Fairs and Auctions

Two established fairs make a welcome return, plus hot art sales of the year

I f you enjoy auctions o" given to hefty hammer prices, try Sotheby’s Old Master Drawings sale in London in July ( sothebys.com). Michelangelo, Da Vinci and Canaletto have all been catalogued here, amid lots covering European art from the 15th to early 19th centuries. Bonhams’ Modern British and Irish Art sale in London on 12th June ( bonhams.com) is another big-hitting regular, where work by the likes of Henry Moore and Frank Auerbach have seen the gavel come down on prices north of a million pounds. Expect early to mid 20thcentury offerings from members of School of London, the Bloomsbury Group, St Ives-based modernists, and other contemporaries. ‘They’ve come back with a bit of a whoosh,’ says antiques fairs consultant Duncan Phillips of his specialist area, as it recovers from a post-crash lull. ‘Millennials are buying antiques in preference to going to Ikea; they’re seen to have lasting value.’ Into this changing landscape returns Chelsea Antiques Fair from 20th- 24th March ( penman-fairs.co.uk), back after the first break since its 1950 inception. ‘Chelsea is one of the key fairs in London,’ explains Duncan. ‘It’s small by today’s standards, but the 35 exhibitors offer a whole range of things, and the

fair is vetted, so anything wrong is very quickly removed.’

Also returning following a fallow 2018, another big fixture dating back more than half a century: the Buxton Antiques

Fair at the refurbished Octagon Hall from 16th-19th May ( cooperevents.com). ‘Being annual,’ says Duncan, ‘the exhibitors make a bigger effort to bring out fresh stock and interesting things.’ LAPADA Art

& Antiques Fair is celebrating 10 years of increasing prominence on the international calendar from 13th-18th September, thanks in no small part to a 70-member specialist committee pre-velling the wares of 100 exhibitors ( lapadalondon.com). And at the end of the year,

there’s Art & Antiques For

Everyone Winter Fair to look forward to from 28th Nov-1st Dec ( antiquesforeveryone.co.uk). It’s the largest vetted antiques fair outside London and the perfect place to pick up unique and intriguing Christmas presents.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, brought to life at last year’s Cheltenham Literature Festival; Ivor Roberts-Jones’ maquette of Churchill sold at Bonhams in 2018 for £90,000; find fine pieces such as this Archibald Knox clock at Buxton Antiques Fair; listen to Salley Vickers discussing the importance of libraries on 10th March.

BELOW Hear fascinating tales from former guardsmen during a Military History Walk at Windsor (April to October).

ABOVE Jack B Yeats’ 1936 painting, Donnelly’sHollow, one of the lots in the Modern British and Irish Art sale at Bonhams last May. It sold for £344,750. This year’s auction promises work by more great artists.RIGHT Head to LAPADA’s Art & Antiques Fair (13th-18th Sept) for exquisite items from over 100 vetted exhibitors.