Highlights of LAPADA Art & Antiques Fair 2018

LAPADA celebrates the 10th anniversary of its Art & Antiques Fair this autumn, as the event returns to Berkeley Square from 14–19 September. This year’s edition promises as great a variety of work as ever, with some 100 galleries and dealers presenting everything from antique furniture to contemporary painting.

At this year’s talks and events programme, speakers will address topics as diverse as the history of chairs and 18th-century porcelain. The headline lecture is again provided by the Ashmolean Museum, which returns as LAPADA’s cultural partner, and will take as its subject the museum’s upcoming exhibition Spellbound: Magic, Ritual and Witchcraft. Some exhibitors’ displays blend old and new, decorative and fine arts. Didier Marien, the tapestry and carpet specialist and owner of Boccara in Paris, presents a tapestry created by Mortlake, the renowned 17th-century English manufacturers, and a 19th-century Aubusson rug. He also brings one of the standout works of this year’s fair – Nocturne Matinale, a vast, colourful, geometric tapestry of 1970 by Sonia Delaunay. Willow Gallery, meanwhile, offers an opportunity to see still lifes by Marc Chagall and the Scottish Colourist S.J. Peploe side by side.

Nocturne Matinale (1970), Sonia Delaunay. Didier Marien

Antiques include everything from a ‘Boulle’ marquetry guéridon, extensively decorated with tortoiseshell and gilt-bronze – part of the typically strong offering by Butchoff – to an architectural trumeau by Piero Fornasetti, designed in collaboration with Giò Ponti (the pre-eminent Italian architect and designer of the 1960s and ’70s). I. Franks brings a silver presentation ewer of 1909 by Elkington & Co., with a relief of Orpheus taming the beasts with his lyre. For collectables, head to Hampton Antiques, where a group of 1920s car mascots is on display.

A ‘Boulle’ marquetry guéridon. Butchoff Antiques

There is also a solid range of British painting at the fair. John Iddon brings a recent Hockney lithograph, while Long & Ryle presents work by contemporary artists, including David Wightman and John Monks. For more traditional paintings head to the Parker Gallery; among the highlights here is an equine scene by Stubbs.

LAPADA Art & Antiques Fair 2018 takes place in Berkeley Square, London, from 14–19 September.