range, as well as a selection of paintings, prints and ceramics under £500.
James Holiday from Hook Norton, Oxon, still enjoys a strong export business to the USA (his father and brother are based there as antiques dealers); his stock of antiques is mixed Continental and British with a wide range of smaller accessories and pictures too. Amongst highlights on his stand will be a North Italian red tortoiseshell cabinet on stand with brass and marble inlay circa 1740. In great condition it is fitted with drawers and a central cupboard.
Ted Wolter is an American dealer now based in Paris.  His stock is period Continental and English antiques, plus a more modern inventory, including pieces by Kjaerholm, Fabricius and other Scandinavians as well as paintings, drawings and sculpture with a more contemporary feel.
Simply Antiques, from Moreton-in-Marsh in the Cotswolds, bring a new aspect to the Decorative Fair with a delightful selection of highly collectable C18th and C19th card cases (a very elegant way to carry one’s business cards) and other objets vertu (beautifully decorated smaller items such as boxes, picture frames etc in precious metal, shagreen, tortoiseshell and the like).

Shown above: from Jenna Burlingham Fine Art : Leonard Appelbee (British, 1914 – 2000), Landscape at Orovide, Var, 1951. Signed and dated. Oil on canvas. 25 1/4 x 30 1/4 in (64 x 76.7 cm).

A key part of the Decorative Fair is folk in the know buying beautiful decorative things for their homes, hotels, offices and for their collections: And a key part of that is that they want their decorative antiques, textiles art or objets that they buy for a specific place or room and they want it now (or yesterday) or at least very soon: And a key part of the Decorative Antiques & Textiles Fair is to provide experienced and professional shippers to do just that.

Luckily we have such a shipper for our 2012 antique fairs – one who says that a key part of their “business is been able to provide a high quality service to Antique and Fine Art dealers who require their goods to be transported, either to individual customers, exhibitions or other locations within the country”.

And that’s Simon Hall Shipping. And you’ll find them at our antiques fair, just by the door. Easy…

Part of the eclectic mix of furniture, mirrors, lighting, decorative arts and pieces ~ antiques from just about every century up to and including the 20th Century ~ but all with an eye on original interiors.

Come and see what’s new this year in January.

For those of you not familiar with the offering at the wonderful Decorative Antiques Fair, I thought I’d show some images of exhibitors and visitors from antiques fairs last year.

Of course there’ll be new pieces but none of them will be any newer! If you want to get some more ideas about individual items or styles, please check the articles from the list on the right under Decorative Antiques CATEGORIES.

Meanwhile showing at previous Decorative Fairs…

… Showing (above left) classic 20th century furniture and decorative items; (right) antique, decorative & collectable glass; (and below) decorative and painted furniture.

Please have a look around the Antiques & Interior Design Diary for more of the breadth of the pieces you’ll find at the Decorative Fair…

Yes? Good.

No? Don’t worry…

Apply online at The Decorative Fair site/mailing list page and you can receive free tickets (for two) for this up and coming Decorative Antiques & Textiles Fair and for the next two – both this year in May and in September. If you’re a fan of our fashionable London antique fair you’ll received them directly from The Decorative Fair or if you have some favourite exhibitors and you’re on their list you might also get tickets from that Decorative Fair exhibitor. Check the list of exhibitors at Decorative Fair Exhibitors page.

Do you know anyone who has an interest in fine decorative design and interiors? Please tell them about the free ticket offer too. We delight in those who delight in the remarkable range of pieces that yu’ll find at every Decorative fair.

If you’d like to be social then please visit the new 2012 Facebook page for London’s Decorative Aniques & Textiles Fair and join the group and like us too if you like… as it were.