Olympia Fair Comes Into Its Own

LONDON—The Olympia International Art & Antiques fair, now in its 35th year, takes place in an enormous Victorian iron-and-glass exhibition hall famed for its barrel-vaulted roof. The large airy space is particularly spectacular when the sun is shining, as it was on the fair’s opening days, and the Grand Hall's spacious layout makes it an ideal place to pass a day, browsing the different stands and stopping for tea, a drink, or a meal at one of the conveniently located snack bars.  

Aficionados of Olympia as it was, say, five years ago, would hardly recognize it today. The fair has gone from being a treasure-trove for bargain hunters, a space with more than 300 booths crammed with all manner of things, where buyers had to beware, to an upscale, strictly vetted, well-designed fair of 250 exhibitors that is one of the most important markets for antiques in London. While some mourn the loss of Olympia’s jumble-sale past, most exhibitors echo the thoughts of Jorge Welsh, a dealer in Oriental porcelain and works of art: “The fair is improving each year. The general quality of the dealers and visitors in the last few years makes Olympia one of the fairs to be in.” The reason for such sentiments was plain for all to see as the doors opened at 11 a.m. on June 5 — and in rushed collectors from all over the world as well as such noted American decorators as Mario Buatta, Richard Keith Langham, Marietta Himes Gomez, Brian McCarthy, Scott Snyder, and Tony Ingrao. The fair runs through June 15.

The center aisles of the Grand Hall contain the fair’s most elaborately designed booths, such as Pelham Galleries’ architectural stand, fashioned by owner Alan Rubin after a design by Sir William Chambers. Vanderven & Vanderven, specialists in Chinese art who always take great pains with the look of their booth, had the outside walls covered in black leather. Inside the stand, among other works, was a three-piece set of a blue-and-white ginger jar and two vases from the collection of John Pierpont Morgan, who acquired them in 1904 when he bought the James A. Garland collection for $600,000.  

Welsh had a red-and-black booth that, unfortunately, clashed with the bright pink of its next-door neighbor, Van Gelder’s stand, which was filled with Indian jewelry, including a gold necklace, circa 1900, adorned with jeweled arrowhead pendants. Inside Welsh’s booth, treasures abounded, such as a set of Japanese horse trappings from the late-16th/early-17th century, including a saddle made of red and black lacquered wood with mother-of pearl inlay and a pair of inlaid iron stirrups. Also extraordinary was a late-16th-century oratory from Japan made of cypress lacquered in black, decorated with gold, and inlaid with mother-of-pearl. Each of these pieces was priced in the six figures.

Another stylish booth was that of Mallett and Sons Antiques, a dealer known for selling antique English furniture who is now branching out to 20th-century pieces. The booth starred works by photographer and designer Willy Rizzo, including a dozen photos of such icons as Brigitte Bardot, Maria Callas, and Sophia Loren and furniture made between 1965 and 1980 of lacquer, chrome, and brass; the prices ranged from £4,500 for a lamp to £30,000 for larger objects. Mallett won the award for the best “free-built” (Britspeak for freestanding) booth.

Also showing 20th-century works was newcomer Todd Merrill Antiques, the only American dealer at fair, who brought pieces by midcentury designers such as Samuel Marx, James Mont, Paul Evans, and Gio Ponti. Merrill used a tactic that worked well when he first tried it at the Modernism fair in New York last November — he previewed what he was bringing to the fair in an e-mail sent to all of his clients — and it seems to have worked again. Before the opening, he sold a console, by e-mail, for $385,000, and by the fair’s second day, a rumor had gone around that he had sold out his entire booth. In fact, many pieces were on reserve, among them a rare sculpture-front console by Paul Evans, from 1968, priced at £180,000; a faceted mirror by Neal Small, priced at £25,000; a Marx bureau; and two Mont chairs. Merrill says he decided to exhibit because his clients are international and “Olympia seemed a good place to come to be at the crossroads of where people come to buy.”