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Going, going… Gone! The air of tension and anticipation in an auction room can be so alive that you can almost feel a pulse. The white of knuckles and the baiting of breath. The flutter of programmes and the hiss of ferment or elation as the hammer comes down. There is little about an auction house that does not seduce. It is like disappearing through the wardrobe, and you are just as likely to return from it wearing a fur coat and a crown! Luxury Lifestyle Magazine can’t wait for when LAPADA Art and Antiques Fair 2015 returns this September to the eponymous Berkley Square, Mayfair, London. Sponsored by Delancey, it extends its hand to welcome you from the 22nd of September to the 27th. Are you brave enough to venture through the looking glass and discover the curiosities inside?
The popularity of the fair hinges on the enchantment of the objects that lay within. It is an event often likened to a cabinet of curiosities. Like the very best of auction houses, when you step across the threshold you are welcomed by an array of the irreplaceable and astounding. There will be oddities and invaluables, ephemera and eternals. One can expect the worthiest examples of each classification. When one observes the category ‘carpets’ you can be sure to expect Persian rugs and snarling lion skins. With the label ‘Jewellery’ anticipate diamonds to turn a tsarina green and emeralds to make an empress pale. ‘Fine art’ will denote richly brushed oils and canvas’ worthy of a gallery. For an auction house is not the same as a shop. It is a place of promises without guarantees, of objects that can never be re-ordered for next week. It is this sense of the fleeting that makes it so incredibly magical.
The breadth of disciplines that stretch across the spectrum of the fair means that nobody will find themselves disappointed and with over 100 carefully vetted distinguished exhibitors displaying, the LAPADA antiques fair 2015 looks set to have another glorious year. Conceived in 1974, LAPADA’s membership has rocketed to over 600 members making it the largest association of professional art and antiques dealers in the UK. There is a strict code of conduct when selling through LAPADA which should leave buyers confident in the quality of the items they choose to bid on.
Ephemeral –it is a beautiful word, and so much of its beauty lies in its meaning. Not only are the objects one of a kind but this is your only opportunity to purchase them. The sense of achievement when a bid goes well will be indescribable, you will walk away with your win like a trophy in your hands. So allow yourself to be beguiled into Berkley Square, fall down the rabbit hole and be entranced by objects that you thought restricted to museums. An autumnal afternoon absorbed in artefacts seems too good to miss. And the fair is perfectly placed in late September, prime position to purchase any exquisite Christmas present you might be planning! People stock their lives with commercial mass produced commodities, don’t be one of them. Surround yourself with the wonderful, and in return you might find that a little bit of astonishing rubs off on you.
