The ninth annual Petworth Park Antiques & Fine Art Fair opens on Friday 19 until Sunday 21 May this year, when some 60 dealers with their latest acquisitions, put on a magnificent display for the fair’s discerning visitors. Housed in a specially designed marquee erected in the grounds of the National Trust’s Petworth House in Petworth, West Sussex, antiques fair tickets enable visitors to park directly outside the marquee and also visit Petworth House to view some of the nation’s art collection free-of-charge over the three days.

Appealing to collectors, interior designers and those who enjoy surrounding themselves with rare and fine items, this event offers a vast array of unique and impressive items to decorate interiors and as unusual gifts. This year’s fair welcomes a few new exhibitors: Gladwell & Patterson fine art dealers from Knightsbridge in London bringing Wildflower Wood oil on canvas signed by Ivon Hitchens (British, 1893-1979), 1975, priced at £175,000. The door to Hitchen’s Petworth studio is revealed in the far left of the composition; Andrew Muir and James Miles Ltd, exhibiting their Art Deco and mid-century ceramics together; Brian Watson Antique Glass; Lesley Blackford Antiques with an eclectic mix, S&S Timms Antiques Ltd bringing 17th to 19th century town and country furniture for the home; Jacksons Antique with 19th century objects and Asian art, and W. Shanshan 珊然軒 with ancient Asian pottery to more contemporary ceramics from China, Korea, Japan and elsewhere.

Highlights at the fair include a large Chinese porcelain plate decorated in vibrant famille rose (fencai) palette enamels in the centre with two Mandarin ducks swimming amongst lotus and on the border with eight Taoist immortals on their mythical attributes riding the fierce waters, c. 1740, Qianlong reign, Qing dynasty from Santos London. On the back is a red wax seal with the name DUVEEN, LIVERPOOL. From Freshfords Fine Antiques, returning to exhibit after a few years, comes a Regency Chinoiserie table cabinet, circa 1820, £6.750; a sizeable grand late Regency George IV period carved convex mirror, circa 1820, £14,500 and a rare early 19th century Gillow’s Regency period rosewood open bookcase cabinet, circa 1820, £12,500. Other furniture for sale includes an elegant pair of late 19th century satin birch Hepplewhite shield back armchairs on tapered legs, £1,800 from Walton House Antiques and an important George III console table with the original marble top, £10,500 from William Cook. Campaign furniture for sale includes an early 19th century oak Regency naval chair made to fold quickly to clear the decks, priced in the region of £1,250 and an early to mid-19th century ship's oak narrow chest with gallery and removable turned feet on lugs, also £1,250 from Christopher Clarke Antiques.

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, £4,650. Another polo player, this time a Chinese Tang dynasty (618- 907 CE) earthenware female polo player, priced at £2,300 is with W. Shanshan 珊然軒. At that time, women in China were able to walk freely in society, serve as officials and play polo in groups. Burlington brings Point to Point Enclosure an oil on canvas signed by Paul Gribble (b.1938), £4,500 and The Swan Gallery has Ploughing Horses at Work, an oil on canvas signed by Harry Fidler, RI RBA (fl.1891- d.1935), £2,950. Local dealer Antiquated, who can usually be found in the Petworth Antiques Market, has a 19th century small iron horse weathervane, circa 1840, £380. A late 19th century equestrian clock by Japy Frères of Beaucourt, France, can be found on the stand of Hatchwell Antiques with an asking price of £2,600. The clock is themed with various equestrian tack, including a horseshoe, stirrup, bit, bridle, chain, buckles and spur. Jewellery specialist Shapiro & Co returns with a selection of equine inspired nine carat gold pendants/charms dating from the 1950s, including a horse’s head, £275, a racehorse, £375 and a pixie in a horseshoe, £425.

New exhibitor Mark Goodger Antiques has one of René Lalique’s most famous designs - a car mascot ‘Longchamp A’, model number 1152A, with a double mane and a slight amethyst tint, circa 1929, £9,750 for the front of vehicle with horse power, and a very rare glass decanter with a sterling silver collar and faceted stopper by silversmith Hukin & Heath featuring an enamelled horse and hound scene, circa 1937, £1,400.

Glass and ceramics abound with local five generation glass specialist Fileman Antiques showing all things glass from paperweights and drinking glasses to chandeliers, including a fine pair of Rockingham porcelain candlesticks with gilt decoration, hung with the most unusual spade drops and notch cut spangles, English, c.1830, £4,850. Exhibiting for the first time is Brian Watson Antique Glass with a pair of finely cut early 19th century French vases on classical bronze bases, probably made by Baccarat, circa 1820-30, £1,950 and an amethyst-coloured vase with an engraved and gilded Bacchanalian scene, designed by Josef Hoffmann for Moser, circa 1920, £565. M&D Moir is coming with a signed Emile Gallé deeply cut cameo Primula vase, c.1908, £2,950; a rare Fachschule Haida vase with polychrome parrots, c.1915, £1,980 and an L.C. Tiffany Favrile vase, signed, c.1905, £2,200. More glass can be found with Mark J. West too.

Hickmet Fine Arts and Morgan Strickland Decorative Arts return with their respective 19th to mid-20th century glass, ceramics and sculpture. Tom Rooth exhibits art and his own hand drawn ceramic designs, amongst which is Octopus framed in an early 20th century ship’s porthole, £3,350. Drove House Antiques returns to the fair, after a few years, bringing a Chinese export famille rose candlestick, modelled after a European silver form, dating from the Qianlong period, circa 1740-60, £850 and a finely-detailed Copeland Parian figure group of Florence Nightingale and the Wounded Soldier from second half of the 19th century, £475.

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), oil on canvas, £18,000 from Petworth and St. James’s art dealer Rountree Tryon Galleries. Another Petworth gallery, Ottocento brings 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, £6,250; 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, priced at £8,000. The lid is printed with a portrait of George III to the exterior and portrait of Queen Charlotte to interior, the sides with vignettes of Neptune, Britannia, cherubs etc 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. Mark Goodger Antiques brings a rare solid oak tea caddy in the form of a sentry box, which could have been guarding King George V as it dates circa 1890, £2,950; adorned with a detailed watercolour painting of a Grenadier Guard standing inside the sentry box behind a glazed window. The peaked roof lifts to reveal a tea storage compartment with a floating lid to help keep the tea leaves fresh. This compartment has traces of its original lining.

There is so much more to discover with art to satisfy most tastes. Blackbrook Gallery sells naïve animal paintings amongst which is an oil on canvas Proud Farmer with his prize Hereford Steer and Cotswold Ram signed by L. Beattie and dated 1833, with a price tag of £14,950. This is a rare painting showing the farmer dressed in his smartest smock, hat and boots. A highlight on Petworth Park fair newcomer John Adams Fine Art’s stand is Le Pavillon de Chasse (The Hunting Lodge) an oil on canvas by French artist Claude Grosperrin (1936- 1977), £24,000 and a characterful gouache Réunion des Modistes by Léon Benigni (French, 1892-1948), £4,400. Kaye Michie Fine Art brings an impressive selection including paintings by Donald Hamilton Fraser RA (1929-2009) and Mary Fedden RA OBE (1915-2012). Lucy B. Campbell is showing work by popular Sussex artist Anna Pugh (b.1938). Artists inspired by Sussex landscapes and subjects come from Elford Fine Art with and oil on board of Arundel Castle by Sarah Louisa Kilpack (British,1839-1909), £950 and Sunset after Rain Hastings, Sussex a watercolour by Frank Rousse (exhibited 1897-1917), £795. Another Sussex inspiration appears on Rountree Tryon Galleries’ stand View from Upperton towards Chanctonbury Ring, West Sussex signed oil on board by Claude Graham Muncaster (1903-1974), priced at £5,500. Garret & Hurst Sculpture exhibits contemporary and 19th century bronzes with a highlight being ‘Le Penseur’ by Julien Monier (French, fl. 1890-1915), £5,975.

Jewellery highlights include Georg Jensen silver grape vine leaf necklace, no 96, designed by Harald Nielsen, 47cm long, early 1920s, £1,750 from Dansk Silver by Jane Burgett. Harald Nielsen was the younger brother of Georg Jensen's wife, Johanne. He worked for the company as an apprentice in 1909 and worked his way up to become the smithy director after Georg Jensen's death. In previous years, Greenstein Antiques has sold several engagement rings to visitors at the Petworth Park fair and there is a varied selection once again, as well as an impressive Austrian Art Deco diamond bracelet £12,950 and a Victorian seed pearl and 18ct yellow gold cameo brooch, £3,950.

The Antiques Dealers Fair Limited organiser, Ingrid Nilson said, “Our Petworth Park Fair is in an enviable position in that we have had a waiting list of exhibitors for a number of years now. With the sad demise of several fairs since the pandemic, we now have an even greater choice of dealers wishing to exhibit, so can offer visitors a really varied variety of specialisms from the ancient to the contemporary.”

A complimentary minibus regularly ferries people between the centre of Petworth and the antiques fair, so they can take full advantage of all that the market town of Petworth has to offer. Petworth has a remarkable range of art and antiques shops and galleries, as well as plenty of pubs and eateries. Tickets are £10 each and can be booked at https://PetworthParkFair.eventbrite.co.uk Tickets include complimentary access to Petworth House and Park over the three days. Free entry to the antiques fair for National Trust members.