This June, Kensington Gardens will provide the stunning backdrop to Art Antiques London, which runs from June 10-16, 2010, a new art and antiques fair aimed at both the seasoned connoisseur and those who admire and value beauty and timelessness. Art Antiques London will incorporate the International Ceramics Fair and Seminar, which has been a fixture in the London calendar for almost thirty years.

This highly anticipated new Haughton fair will be held in a beautiful custom-built pavilion opposite the Royal Albert Hall, adjacent to the site of the Great Exhibition of 1851.  The Fair’s participants are leading specialists in a wide range of disciplines, including furniture, paintings, jewellery, clocks, textiles, silver and ceramics, as well as rare books and modern and contemporary objet d’art.  Every object exhibited at the Fair is rigorously examined and vetted for quality and authenticity, so collectors can be assured they can buy with confidence.  The Fair will also host a full programme of lectures and seminars that will make Art Antiques London an important destination for international collectors and institutions, and a glamorous Charity Gala evening that will ensure the Fair will become a fixture in the Capital’s social calendar.

Art Antiques London will open with a glittering “First Night” Gala on June 9th for The Bush Theatre, London’s most celebrated experimental theatre.  Located in Shepherd’s Bush, it is considered one of the country's leading and most prestigious new writing venues.   The theatre was established in 1972, and its main aim is to discover, produce and promote the most innovative and exciting new playwrights of the future.  During the 37 years since it opened, the Bush stage has helped launched the careers of actors such as Kate Beckinsale, Simon Callow, Julie Walters, Alan Rickman, Antony Sher and Jim Broadbent, and playwrights such as Stephen Poliakoff and Catherine Johnson.  The Bush endeavours continually to introduce new people to its work and actively encourages young people to attend theatre for the first time through its education programmes. An intimate venue renowned for its close-up storytelling, the theatre holds a maximum audience of approximately 80. In 2007 the Bush Theatre appointed Josie Rourke its Artistic Director.

Loan Exhibition from the Hermitage

The London Friends of the Hermitage and the Tosca Photography Fund are delighted to mount a very special loan exhibition of Russian photographs.

The Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, has a superb collection of 19th century Russian photographs – roughly 40,000 of them – from the Imperial Collection and the private collections of the aristocracy.   But the collection stops sharply in 1917 with the Russian Revolution.   The Tosca Photography Fund has a large collection of 20th Century Soviet photography, from which 35 examples of the Great Russian masters are to be shown. It would be an ideal complement to the Hermitage’s own collection. Ranging from the famous Rodchenko Avant Garde and constructivist works, to his school of Vkhutemas architectural students, the photojournalism of Kheldei and Khalip and many more, the exhibition will highlight how the Hermitage, if it indeed is successful in being donated the entire collection, will have a photography collection of both 19th and 20th century photographs, outstanding in aesthetic, cultural and historical significance.

Art Antiques London and the Victoria and Albert Museum: 

An Exclusive Invitation Preview of the much-anticipated Ceramics Study Galleries:

Phase 2 of the V&A Ceramics Galleries, the Ceramics Study Galleries, will open to the public on 10 June, coinciding with Art Antiques London. Visitors to Art Antiques London will have a unique opportunity to see the new Ceramics Study Galleries at a special pre-opening viewing. Fairgoers holding an Art Antiques London ticket will have access to the new galleries as part of the Members' Preview Day on Wednesday 9 June, 10am to 5.45pm (last entry 5pm).

The Ceramics Study Galleries will capitalize on the vast collection of ceramics at the V&A. These galleries will evoke a 'behind-the-scenes' experience with over 26,000 objects presented in beautiful new displays. The galleries will celebrate the extraordinary wealth of the V&A ceramics collections: an encyclopaedia of the entire history of ceramic production.

Phase 1 of the galleries opened in September 2009 and includes an introductory gallery presenting a world history of ceramics, a gallery devoted to ceramic materials and techniques and smaller rooms for temporary exhibitions, contemporary ceramics, 20th-century pottery and architectural ceramics.   The galleries will create the most important national and international centre for the enjoyment, understanding and study of ceramics and is a collection that is unrivalled anywhere in the world.

Art Antiques London and Waddesdon Manor– The Rothschild Collection:  This year the Waddesdon Masterclass is delighted to announce its partnership with Art Antiques London.  The Waddesdon Masterclass participants will have a chance to preview the fair in the company of Waddesdon curators before it opens to the public, and a lucky fair visitor will win a place on the 2011 Masterclass.  The Waddesdon Masterclass offers connoisseurs, as well as those eager to learn about Waddesdon’s fabulous collections, the opportunity to experience the house and its treasures in the manner of Baron Ferdinand’s house party guests in the 19thcentury. The two-day residential course is held while the house is closed to the public.  The participants have exclusive access and attend sessions that are tailored to individual interests and led by Waddesdon curators. Fine dining and accommodation in the Manor itself complete this unique experience.         

Exhibitor Highlights

Organiser and porcelain expert Brian Haughton is presenting an important Meissen Cream Pot, cover and stand painted by B. G. Haüer with campaign scenes, c.1740, an extremely rare Nymphenburg shell butter box and cover, modelled by Dominikus Auliczek from 1765-1770, and a Böttger White Meissen Porcelain Coffee Pot and cover, gilded with Chinese figures and magicians, c. 1718-20.   E & H Manners will show a stunning Doccia figure of Arlecchina, c 1750 and a charming faceted wine glass, 1730, formerly from the Otto Meyer Collection, decorated in Schwarzlot and gold by Ignaz Preissler.    Other ceramics dealers exhibiting at the Fair include Dragesco-Cramoisan, Kunsthandel Daniela Kumpf, Stockspring Antiques and Adrian Sassoon.

Paintings and drawings from 18th century to the present day will be shown at the Fair. Lowell Libson will be bringing a wonderful Lear watercolour entitled, The Cedars of Lebanon.   MacConnal-Mason is offering a superb painting by L S Lowry, dated 1951.  Entitled The Gateway, the painting was first sold in 1955 for £57.00 and was last exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1976.  It is a wonderful example of Lowry’s muted colour palette of ivory, black, flake white and yellow ochre.

The Maas Gallery is presenting a beautiful oil portrait by Sir Gerald Kelly entitled Sao Ohn Nyun V. dated 1932.   It is the fifth and most enigmatic of the series of the same name.  After an unhappy love affair in Paris, Kelly went to Burma on the advice of the writer Somerset Maugham, who lent him £50 for the journey.  In Burma he fell in love anew, but this time with an ideal of Eastern beauty, exoticism and mystery.  Back in London, he finally met the embodiment of that dream in the form of Sao Ohn Nyun, the sister-in-law of the Rajah of Thi-Paw.  The painting comes on to the market having been in private ownership for some years.

Lucy B Campbell will be bringing works by Juan Luque (b. 1964); Anna Pugh (b. 1938) and Mia Tarney (b. 1973).  Spanish painter Luque, is fascinated with the textures and treatment of light on the open sea when it encounters solitary lighthouses or ships.  He has twice won the Medal for painting at BMW’s Awards in Madrid and the first prize at the Focus Awards in Seville.

H. Blairman & Sons Ltd, who specialise in furniture from the early 19th to the early 20th century with a strong interest in beautifully designed, documented furniture and works of art from the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, is presenting a set of six Willow Tea Room chairs by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, manufactured by Alex Martin.  A plaster bust of Michelangelo wearing Van Dyck costume by the Italian sculptor Rigali who was working in Edinburgh in the early 19th century, signed and dated G. Rigali Edinb 1834, is being shown by sculpture and works of art specialist, W. Agnew & Co. Ltd.

Rare and collectable antique Indian jewellery from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries will be shown by both Susan Ollemans and Samina Khanyari.  Susan Ollemans will be showing a nine stone pendant or Navaratna inset in the kundun style with cabochon stones representing the cosmos.  A ruby in the centre represents the sun, with other precious stones arranged around it.  Once the gems are in harmony around the ‘sun’, the spirit of order is said to bring peace to the wearer.  Sandra Cronan and Nigel Norman will be exhibiting a wide range of fine jewels from the 17th to the early 20th centuries.

Among the highlights being shown by Hiroshi Yanagi Oriental Art from Kyoto, Japan, is a pair of Japanese six-fold screens inlaid with cloud-like gold leaf and beautifully painted with a depiction of stabled horses, from the mid-16th century.  Laura Bordignon, a specialist in Japanese ivory and bronze from the Meiji period, will be presenting a Japanese ‘koro’, or incense burner with silver and enamel mounts and ivory shibayama decorated with flowers and birds.

Raffety & Walwyn, the clock and barometer specialists, will be bringing a fine example of a George III period musical lacquer belltop bracket clock made by George Prior, from 1770 and an important James II ebonised longcase clock by Thomas Tompion.    

Art Antiques London Lecture and Seminar Programme

The lecture and seminar programme will offer a series of thought - provoking lectures on a wide variety of topics given by distinguished art historians, including Dame Rosalind Savill, Director of the Wallace Collection; Dr. Ulrich Pietsch, Director of the Porcelain Collection, Dresden; Philippa Glanville, former Assistant Keeper, Department of Metalwork, Victoria and Albert Museum, and Dr. Dora Thornton, Curator, Renaissance Collections of the British Museum. 

Visitors to the fair will be treated to a world-class dining experience presented by The Admirable Crichton, one of Europe’s leading caterers. A glamorous restaurant, a top Champagne Bar and Coffee Bar will be run on-site while the fair is open to the public. The Admirable Crichton are credited with creating some of the world’s most glamorous parties and their client list is a "Who's Who" of celebrities, politicians and social figures from around the world.  They will serve lunches every day in the ‘1851’ Restaurant (named in honour of the Great Exhibition) with a creative, modern and varied menu, and will have special afternoon teas called 'Kensington Gardens' and 'Hyde Park '. 

 Fair visitor information:

Address: Albert Memorial West Lawn, Kensington Gardens,

London, SW7, UK 

The West Lawn is next to the The Albert Memorial

and directly opposite The Royal Albert Hall.

Tel: + 44 (0)20 7389 6555

Fax: + 44 (0)20 7389 6556

www.haughton.com 

Admission:
£15 (Tickets available on the door).
All bags, backpacks and tote bags must be checked.

For press information and inquiries:

U.S.:  Magda Grigorian, Haughton Fairs, NY

T: (212) 877-0202

E: Haughton.ny@prodigy.net

UK:  Diana Cawdell/Abi Gold

Cawdell Douglas

T:  + 44 (0) 207 439 2822

F:  + 44 (0) 207 287 5488

E:  press@cawdelldouglas.com