FOLLOW THIS ORGANISER:

As the calendar starts to fill up at the beginning of 2024, The Mayfair Antiques & Fine Art Fair opens the season with a return to the London Marriott Hotel Grosvenor Square, from Thursday 11 to Sunday 14 January 2024.

Highlights, from the selection of more than 40 exhibitors, include an important set of four George II silver fruit bowls and stands with the arms of Wordsworth of Westmorland (grandparents of the English poet William Wordsworth) impaling Robinson of Co. Durham, maker’s mark of Samuel Herbert & Company, London, 1751/52, £69,500 the set from Mary Cooke Antiques Ltd. To find a single fruit bowl and stand is very unusual, however to find a set of four is highly important and of museum rarity.

Jeroen Markies Art Deco brings a selection of Art Deco furniture and mid-century interior accessories. Amongst the items heading for Mayfair in January is an Art Deco curved satinwood desk with original shell carved ivory handles and mirrored top, designed by Betty Joel, English, circa 1930, £6,800. Betty Joel was one of London's leading furniture retailers and designers in the 1920s and 1930s, who won many contracts to decorate libraries, boardrooms, shops and Savoy Group hotels. Her private clients included Lord Louis Mountbatten and Sir Winston Churchill. Jeroen Markies Art Deco is also planning to show an Art Deco ten seater dining suite by Waring & Gillows, English, circa 1935, £16,500 the suite. 

Formal and semi formal fine funiture will be on display from S & S Timnms Antiques who specialise in exquise timbers amongst their collection of both town and ocuntry furniture. On show will be a mid-18th century George II period elm chest of drawers, circa 1750,
£5,500.

Visitors to the fair will be spoilt for choice with jewellery from different eras, some classically stunning, others quietly elegant and then there is just pure fun like a large silver gilt octopus bangle, circa 1970s, POA from Sue Brown, who also has another sizeable piece in the form of a large winged scarab brooch, ancient Egypt, dating around 7th-4th century BC, and priced at £8,800.

Scarab motifs also feature in an unusual and rare 18 carat gold Grand Tour bracelet, from Italy, made of lava from Mount Vesuvius, £5,800 from Markov. Jewellery like this was was sold to wealthy Victorian and Georgian ladies visiting architectural sights in Italy. Markov also comes with an 18 carat gold and silver choker with Mycenaean lions’ heads by Greek designer Zolotas, 1950s, priced in the region of £3,000. Zolotas’ inspiration was always ancient Greek archaeology.

Lynn Lindsay of Wimpole Antiques says that recently she is selling fewer pieces of jewellery but more expensive items. Bound for the Wimpole Antiques’ stand this January are an 18ct gold and diamond sixties’ bracelet by Van Cleef & Arpels, priced in the region of £20,000; a French calibrated sapphire and diamond ring set in platinum with a central diamond of 2.85 carats, in the region of £25,000 and a mid-20th century 18ct gold, enamel and chalcedony necklace and matching earrings, IRO £15,000. Anthea AG Antiques also sells designer pieces and is bringing a Buccellati yellow gold and diamond bracelet, POA and a Kutchinsky two colour gold bracelet from the 1970s.

Joining the fair for the first time is Edelstein Prüflabor, mother and daughter gemmologists from Nordhorn in Germany, selling antique jewellery from the 1800s up to a vintage collection and a few modern items. Amongst the pieces coming to Mayfair are a chunky gold Chopard necklace ‘Les Chaines’ with a detachable gold and diamond pendant and a rare French 14 carat gold twisted bangle, probably 1930s, €5,900. Unusual are the pretty pair of earrings each containing an oval enamel painted portrait of a young woman in a 14 carat gold frame with corded edge, circa 1840, £1,900 and similarly an antique French 14ct. gold brooch containing a miniature portrait of a young lady dressed in the Rococo style, surrounded by 14ct gold frame studded with 18 rose cut diamonds, two small blue sapphires, one small emerald and two small rubies, circa 1850-70, priced at £2,900.

Another newcomer to the fair is Nick Skipp Fine Art, dealer in modern art and ancient artefacts. Nick Skipp Fine Art enjoys the juxtaposition of mixing contemporary and ancient artefacts. Coming to the fair are L 1070-3 Suite A, plate III, lithograph on woven paper created in 1970, £1,995 (framed) by Hans Hartung (1904-1986), one of the 20th century's most pioneering and influential artists.

Other art dealers returning to exhibit include Garret & Hurst Sculpture, Granta Fine Art, Haynes Fine Art, The Hunt Gallery and Kaye Michie Fine Art with paintings by Mary Fedden RA, OBE, Dame Laura Knight RA and Summer Evening a pastel by Bernard Dunstan R.A., R.W.A., N.E.A.C (1920-2017) depicting his wife, fellow artist Diana Armfield.

With the popularity of the BBC’s TV programme of the same name, Gone Fishing, an oil on canvas signed by Norman Hoad (1923-2014) might be appealing at £800 from Paul Mayhew Fine Art. Hoad was famous for his WWII contribution before becoming a leading artist in aviation and equestrian art. With storms and lashing waves being the order of the day at the moment, Breakers at Twilight a signed oil on canvas by Julius Olsson RA (British,1854-1942) seems rather apt, for sale for £9,500 with Burlington.

Paintings depicting London include The Gate of London, oil on board by Henry Halsey Meegan (1860-1944), signed and dated 1911 and with a price tag of £1,950 from Cambridge Fine Art and a signed watercolour Hyde Park Corner, London by Paul Edward Rischgitz (born Geneva 1828, died London 1909), priced at £1,450 with John Robertson. Rischgitz worked for Minton porcelain as well as being an illustrator for magazines.

Carolyn Stoddart-Scott returns with her porcelain and ceramics, amongst which is a French Sarreguemines agateware barrel and basin, 14” high, circa 1900, £675. Unlike Carolyn’s European ceramics, W. Shanshan 珊然軒 has some considerably older pieces amongst which is a large burnished Chinese Han dynasty earthenware cocoon shaped storage jar, 202 BCE-220 CE, selling for £6,250.

Magnificent timepieces can be found with the BBC Antiques Roadshow’s clock expert Richard Price and with Timewise Vintage Watches. Richard Price is bringing an impressive French empire ormolu mantel clock The Oath of the Horatii, circa 1810, £18,750. The movement has a white dial and silk suspension, flanked on the left by the three sons taking the oath, on the right their father Horatius accepts the oath and holds three swords, the rectangular base with relief plaque showing a battle scene. On a smaller scale, is a rare and historically interesting Longines Lindbergh navigators’ watch, 1930s, £37,000 from Timewise Vintage Watches. On 20th May 1927, the American pilot Charles Lindbergh left Roosevelt Airport at the controls of the ’Spirit of St. Louis’. 33 hours and 30 minutes later, Lindbergh landed in France after completing the first ever non-stop solo transatlantic flight. In the 1930s, Lindbergh designed the Lindbergh Hour Angle in partnership with Longines, and the watch was put into production. It allowed for accurate determination of longitude during long-distance flights. As a result, pilots and navigators could find their geographic location quickly, efficiently and accurately.

King and Country has also decided to join the fair for the first time. Amongst the items destined for the stand is a Belle Epoque Cartier sterling silver mignonette clock with ivory guilloche enamel panels and navy enamel borders, circa 1910, £34,500.

Furniture specialists Mark Buckley Antiques and S&S Timms Antiques are returning, the latter bringing a delightful mid-18th century George II period elm chest, circa 1750, £5,500 and a mid-19th century William IV period mahogany library armchair of bold proportions, raised on elegant sabre legs, circa 1840, £4,950. Place a beautiful Persian rug from the Oriental Rug Shop underneath or alongside pieces of furniture to bring the room alive. A white ground Persian wool on cotton Heriz carpet from the 1920s is the perfect example and costs £3,850.

Other dealers exhibiting include silver specialist Stephen Kalms Antiques, The Antique Enamel Company, jewellery and objet d’art specialist T Robert and Hickmet Fine Arts.

Admission to the fair is £10, including catalogue (and re-admission) on the door or through Eventbrite

For more information about the fair visit The Antiques Dealers Fair Ltd