:The 75th anniversary of the Grosvenor House Art & Antiques Fair that took place June 11–17 was the fair's swan song at the venerable hotel. Show managers announced June 30 that Britain's longest-running antiques fair, launched in September 1934, will not continue, but dropped strong hints that a new fair would take its place.
"For 75 years the hotel and the art and antiques trade have enjoyed a happy and productive relationship, but it has been decided in consultation with the British Antique Dealers' Association (BADA) and The Grosvenor House Art & Antiques Fair Executive Committee that the fair is no longer financially viable," reads the announcement posted on the show's website. "The closure of this much-loved fair, however, presents an opportunity for the trade to mount a new event commensurate with maintaining London as the centre of the art market."
Inside talk on the reasons for the cancellation has centered not on sales totals, but on the significant cost of running the fair inside the hotel's Great Room, which is in high demand for large parties and upscale events throughout the year. Though the fair runs but a week, the room has to be booked for considerably longer at both ends of the fair's run for setup and breakdown.
Mark Dodgson, BADA's secretary general, said the fair's closing was "obviously sad," but he was focused on the future. "It's an opportunity for something else to come to the fore. We feel certain that London will be able to put something else on the map," he said, adding that there is a "pent-up" demand for top antiques in the month of June in London.
Pressed for specifics, he said it was too early to mention a timetable or venues under consideration but said there other comparable sites.
Simon Phillips, chairman of the fair, said that the 2009 event had been a great success and commented, "It is a great disappointment to me that The Grosvenor House Art & Antiques Fair has come to an end. I quite understand that it no longer makes financial sense to continue the fair. It has been a very long and happy partnership, but most great events have a lifespan and a diamond anniversary is a fitting point on which to end on a positive note."
Around 90 dealers showed this year at the fair, including Delomosne & Son, a leading glass and porcelain specialist in England, which was a founding exhibitor at the fair's debut.
The company has shown at the fair for more than 50 of its 75 years, taking about 20 years off from the late 1970s until about five or six years ago when it returned as an exhibitor. Sales were solid at the fair this year, according to Tim Osborne, director. "We did perfectly well," he said, saying he was in shock after he and other exhibitors received an email announcement about the fair's ending its run at the hotel.
Following an industrial dispute that canceled the fair in 1979, Delomosne & Son began showing at a fair at Burlington House in Picadilly Circus. "It was a high quality fair … but did not have the magic cachet of Grosvenor House that I suspect is unrepeatable," Osborne said.
The Grosvenor fair (named after the hotel in 1994) began in the fall of 1934 as the Antiques Dealers' Fair to boost the antiques trade following the Depression, according to Martin Mortimer of Delomosne & Son, who wrote a history of his company's participation in the fair. The fair took a six-year hiatus when war broke out and returned in 1947.
According to the fair's 1948 handbook, entrance fees were three shillings and sixpence, said Mortimer. The fair continued along until the dispute in 1979 and returned to Grosvenor in 1983. It was a highlight of the antiquing season here and drew collectors to London every June from around the world.
A La Vieille Russie, New York City, was the first non-England-based dealer to be invited to participate in the fair and was the only dealer from America at this year's fair, according to an exhibitor listing.
Co-owner Peter Schaffer said the fair has always been very good for them and this is the only other fair, besides Maastricht, that they do in Europe. He admits not being surprised by the news of the fair's closing, having gotten some hints earlier, and hopes for news on a new fair soon.
Many other dealers and buyers are also awaiting such an announcement.
For more information, +44 (0) 20 7399 8100 or
www.grosvenorfair.co.uk
.
