The Decorative Fair welcomes The House Directory to the Mezzanine this Spring for a fair-within-fair entitled Maker's Arena focusing on bespoke craftsmanship.

London’s most beloved antiques, design and art event, returns to Battersea Park in the Spring from 7-12 May, with the addition of an exciting new fair-within-fair organised in conjunction with The House Directory, located on the mezzanine. The Spring Fair also has a focus on garden antiques and furniture, statuary and decorative objects.

The House Directory will present a hand-picked collection of established and emerging home suppliers and services, with a focus on craftsmanship and bespoke. There will be a series of panel talks and workshops featuring special House Guests, plus demonstrations throughout the week in a Maker’s Arena to showcase the skills and expertise of craftspeople and restorers in The House Directory community. There will also be the launch of The Restoration Guide, a book about restorers, craftspeople and reuse, published by The House Directory in collaboration with Salvo, the marketplace for architectural antiques.

This new House Directory Mezzanine mini-fair will complement the wide range of original antique design pieces and art offered for sale by The Decorative Fair’s 130+ exhibitors on the ground floor. And in keeping with Battersea’s spirit of inspiration, a special Foyer Display will combine bespoke decoration with elements of antiques from dealers at the Fair. It will have an Arts & Crafts-inspired feel, prompted by the inclusion, courtesy of Salvo, of a piece of Liberty London's iconic architectural history – a 1920s staircase and panelling from Liberty House.

Since The Decorative Fair was launched, at the height of the 1980s ‘country house/swags & tails’ interiors trend, it has sought to innovate and invigorate the antiques and design market. Conceived as a new style of fair offering ‘antiques with design in mind’ to the interior decorating trade, the Fair has always offered a far broader range than any traditional art and antiques fair.

Now London’s largest and longest-running major antiques event, The Decorative Fair is pre-eminent in the industry and the sourcing mainstay of international decorators and designers – Martyn Lawrence Bullard recently described it as his favourite fair. It was the first antiques event to introduce art deco and mid-century design (the dateline for furniture is currently 1979), as well as industrial antiques and decorative textiles. Alongside the many unusual decorative pieces on display, there is also fine, formal and country English and European antiques, collectors’ curios, art from the ancient to the contemporary, tribal art, glassware and ceramics, garden antiques and design, jewellery, vintage watches and couture design, fine and decorative rugs and carpets, and an always fabulous array of unexpected decorative objects.

Now 39 years later, there is once again a ‘New Style Country House’ revival, and The Decorative Fair is the best place to find it! Lovers of modernism continue to shop at the Fair for 20th century classics by well-known architects and designers, and collectors and private buyers with a curious eye come for choice finds from every era.

Among dealers exhibiting at the Fair this May will be:

For Country House & Fine Antiques – Nick Jones (antiques & objects), Gallery Yacou (fine carpets), Christopher-Hall Antiques (decorative European antiques), Richard Steenberg (antique furniture & mirrors), Su Mason (textiles), The Home Bothy (folk art and furniture), Violet Grey Decorative (garden antiques), Sue Norman Blue & White China, Joshua Lumley Ltd (country house rugs & tapestries), Peter Last Ltd (antique picture frames), Patrick macintosh (country house antiques), Chalet White (fine antiques & objects), Disquarded (garden decoration & antiques), S&S Timms (fine English furniture), Vagabond (fine antiques & garden statuary), David Bedale (fine English antiques), Craig Carrington (neoclassical).

For 20th Century Design – L Prentice Art & Antiques, Dorian Caffot de Fawes, Philip Varma, Form & Function (ceramics & furniture), Sandy Stanley (fine mid-century jewellery), Il Paralume (Italian design), Ted Wolter (furniture & objects), Dee Zammit (furniture & accessories), Foster & Gane (modern design plus antiques), Interior Boutiques (art deco & art), Streett Marburg & Charlotte Casadejus (modern design plus antiques & textiles).

For Collectors’ Objects & Art – Morgan Strickland Decorative Arts (nouveau & deco), Catharine Miller (contemporary art), Darnley Fine Art (old masters to modern), David Levi Antiques (treen & curios), Jenna Burlingham Gallery (modern art), Mark J West Ltd (glass), Henry Miller Fine Art (the male form), Anthea AG Antiques (fine jewellery), Laura Bordignon Japanese Works of Art, Malby Maps Ltd, Tribal Art & Textiles, Tom Hurst (antiques & tribal artefacts).

Read more and see full exhibitor list via The Decorative Fair

Admission: Tuesday 7 May – £20 p/person. Wednesday 8 – Sunday 12 May – £10 p/person. Free entry after 4pm.

For more information, visit The Decorative Fair