Antiques
Burlington House Fair (Royal Academy, till 20 September)
Fun of the fair
Alistair Hicks
6 Do you have any proof that that table is fr_om Strawberry Hill?' I asked Daniel Katz, pointing to a divine Gothic folly that was clearly marked 'Ex-collection A display by Daniel Katz at the Burlington House Fair.
Strawberry Hill'. 'No,' he admitted quite frankly as people jostled around his stand at Burlington House, 'I just feel it is right. With all my experience . . .' Then it happened. His eye quite blatantly opened and closed. It wasn't surreptitious; it was in slow motion. He talked eloquently on about the magnificent bronze beasts sitting upon it. One was marked 'English, late 15th century' and the other 'circa 1500'. Earlier I had read his views in an interview in my own august magazine, Antique. 'I am going to hold a symposium [about them] and ask a few experts what they might be. I'll hold the lunch here [he works from home] or at the British Museum or some- where, and ask everyone to write a paper on what they think they are.' Throughout our little talk he had been winking. I later learned that I had missed his other favourite trick. He grinds his teeth.
There is not much weeping and gnashing at the Burlington House Fair. It is a much livelier event than it was two years ago. There is a refreshing influx of foreign dealers. Some British dealers may resent this, but it is to London's advantage. Hopefully it will encourage more to follow the example of Didier Aaron, Bernheimer, Steinitz and Tzigany who have set up over here in the last two years. The Fair may lack furniture, with the notable exceptions of the Pelham Galleries' majestic col- laboration with Colnaghi's and the dealers' dealer, Dick Turpin, but it is full of museum-quality objects. Lin and Emile Deletaille from Brussels have an alarming Costa Rican volcanic rock 'flying table' and other pre-Colombian pieces. Steinitz has decked his stand in panelling, Bemheimer has a pair of extravagantly proportioned Portuguese chairs and Corsini brings the most controversial painting, a Madonna and Child recently attributed to Botticelli by Everett Fahy. By coincidence, a recent- ly attributed Botticelli drawing sits upstairs in the Woodner Collection. It wasn't given that title till it had left the Duke of Devonshire's hands, passed through Christie's portals and safely docked in New York, where Mr Fahy of the Frick Museum identified it.
Mr Corsini's asking price of $2 million for the cleaned 'Botticelli' is a good deal more than the $65,000 he paid for it at Sotheby's in 1985. I suppose it is not too much for a charming but second-rate Bot- ticelli, though in a market dominated by the shopping-list mentality it would be considered wildly overpriced for a good workshop piece. Date-lines are another handicap the art market imposes on itself. When period ruled supreme, when the precise age of a piece mattered more than anything else, date-lines at fairs were strict, but now that they have been meddled with they are utterly meaningless. Excellence should be the only guideline and has been with Kenneth Snowman's unrivalled dis- play of Faberge from the Royal and Forbes Collections. I particularly coveted an Aes- thetic Movement cigarette case, whose plain enamel background is littered with jewelled circles of many colours. However, the date-line on paintings at the Fair is a farce.
Space prevents me from writing about the Maurice Cockrills on show at Bernard Jacobson's in Cork Street, but they would fare better alongside the other wares of Burlington House than the dreaded 'Brit- ish Impressionists'. Who wants to see mediocre early-20th-century British paint- ings alongside Jonathan Home's wonderful 18th-century gargoyles, Vanderven's out- standing 18th-century Chinese Export fig- ures or Jack Ogden's antiquities? The academic dressing to the British Impress- ionists is so flimsy that it could be blown away by a schoolchild's puff. They are pretty and sentimental pictures. Johnny van Haeften's approach to selling pictures is much more earthy. During the Grosve- nor House Fair he had to rush to Gatwick with a painting for a client who was only in England for half an hour. 'I'd go anywhere to sell a picture,' he quips.
This is the weekend of fairs, because there are two oi!iers where mere mortals can afford to buy. The Chelsea Antiques Fair at Chelsea Old Town Hall is as friendly as ever, and even I bought some- thing. It has run for two weeks and continues till 19 September, but the De- corative Antiques and Textiles Fair at the Café Royal is only on for the weekend and will no doubt be as packed as usual. Here are three very good reasons to stay in London this weekend. I never take my own advice and am going to Assisi to write my next Spectator piece.
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