The annual LAPADA Art & Antiques Fair, which opened on Friday September 13th and runs until Wednesday 18 September, has announced the winners of its Legends feature.
Situated in a specially erected marquee in London’s Berkeley Square, the Fair features more than 100 exhibitors presenting works from across the art, antiques, design and decorative arts spectrum including jewellery, furniture, carpets, tapestries, antiquities, clocks, ceramics, silver and fine art. Authenticity is assured thanks to a 70-member strong specialist committee pre-vetting everything on sale. Tickets are priced at £20 and can be purchased online or on the door.
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Queues gathered in Berkeley Square ahead of the Preview and exhibitors reported some strong early sales. Silver specialists, I Franks, had its best opening day in a decade of showing at the fair, including the sale of a magnificent Victorian silver plate centrepiece featuring a stag, a doe, a giraffe and an ostrich. It was a good night for silver, with The Peartree Collection selling a set of Gilbert Marks plates for over £30,000. Sales from Mark Goodger Antiques included a penwork tea caddy, an art deco cocktail trolley and a René Lalique opalescent Vitesse car mascot priced at £25,000, while in furniture, Lennox Cato sold an 18th century satinwood secretaire bookcase for more than £20,000. A top sale in fine art included Portrait of a Lady, which was sold by The Old Corkscrew for £38,000.
A committee of tastemakers including Amanda Wakeley, Trino Verkade (Sarabande), Sigrid Kirk (ARTimbarc), Charu Gandhi (Elicyon) and Guy Tobin (Rose Uniacke), along with academics and museum experts, were tasked with selecting the winning objects of the year
The 2019 award winners are:
Spicer Warin – Winner Best Object 2019
A plique à jour enamel and diamond butterfly brooch circa 1900, attributed to Eugène Feuillâtre. From the colourful Art Nouveau period which flourished against a backdrop of rapid industrialisation in Europe, this butterly brooch symbolises rebirth and regeneration. The dream-like nature of the butterfly, with its en tremblant wings, adds to the romance of the piece.
The Parker Gallery – Winner of the Fine Art category and Best Scholarly Approach by a Young Dealer
The painting of Elizabeth and Charles Bedford with their pet St Bernard dog has never left the Bedford family until now. Hayman was in a transitional period and had begun to adopt a style similar to that of Hogarth, perhaps in a bid to emulate his international success. Alas his ill-health meant his pupil, a certain Thomas Gainborough, finished the painting after Hayman’s death in 1776 hence the romantic landscape.
Kevin Page Oriental Art – Winner of the Sculpture Category
This rare and unique fully articulated Japanese iron okimono of a human skeleton is the only known fully articulated iron Jizai human skeleton in existence. Jizai (meaning ‘at will’) Okimono (meaning ‘decorative object’) are realistic articulated figures of insects, birds, reptiles, fish and mythical beasts. Most early examples are made of iron, but copper, bronze and silver became popular in later designs. This piece is signed Mune Kase and is from the Meiji period, circa 1840.
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Joanna Booth – Winner of the Textile Category
A medieval cope circa 1500 of exceptional rarity and featuring embroidered figures applied to Italian silk. Purchased from the estate of an American collector, the Italian silk ground is woven with central vegetal motifs surrounded by curved volutes and branches in an unusual colour of darker and lighter tan tones. Applied to the hood and in a mandorla below is the Coronation of the Virgin. Named apostles line the inner borders of the cope while further half-length apostles encircle the outer edge and winged angels with banderoles are distributed throughout the field.
Alexander George Antiques – Winner of the Furniture Category
A unique and important pair of Coxed & Woster ‘mulberry’ on secretaire chests, both bearing their original trade labels circa 1719. The committee deemed this to be an extraordinary pair of exceptional quality and colour with layered painting used to give a marbled effect.
M&D Moir – Winner of the Ceramics & Glass Category
This ‘Honey Red Amber’ L C Tiffany favrile glass vase is decorated with gold waves and hooked feathering coiling around the body. It is one of only a few Tiffany favrile vases made in this exceptional and rare colour. Louis Comfort Tiffany was the son of the founder of the famed Fifth Avenue ‘Tiffany and Company’. He worked there from the 1880s until his death in 1933. He was the first person to produce high quality iridised decorative glassware and is perhaps most famous for his lamps and windows.
I Franks – Winner of the Silver Category
The famous silversmithing firm of Hukin & Heath and its successor Heath & Middleton are known for their production in the 1870s and 1880s of silver and electroplated wares under the guidance of Dr. Christopher Dresser. Working in a period normally associated with highly elaborate and decorative design, these two firms were at the vanguard of the Industrial Design movement producing some of the most striking and cutting edge design of the period. The rare sterling silver Coffee Percolator or Cafetiere, hallmarked in London in 1886 is decorated with naturalistic bark effect texturing and presented in its original retail box – a perfect example of the practical, beautiful and cutting edge design for which the firm is well known.
Ted Few – Winner of the Objets d’Art Category
This Mexican terracotta Colima Figure measuring 14cm dates from 300-200BC. The features and vitality of this example make it particularly exceptional.
VKD Jewels – Winner of the Jewellery Category
The sapphire and diamond earrings by René Sim Lacaze, c1950 are a great example of a piece made under the jeweller’s own name. Lacaze worked with many of the famous jewellery houses of the time, but made his name creative the famous “Zipper” necklace of Van Cleef & Arpels.
The Best Stand Award went to Farnham Antique Carpets. Often a very difficult discipline to display, the specialists in antique carpets, rugs and runners were praised for how creatively and invitingly they had presented the stand, evoking the intimacy of a traditional bazaar.
Describing the 2019 LAPADA Art & Antiques Fair Preview, Sophie Wood, Fair Manager, said: “As soon as the doors opened for the preview at 3pm, it was great to see a steady flow of British and international visitors which continued into the evening reception. A good deal of purchases were made from across the specialisms at the Fair, from furniture and fine art to jewellery, glass and ceramics. Many of our exhibitors reported a strong opening day, with visitors showing an interest in and also purchasing a range of items, from small collector’s pieces to large, five-figure sum sales. Against the current backdrop of a highly erratic and unpredictable state of the nation, we were delighted to have such a buoyant opening night.”
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