The Cotswolds Art & Antiques Dealers’ Association Fair returns to the elegant setting of Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1PP from Thursday 16th to Sunday 19th April 2015. Now in its fourth year, the fair takes place in The Orangery overlooking the magnificent Formal Gardens of the Palace. The 24 exhibitors, all members of The Cotswolds Art & Antiques Dealers’ Association, can boast to being part of the ‘best of the best fairs’ in having the best specialist dealers in the UK, exhibiting the best stock available in the best stately home with the finest view in England.
The Cotswolds Art & Antiques Dealers’ Association (CADA) is the pre-eminent of the regional trade associations with many of its 50 members exhibiting at the top London and international fairs. New faces at the fair this year are Delomosne & Son Ltd, antique dealers from Chippenham handling English and Irish 18th & 19th century glass and porcelain. All works are for sale with prices ranging up to £100,000.
The charm of the Fair is the unique opportunity to hunt for exceptional and quirky antiques and fine art to be from all corners of the Cotswolds without having to travel the length and breadth of the area. The very best of every discipline is showcased including furniture, pictures, silver, early needlework, antique boxes, sculpture, clocks and barometers, carpets and textiles, jewellery, Oriental and English ceramics, garden ornaments and many other decorative objects.
Highlights within the fair include a number of rare needleworks dating from the 17th century from Witney Antiques including a delightful English silk work embroidery of a lady playing the lute beneath a flowering bower surrounded by small insects, animals and birds, c1660. Another is a sampler finished in 1723, just one year after the building of Blenheim Palace had been completed. From David Pickup is an unusual, if not unique, extremely rare late 17th century English brass chandelier dated 1688.
Collectors of ceramics will enjoy spotting a very good early Pratt ware large model of a spotted cat, c1800, price £3,750 along with a very good quality 18th century Derby porcelain large figure of Britannia, price £1,250 from Andrew Dando. Chairman of the Association, John Howard, the leading specialist dealer in 18th & 19th century British pottery has sourced a rare English delftware pottery blue charger with the royal portrait of Queen Anne with the initials A R, along with an excellent provenance, the price is £17,500. More art pottery in the form of a Martin Brothers vase is a grotesque character fish from 1899, price £5,500 from Kinghams Art Pottery Ltd. Chinese ceramics are well represented by Catherine Hunt Oriental Ceramics such as a Transitional double gourd bottle vase for £13,500 and a Kangxi Islamic style bottle vase for £4,000. Hall-Bakker Decorative Arts specialises in a wide range of post 1860’s design such as an Art Nouveau Galle cameo vase of seule fleur form, price £1,350 and an Arts & Crafts sea green glass vinaigrette by James Powell &Sons, c1907 for £650.
More highlights include antique boxes, which are very collectable items, such as an octagonal tortoiseshell tea caddy, c1820, price £8,750 or an exquisite amboyna silver gilt vanity box, c1854, price £8,500 both from Hampton Antiques who are also bringing a collection of Art Deco Cocktail shakers and 1950s Dunhill lighters; a rare pair of English ship’s decanters engraved with armorial badges with the motto deo juvante, c 1800, price £5,000 from Delomosne & Son Ltd. Decorators are always asked to find antique carpets and textiles and this year’s highlight from Legge Carpets is a Suzani from Uzbekistan from the late 19th century, a silk embroidery on hand woven linen. A quite exceptional early George III period mahogany coffer/box from W R Harvey (Antiques) & Co Ltd, price £2,250 would enhance any Cotswolds manor house.
Paintings are well represented in the fair and the Kyffin Gallery are showing an oil on canvas of Polperro, Cornwall by Dutch artist Hendrik Jan Wolter (1873-1952). Born in Holland in 1873 he considered himself a passionate plein-air painter and was inspired by painting water, sea and harbours. By 1910 he had moved to the English coast of Cornwall and Devon and painted views of the harbours in St Ives, Polperro and Lynmouth before moving back to Holland by the First World War. Régate à Henley, an oil on panel painted by Jacques Emile Blanche (1861-1942) in 1920 can be found on Trinity House Paintings Ltd stand. Sarah Colegrave deals in 19th & 20th century pictures and she is bringing ‘Arriving at the Ball’ an oil by Cyrus Cincinnato Cuneo (1879-1916), price £2,500. Cuneo tragically died from blood poisoning at the age of 37 caused by the accidental stab of a hatpin at a dance. Also on her stand is a watercolour of the U K’s very first sex symbol, Frances Day, the golden girl of the 1930s painted by Robert Stewart Sherriffs (1906-1960), price £1,800. Elizabeth Harvey-Lee, specialist print dealer is bringing an original etching from 1898 of Rudyard Kipling by William Strang RA who was an admirer of Kipling and etched his portrait several times, price £850. Amongst the many watercolours with Newman Fine Art is one of interest to local residents of ‘The Town Hall and North & South Bridge Street, Banbury, Oxon’, by William Frederick Austin (1833-1899), signed & dated 1863, price £1,850. Lovers of marine art will enjoy “Frigate Getting Underway” signed and dated 1854 by William Joy (1803-1866) from Stuart Boyd Fine Art. The majority of John Noott Galleries stand is a themed display of dogs of all shapes, sizes and breeds.
Howards Jewellers of Stratford are taking two stands, one creating a sparkling display of jewellery including a stunning Victorian diamond and enamel serpent bangle, c 1870 and a broad selection of silver on the second. Tobias Birch of Montpellier Clocks has a couple of stunning highlights including a rare and very small English rosewood mantel clock, c1830 and a fine and rare longcase regulator of the best ‘Mudge & Dutton’ quality, c1790.
Garden design is well represented by Architectural Heritage who have a huge range of antique statuary such as a pair of decorative wrought iron garden gates, c1900 for £1,800, a late 19th century sundial and a stained and painted glass window from c1860 illustrating the ‘Arms of England’ which are the armorial bearings of Richard I or Coeur de Lion, price £1,800.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION AND JPEG IMAGES PLEASE CONTACT: Iona Sale, IONA PR, 01451 832 268, 07721 030 825 or [email protected]