FROM jewellery to artwork there promises to be a diverse selection on offer at the virtual art fair which Hibernian Antique Fairs will run on January 16-17. A link to access the fair will be made available on the Hibernian Antiques Fairs facebook page on January 16. Dealers taking part will show photographs of what is on offer plus contact and delivery details. Among those taking part are Treasures Irish Art of Athlone. They will show a number of works by the self taught London born Irish painter Ken Moroney (1949-2018). He specialised in Impressionist painting and romantic Edwardian style subjects.
Ken Moroney oil on board 7 x 9 inches ‘Beach Study, Biarritz’
It isn’t great but it isn’t all bad either. Pandemic closures are horrible but there is much to explore online. If, for instance, you thought you might never get to visit the Mayfair Antiques Fair in London or the New York Winter Show, you were wrong. In 2021 they are available at the touch of a button on your computer.This is part of an ongoing shift online. All the data so far available from 2020 strongly suggests that large numbers of people who might never go to an auction viewing are buying online. At Christie’s, for instance, preliminary figures suggest that 36% of all buyers last year were new to the auction house. This experience is repeated everywhere else as the pandemic delivers new customers.Another statistic from Christie’s showed that 32% of all new online buyers were millennials (23 to 38 years old). In case you are wondering they are the ones who come after Generation X and before Generation Z. So the pandemic is leading large numbers of buyers straight to auction, spawning a new generation of young collectors and opening up specialist fairs to people everywhere. Anything positive in the midst of this lockdown is to be warmly welcomed and this bit of positivity is likely to have a long term impact.
A Chinese export reverse painted mirror in a Chippendale frame at the Mayfair Antiques Fair.
The Mayfair Antiques Fair usually takes place at the London Marriott Hotel in Grosvenor Square. This year it is in a new online guise. It opened on Thursday and continues today and tomorrow at www.mayfairfair.com There are 43 stands with a diverse mix of art and antiques dealers, mainly members of the British Antique Dealers Association or LAPADA, The Association of Art and Antique Dealers.There is much to choose from including a monumental first period Emile Galle vase enamelled with exotic flowers, a Chinese export reverse painted mirror plate in a Chippendale period frame, a pair of George III tea caddies made in London by William Frisbee in 1793, fine jewellery, art, antique furniture and collectibles.In New York the new virtual Winter Show runs from January 22-31 with preview access from January 19. It will bring together 60 leading international dealers with fine and decorative arts from ancient times to the present day. Visitors can taken in visual presentations and view close ups. All objects on view are vetted for authenticity, date and condition.There are leading dealers from New York, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Philadelphia, Chicago, Zurich and a variety of other locations. Among them are Ronald Phillips from London, Aronson, Amsterdam, A La Vielle Russie, New York, Apter-Fredericks, London, Elle Shusan, Philadelphia, Hirschl and Adler Galleries, New York and Les Enluminures of Chicago.
Masterworks of Modern Japanese porcelain will be displayed by Joan B. Mirviss Ltd. in New York
A dynamic group of leading international dealers will take part in New York’s Winter Show. The inaugural online edition takes place from January 22-31 with VIP preview access from January 19-21. The 60 exhibitors will present a diverse mix of fine and decorative arts from ancient times to the present day. Executive Director Helen Allen said: “We have worked to create a virtual format that is interactive, visually stimulating, and showcases the quality and depth of the objects presented”.
The online platform allows exhibitors present a gallery exhibition in a three-dimensional virtual space. Visitors will be able to take in the digital presentations as a whole and view close-up, detailed views of each work. Exhibitors will curate their selections, featuring up to twenty artworks and objects at a time.
Aronson of Amsterdam will show fine quality Delftware
The online world of art and antiques in Ireland picked up enormously as 2020 moved from spring to summer and beyond. This is traditionally a very quiet time in the trade but as Ireland moves towards another lockdown and a semi-cancelled Christmas there is much more than usual going on online. One upcoming event is the virtual Mayfair antiques and fine art fair. The fair normally takes place at the London Marriott Hotel on Grosvenor Square. This year it opens online on January 7 and continues until January 10. Among a huge range of objects on offer is this William and Mary veneered burr and figured walnut bureau bookcase. William Cook, who is offering the English made bookcase at £38,500, points to the parquetry and inlaid domed top which would be normally associated with a Dutch cabinet. It shows how continental design influences were arriving in England during the period around 1695 when this was made.
A virtual fair by Hibernian Antique Fairs takes place on December 5 and 6. The format for this fourth virtual fair has been re-jigged with a bigger and better selection of antiques, art, silver, jewellery and collectibles on sale. Dealers post images and prices and viewers can browse online. This link will get you in. http://www.hibernianantiques.ie/fairs/4/
A c1900 leather bound stationary box stamped FOTA with Sandra Hogan
There was a record for any work of Italian design at Sotheby’s contemporary art sale in New York when a unique dining table by Carlo Mollino sold for $6.2 million. This was more than double the $3 million high estimate. From the Brooklyn Museum it was designed in 1949 and executed by Appelli and Varesio in Turin for the travelling exhibition Italy at Work: Her Renaissance in Design Today. This groundbreaking event, hosted initially by the Brooklyn Museum in 1950, set out to expose Italian art and design to an international audience in an attempt to stimulate Italy’s economy after World War II. Carlo Mollino (1905-1973) was an architect pushing the boundaries of design whose passions included skiing, poetry, racecar driving, photography and flying stunt planes. He developed the technique of bending and moulding plywood and his name became synonymous with complex, sinuous lines and forms.
Virtual antique fair number 3, a Christmas gift fair organised by Hibernian Antique Fairs, is now up and running and will continue today and tomorrow. More than 50 dealers, including nine members of the Irish Antique Dealers Association, are offering a range of objects from Irish art to antique furniture and collectibles for sale based on online photographs. Here is a link to the online event: http://hibernianantiques.ie/fairs/3/
The world of auctions, local, national and international, has moved fairly seamlessly to an online model of auctions. Art and antique fairs have a more particular problem, but as the pandemic progresses and large gatherings remain an impossibility new forms are emerging. With fabulous fairs in New York and Maastricht The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF), the daddy of them all, is not something us average punters get to visit every time. The good news is that the digital model is available in our own homes. The inaugural digital New York Fair runs from November 1-4 with a private preview day today. Each one of the almost 300 participating exhibitors from across the global community has been challenged to present a single masterpiece in their collection. The result is a selection of artworks in the top segment of the market in one place which offers all of us a chance to look and learn. Did you know, for instance, that in the last two years of his life the artist Georges Braque, became fascinated with the idea of designing jewellery? It gave him a chance to continue with art while experiencing ill health. Jewellers Didier Ltd. will highlight a Poseidon necklace designed by Braque in 1962-62. An Ancient Egyptian head of Min, God of fertility and harvest, is at Axel Vervoordt. Among the other rarities to be found is Gokei Monju, a Japanese temple sculpture of the bodhisattva of transcendent wisdom at Asian art specialists Sydney L. Moss. Guests who are moved to purchase will be afforded the option of interaction with exhibitors. It is possible to pre-register online at https://www.tefaf.com/visitors/sign_up.
Poseidon, a necklace in gold, platinum and diamonds by Georges Braque (1882-1963)
Donald Judd’s Untitled (1988) is a Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac highlight at TEFAF online New York from October 30-November 4. One of the most influential artists of the post-war period, Judd (1928–1994) radically transformed notions of the ‘visible’, developing a rigorous visual vocabulary that emphasises simple, mathematical proportions and openness of form. Untitled belongs to one of Judd’s principle and best-known bodies of work – the ‘stacks’, which he first created in galvanised iron in 1965.
This is TEFAF’s first virtual fair, which will provide attendees with direct, live access to its community of world-renowned dealers. Each of nearly 300 specialist exhibitors will present one masterpiece representing their respective areas of expertise. In TEFAF’s long tradition of presenting quality works, TEFAF Online provides the most thorough vetting procedure possible within a digital context.? TEFAF Online will afford attendees an extraordinary journey through 7,000 years of art history.
A virtual event organised by Hibernian Antique Fairs is taking place this weekend. More than 700 items including jewellery, furniture, collectibles and art from a variety of dealers are available online. To attend just click on the link https://hibernianantiquescom.wordpress.com/virtual-fair-2/
