DUBAI—For the second edition of their Dubai fair, London-based organizers Brian and Anna Haughton gave the event a new name and an expanded agenda. Art Antiques Design Dubai, as the event is now known (it went by Art & Antiques Dubai last year), ran February 18–22 at the Madinat Arena, Madinat Jumeirah, and had some 35 exhibitors from nine countries. It also featured a partnership with the online antiques, vintage furniture, and design vendor 1stdibs.com, which sponsored a section of the fair called AAD Interiors, with four professionally designed “rooms” that used pieces from both dealers participating in the fair and those who were not present, such as New Yorkers Brian Kish, Donzella 20th Century Gallery, and Cristina Grajales.

Overall, the fair produced few reported sales and failed to attract huge crowds, but the attendance was respectable and those in the know said that all the “right” people — government officials, royals, and the all-important royal decorators — were on hand.

Philippe Rocha of Espasso, a company based in New York and Los Angeles that specializes in modern and contemporary Brazilian furniture, manned one of the AAD Interiors booths. His experience at the fair led him to conclude that “Dubai is a completely different market [from Western markets], more conservative and hermetic. They are looking for something new but are a bit afraid to spend money for it. But at some point this new design will infiltrate, and we have to be a leader, not a follower.”

Rocha said that visitors to the fair loved the wooden bowls made by Brazilian artist Etel Carmona. The dealer also reported that he had two offers on an unattributed vintage bar made of jacaranda wood, metal, and Formica, which is on reserve at $9,500. It will be sold, if not to the collector who has it on reserve, then to one of the other two.

Jane Kahan of New York, another AAD Interiors dealer, showed modern tapestries by the likes of Magritte and Léger and ceramics by Picasso. The works drew significant interest at the opening of the fair, with people coming back on the following days for a second and third look, especially to see two tapestries by Vasarely, each priced at $115,000, and the Picasso ceramics, priced between $25,000 and $70,000.

New York’s Maison Gerard, also affiliated with AAD Interiors, had success at last year’s fair, selling three or four items as well as other pieces in the week after the fair closed. This year, the gallery reported selling a few small objects on the next-to-last day and said they were negotiating with an expatriate Frenchman about some major pieces and with a French designer about a pair of Art Deco iron gates attributed to Edgar Brandt and priced at $48,000.

The most spectacular item at the fair was a manuscript by Omar ibn Said brought by D.C. dealer Derrick Beard. Said was a Muslim slave in the United States in the mid-1800s, and he wrote the first Arabic slave narrative ever produced in North America or Europe. Written in 1831, the text was translated into English twice, first in 1848. Although he maintained his Muslim faith throughout his life, Said loved the teachings of Jesus and Moses and attended a Presbyterian church. He died in North Carolina at the age of 94 in 1864, one year before emancipation. The manuscript has been shown in museum exhibitions, but this is the first time it has been included in a selling exhibition, according to Beard. It carried a price tag of $30 million, or double its value before the election of Barack Obama. “I don’t expect it to sell today or tomorrow,” said Beard. “But interest could come out of showing it. I really would like a Middle Eastern government to buy it.”  

One artist who made her international debut at the Dubai fair was Saudi Arabia’s Adilah Bundakji, a former fashion designer who now divides her time between Jedda and Pakistan. Bundakji makes spectacular embroideries based on verses from the Koran and the Kiswah, a gold-embroidered black cloth that shrouds the holy Kaaba shrine in Mecca. She has no gallery representation but has been showing to clients in Saudi Arabia for the past 12 years. Her embroideries are woven with pure silk threads on tapestry cloth using a variety of techniques and are priced around $10–12,000. One of her most evocative pieces was a black and silver embroidery of the 99 names of Allah.