LONDON—The summer version of the Olympia Fine Arts & Antiques Fair is stepping up its game this year. A complete and glamorous architectural make-over, with a wide central allée featuring very big stands, has attracted some major international dealers.

With these and other changes, the fair is bidding that it is now situated to offer an exciting alternative to the venerable Grosvenor House Fair.

Esteemed Bond Street dealer Partridge, for example, is exhibiting at Olympia for the first time (a big vote of confidence in the new design and direction of the fair).

Mark Law, the porcelain dealer who took over Partridge some four months ago, will be showing one of the stars of the fair, a 12-foot-high library staircase.

What makes this so special is that it was ordered in l782 from William France, the cabinetmaker, by the then Duke of Beaufort for Badminton House—where it has been ever since. I'd say this is pretty immaculate provenance. The original bill for His Grace the Duke of Beaufort amounted to £16.11 and is dated 20th February, l782.

Partridge is not quoting a price for this special piece, but it will be a lot more than the Duke paid for the stairs, which are a superb example of late l8th-century cabinetmaking at its best.

Because they are so spare and elegant, the stairs wouldn’t even need a ducal library to show them off to their best advantage—they would look like a piece of contemporary sculpture if placed in a white loft. The crossed struts and scale remind me, in fact, of Tracey Emin's magical Margate beach hut piece of a few years ago.

I'll be posting news, gossip and finds from the fair—and from it's sister fair Hali, which is showing rugs, tribal art and eccentricities— from the Olympia preview tomorrow night through the end of the fair. So catch the latest here.

The Summer Fair at Olympia runs from June 8-l8 at the Olympia Exhibition Centre. Tickets and information from www.summerfairolympia.com.