LONDON.- The Mayfair Antiques & Fine Art Fair returns to the London Marriott Hotel Grosvenor Square, opening the London fairs scene for 2024 from Thursday 11 to Sunday 14 January 2024. Supported by Wetherell and Kirker Holidays, some 40 dealers are gathering to start the year in style, bringing a vast array of items to collect, for interiors, as unique gifts and simply to enjoy and treasure.

Highlights include an important set of four George II silver fruit bowls and stands with the arms of Wordsworth of Westmorland (grandparents of the English poet William Wordsworth) impaling Robinson of Co. Durham, maker’s mark of Samuel Herbert & Company, London, 1751/52, £69,500 the set from Mary Cooke Antiques Ltd. To find a single fruit bowl and stand is very unusual, however to find a set of four is highly important and of museum rarity.

Jeroen Markies Art Deco brings a selection of Art Deco furniture and mid-century interior accessories. Amongst the items heading for Mayfair in January is an Art Deco curved satinwood desk with original shell carved ivory handles and mirrored top, designed by Betty Joel, English, circa 1930, £6,800. Betty Joel was one of London's leading furniture retailers and designers in the 1920s and 1930s, who won many contracts to decorate libraries, boardrooms, shops and Savoy Group hotels. Her private clients included Lord Louis Mountbatten and Sir Winston Churchill. Jeroen Markies Art Deco is also planning to show an Art Deco ten seater dining suite by Waring & Gillows, English, circa 1935, £16,500 the suite. The extendable dining table has two-drop in leaves, satinwood veneered on solid mahogany with figured walnut banding and pedestal base. There are eight dining chairs and two carvers in solid satinwood with Karelian birch arm ends and new olive-green leather upholstery.

Visitors to the fair will be spoilt for choice with jewellery from different eras, some classically stunning, others quietly elegant and then there is just pure fun like a large silver gilt octopus bangle, circa 1970s, POA from Sue Brown, who also has another sizeable piece in the form of a large winged scarab brooch, ancient Egypt, dating around 7th-4th century BC, and priced at £8,800.

Scarabs also feature in an unusual and rare 18 carat gold Grand Tour bracelet, from Italy, made of lava from Mount Vesuvius, £5,800 from Markov. Jewellery like this was sold to wealthy Victorian and Georgian ladies visiting architectural sights in Italy. Markov also comes with an 18 carat gold and silver choker with Mycenaean lions’ heads by Greek designer Zolotas, 1950s, priced in the region of £3,000. Zolotas’ inspiration was always ancient Greek archaeology.

Lynn Lindsay of Wimpole Antiques says that recently she is selling fewer pieces of jewellery but more expensive items. Bound for the Wimpole Antiques’ stand this January are an 18ct gold and diamond sixties’ bracelet by Van Cleef & Arpels, priced in the region of £20,000; a French calibrated sapphire and diamond ring set in platinum with a central diamond of 2.85 carats, in the region of £25,000 and a mid-20th century 18ct gold, enamel and chalcedony necklace and matching earrings, IRO £15,000. Anthea AG Antiques also sells designer pieces and is bringing a Buccellati yellow gold and diamond bracelet, POA and a Kutchinsky two colour gold bracelet from the 1970s.

Newcomer to the fair is Nick Skipp Fine Art, dealer in modern art and ancient artefacts. Nick Skipp Fine Art enjoys the juxtaposition of mixing contemporary and ancient artefacts. Coming to the fair are L 1070-3 Suite A, plate III, lithograph on wove paper created in 1970, £1,995 (framed) by Hans Hartung (1904-1986), one of the 20th century's most pioneering and influential artists. Nick Skipp Fine Art has both editions of this print for sale, including the full album set of Suite B, alongside other prints. Both are signed, numbered and dated by the artist in pencil. This print beautifully captures the confidence and mastery of touch that his experimentations with mark-making had achieved at this point. Nick Skipp Fine Art also has Dancing Satyr, an Etruscan bronze figure from Italy, 3rd century BCE, £1,295. This delightful bronze figure shows a naked dancing satyr with large ears, outstretched arms and wearing a conical hat. His small size indicates he was likely a funerary votive and would have had an important symbolic role in assisting the successful transition into the afterlife.

Other art dealers returning to exhibit include Garret & Hurst Sculpture, Granta Fine Art, Haynes Fine Art, The Hunt Gallery and Kaye Michie Fine Art with paintings by Mary Fedden RA, OBE, Dame Laura Knight RA and Summer Evening a pastel by Bernard Dunstan R.A., R.W.A., N.E.A.C (1920-2017) depicting his wife, fellow artist Diana Armfield.

With the popularity of the BBC’s TV programme of the same name, Gone Fishing, an oil on canvas signed by Norman Hoad (1923-2014) might be appealing at £800 from Paul Mayhew Fine Art. Hoad was famous for his WWII contribution before becoming a leading artist in aviation and equestrian art. With storms and lashing waves being the order of the day at the moment, Breakers at Twilight a signed oil on canvas by Julius Olsson RA (British,1854-1942) seems rather apt, for sale for £9,500 with Burlington.

Paintings depicting London include The Gate of London, oil on board by Henry Halsey Meegan (1860-1944), signed and dated 1911 and with a price tag of £1,950 also from Cambridge Fine Art and a signed watercolour Hyde Park Corner, London by Paul Edward Rischgitz (born Geneva 1828, died London 1909), priced at £1,450 with John Robertson. Rischgitz worked for Minton porcelain as well as being an illustrator for magazines.

W. Shanshan 珊然軒successfully debuted last year and is returning with her Asian pottery to exhibit this January. Once again, Dr Shanshan has put together some short talks, with handling opportunities, taking place over a 30 minute period from 2pm daily (booking essential, see the website).

Carolyn Stoddart-Scott returns with her porcelain and ceramics, amongst which is a French Sarreguemines agateware barrel and basin, 14” high, circa 1900, £675. Unlike Carolyn’s European ceramics, W. Shanshan 珊然軒 has some considerably older pieces amongst which is a large burnished Chinese Han dynasty earthenware cocoon shaped storage jar, 202 BCE-220 CE, selling for £6,250.

Magnificent timepieces can be found with the BBC Antiques Roadshow’s clock expert Richard Price and with Timewise Vintage Watches. Richard Price is bringing an impressive French empire ormolu mantel clock The Oath of the Horatii, circa 1810, £18,750. The movement has a white dial and silk suspension, flanked on the left by the three sons taking the oath, on the right their father Horatius accepts the oath and holds three swords, the rectangular base with relief plaque showing a battle scene. On a smaller scale, is a rare and historically interesting Longines Lindbergh navigators’ watch, 1930s, £37,000 from Timewise Vintage Watches. On 20th May 1927, the American pilot Charles Lindbergh left Roosevelt Airport at the controls of the ’Spirit of St. Louis’. 33 hours and 30 minutes later, Lindbergh landed in France after completing the first ever non-stop solo transatlantic flight. In the 1930s, Lindbergh designed the Lindbergh Hour Angle in partnership with Longines, and the watch was put into production. It allowed for accurate determination of longitude during long-distance flights. As a result, pilots

King and Country has also decided to join the fair for the first time. Amongst the items destined for the stand is a Belle Epoque Cartier sterling silver mignonette clock with ivory guilloche enamel panels and navy enamel borders, circa 1910, £34,500.

Furniture specialists Mark Buckley Antiques and S&S Timms Antiques are returning, the latter bringing a delightful mid-18th century George II period elm chest, circa 1750, £5,500 and a mid-19th century William IV period mahogany library armchair of bold proportions, raised on elegant sabre legs, circa 1840, £4,950. Place a beautiful Persian rug from the Oriental Rug Shop underneath or alongside pieces of furniture to bring the room alive. A white ground Persian wool on cotton Heriz carpet from the 1920s is the perfect example and costs £3,850.

The charity we continue to support is the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (QEST).

This January, two QEST scholars are returning to exhibit with us for all four days:

Poppy Field (b.1993) won her first public commission in 2021: two-metre bronze monuments of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh. These were installed in niches on The Royal Albert Hall's South Porch façade for the venue’s 150th anniversary and unveiled by King Charles III and Queen Camilla on the eve of the Royal British Legion’s Festival of Remembrance this year. Poppy sculpts both commissioned works and studio pieces, combining traditional techniques with a painterly application of clay and expressive gestures to bring her sculptures to life. She layers clay and conversations to create vibrant surfaces, capturing the intangible essence of her subjects as she builds her sculptures from the inside out.

Metalsmith Gordon W. Robertson works in pewter, brass, copper, steel, zinc, silver, textiles and print. He specialises in hand-etched surfaces, forging organic, intricate patterns inspired by nature and abstract geometry to create timeless and eminently collectable designs. See his new feather design this January. He creates imaginative and exquisite tableware, furniture and panelling, working closely with clients to realise their specific aspirations. Gordon’s work can be found in the collection of The Worshipful Company of Pewterers – with whom he is a freeman – The Neish Pewter Collection in The Smith Museum, Stirling, Scotland and many private collections.

Other dealers exhibiting include silver specialist Stephen Kalms Antiques, The Antique Enamel Company, jewellery and objet d’art specialist T Robert, Hickmet Fine Arts, Something Different, Monika Antiques selling high end costume jewellery and vintage bags and Peter Bunting Antiques returns, after a few years absence, with period oak furniture and accessories.