Petworth Park Antiques & Fine Art Fair 2023 is a magnificent display of antiques and fine art, in the stunning grounds of Petworth House and this year, it takes place from Friday 19 to Sunday 21 May.
The fair represents a unique chance for collectors, interior designers, and those who just enjoy rare and beautiful items, to enjoy a vast array of impressive collectables and view some of the nation’s art collections in a specially designed marquee. Items include everything from period to modern furniture, jewellery, sculpture, glass, lighting, vintage watches and silver to paintings, drawings, ceramics, clocks, 20th century design objects, maps, prints, enamels, objects of vertu, aeronautica and many other decorative and unique works of art spanning the centuries.
This year’s fair includes over 60 exhibitors with a few new exhibitors such as Gladwell & Patterson fine art dealers from Knightsbridge, Andrew Muir and James Miles Ltd exhibiting their Art Deco and mid-century ceramics and S&S Timms Antiques Ltd bringing 17th to 19th century town and country furniture.
Other new exhibitors to look out for include Jacksons Antique with 19th century objects and Asian art, and W. Shanshan 珊然軒 with ancient Asian pottery as well as more contemporary ceramics from China, Korea, Japan and elsewhere.
Highlights
There are so many highlights to look out for including a large Chinese porcelain plate decorated in vibrant famille rose (fencai) with palette enamels in the centre with two Mandarin ducks swimming amongst lotus. On the border are eight Taoist immortals on their mythical attributes riding the fierce waters, c. 1740, from the Qing dynasty (from Santos London). And a Fabergé miniature enamel, gold and silver egg pendant by workmaster Andrei Adler, St. Petersburg, c.1900 (from Shapiro & Co).
Equestrian art
Equestrian art is particularly relevant with Cowdray Park Polo Club a few miles down the road. Petworth-based exhibitor Augustus Brandt has a bronze of a polo player by Joseph Cuvelier (French 1833-1879), cast by H. Luppens & Cie, circa 1860. W. Shanshan 珊然軒 are bringing another polo player, this time a Chinese Tang dynasty (618-907 CE) earthenware female polo player. At that time, women in China were able to walk freely in society, serve as officials and play polo in groups.
Celebrating the Coronation
In the month that the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth celebrates the Coronation of our new King, a few dealers are exhibiting royal items including a portrait of the last king to reign, King Charles III’s grandfather King George VI by Herbert James Gunn R.A. (1893-1964). Another Petworth gallery, Ottocento is bringing a painting of Amalie Sophia von Wendt holding the Golden Apple in the Judgment of Paris flanked by her sisters. She went on to be George II’s mistress and fathered a son by him. She was the last mistress to be given a peerage.
From The Antique Enamel Company comes a silver and enamel Coronation coach by Ludwig Politzer, Vienna, circa 1890, several Bilston enamel patch boxes, circa 1780, featuring royal palaces and castles, including Windsor Castle, and a Battersea York House enamel box commemorating the marriage of King George III and Queen Charlotte, circa 1755. The lid is printed with a portrait of George II on the exterior and a portrait of Queen Charlotte inside, the sides with vignettes of Neptune, Britannia and cherubs, and with a poem beneath “Let him love now, who never lov’d before / Let him who ever lov’d, now love the more“. A near-identical example is in the Royal Collection.
An event for lovers of fine art and antiques to really savour, The Petworth Park Antiques & Fine Art Fair 2023 takes place on Friday 11.00 to 18.00, Saturday 10.30 to 18.00, Sunday 10.30 to 17.00. You can find full details here: Petworth Park Antiques & Fine Art Fair
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