BADA Cancels Americana Week N.Y. Antiques Fair In January

LONDON

:The British Antiques Dealers Association has postponed plans for a show in New York from January 16 to 21, 2007. The event had been planned to coincide with the Winter Antiques Show and other Americana Week activities. In a brief announcement late last week, BADA cited insufficient support for the fair from its membership.

According to BADA's general secretary Elaine J. Dean, BADA members who did sign up for the show were extremely enthusiastic about the proposal. BADA remains hopeful that plans for a New York fair will come to fruition at a later date.

"It is difficult to know why not enough members took this up, but it could have been because of overall expenses when shipping costs were also taken into consideration. Perhaps members need more time to work things out and therefore a longer lead time would be better," fair director Gillian Crag told Antiques and The Arts Weekly.

The initial decision to go forward with the 50-exhibitor show had been reached by BADA's 16-person council, whose members include Jonathan Horne, an early English pottery specialist popular among American collectors, and council president Richard Marchant, a Kensington Church Street dealer in Chinese and Japanese art.

Dealers on both sides of the Atlantic had voiced concerns about the venue, Sotheby's York Avenue salesrooms.

"The concept of doing a show at Sotheby's was anathema to certain dealers," said Clinton Howell, a New York dealer in English furniture who has been one of the fair's most outspoken critics.

"I don't think my opposition or that of Gaylord Dillingham had any bearing on BADA's choice," said Howell, speculating that the decision to cancel ultimately came down to the economic feasibility of the plan and a lack of consensus among BADA members.