LAPADA ART & ANTIQUES FAIR
BERKELEY SQUARE
T
his is the main annual
event for the largest
society of professional art
and antiques dealers in
Britain and extremely
prestigious. This year its
principal sponsor was the
private client investment
house Killik & Co and its
Floral Partner was
McQueens.
The choice of the main stand at
the entrance this year was an
attempt to be unconventional
which fell disastrously flat. Lucas
Rarities displayed some jewellery
as in an exhibition, which was
highly ingenious.
A ‘Mira Flygel’ PH grand piano
designed in 1931 by Poul
Henningsen, made in 1932 by
Andreas Christensen Flyger of
Copenhagen, £145,000 from
Hatchwell Antiques.
Individual stands used
imaginative ideas to be
distinctive. Lennox Cato
Antiques from Edinburgh used a
Regency gilt copper centrepiece
filled with fruit; Spicer Warin
used birch trees as a
background to their jewellery
and Ellison Fine Art positioned
their portrait minatures with
panache.
The prize for the most
extroadinary stand must surely
go to Hatchwell Antiques. It
but advertised using neon lights,
jokey signs and vulgar cardboard
cut outs.
A large and remarkably complete
Sabre tooth cut skull ‘Machairodus
giganteus’ dating to the late
Miocene, circa 5-10 million years
ago from ArtAncient.
The description of this event as
containing a “cabinet of
curiosities” is extremely apt. A
great many of the stands
contained an amazing collection
of diverse artefacts. Art Ancient
actually showed off its objects
from past centuries, including a
dinosaw claw, using a timeline
18ct yellow gold, platinum and
diamond ‘en double’ tiara, circa
1900, from The Gilded Lily
Jewellery Ltd.
A rare self-portrait of 18th century
British artist Joseph Wright of
Derby, originally believed to be a
portrait by a ‘follower of Joshua
Reynolds’ from The Parker Gallery.
contained a coffee table on a
1930s radial aircraft engine, a
double scale training model of
an M1 World War II carbine and
an extraordinary “Mira Flygel” PH
grand piano.
The huge trunks of the trees in
the square were specially
decorated by various stands
within the marquee. Seeing so
many glittering objects was like
combining a tour of the London
Silver Vaults with a visit to an art
gallery and ending up at a
sumptuous mansion afterwards
surrounded by art and antiques
from past centuries.
RICHARD FITZWILLIAMS
THE LONDON & UK DATEBOOK
19