Liv Ballard, an exhibitor from Los Angeles, showed jewelry that she designs, which is then made by a master goldsmith in Rome and sold at Maxfield boutique in Los Angeles and online through 1stdibs.com. Her limited-edition designs are based on mythical themes and cartography. “What we make is essentially bespoke jewelry,” she said. Her booth attracted considerable attention, and although she had not sold anything by the fair’s second-to-last day, she said that she noticed lots of hits from the Emirates on her Web site. One of her outstanding pieces is a “Caput Mundi” necklace, an 18-karat, yellow-and-white gold and blue sapphire pavé pendant surrounded by a diamond pavé equator. It was priced at $37,500. The globe can be personalized with diamonds on the cities of choice.

London rare books dealer Bernard J. Shapero said he did a bit of business last year and was hoping to build on it. The star of his booth, which he shared with London dealer Sam Fogg, was David Roberts’s lithograph collection The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia, one of the few surviving complete sets from the 200 subscribers’ copies printed between 1842 and 1849. The six-volume set was priced at $450,000. Fogg, who did not attend the fair himself, had a rare complete Qur’an in Eastern Kufic script, from Persia or Mesopotamia, dating from the 11th century. The work was examined carefully by several potential Emirati buyers on the fair’s opening night. Another star item was a large calligraphic tile from Kashin, in central Iran, from the early 13th century.

Lewis Smith of London’s Koopman Rare Art, who was exhibiting for the second time, said that the gallery had not sold anything by the day before the fair ended, though several possible deals were in the works. “People here need to think,” he said, “they don’t get it in a minute.” Simon Phillips of London’s Ronald Phillips, Ltd. said that he, too, was “waiting for the big one.”

That seemed to be the consensus at the fair. Because Arabs are known for bargaining, many exhibitors had their hopes pinned on success in the last few moments, but no one emailed after the closing, as they said they would, to report additional sales.

Still, if you looked around, you could find scattered sales. Sladmore Sculpture Gallery of London sold two bronze sculptures by Mark Coreth, one of a lioness and the other of a cheetah, each priced at around $11,000. “We have clients here,” says Edward Sladmore, “so we’d be silly not to come. We have sold to new clients so far, and we have interest in a Degas sculpture priced at $165,000.”  

New York private dealer Barbara Deisroth, a specialist in 20th century decorative arts who was visiting the fair, said she found the audience who came to hear her speak the day before at a seminar in Abu Dhabi was “just learning about antiques but were smart and asked good questions. The Emiratis don’t really like antiques,” she said. “They prefer new things. So it’s a learning process.”

So will the show succeed in the future? It seems likely to at least continue, because the UAE government is determined “that Dubai will be a key destination on the global art map,” according to an official at the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing, who were sponsors of the fair. Another sponsor was Dubai First, a bank whose credit cards not only have no limit, but also have a diamond embedded in them.