Cleverly opening to VIPs just before Frieze, the second edition of the 50-dealer-strong Pavilion of Art & Design London drew an international and decidedly elegant crowd into the snooty hedge fund territory of Berkeley Square on Monday evening. Commerce was a bit slow, according to several exhibitors, but no one was complaining about the high net worth of the tony crowds that trolled along the carpeted aisles of the small-scale, tented fair, which also boasts a number of the ancient London Plane trees as part of the décor.

"I think it has everything you want," said exhibitor James Mayor of London’s Mayor Gallery, "the perfect location, the perfect size, and the guarantee of a very good time. You can go through it peacefully in half an hour."

Already, Mayor has sold a small early Alexander Calder tabletop mobile from the 1960s in the six-figure pounds range, as well as a stunning suite of four Outsider art pieces — done with ball point pen and colored pencils — by the late Chicagoan Joseph Yoakum in the five-figure range. Included in Yoakum's suite is the imaginary 1965 landscape entitled "Mt. Victoria on Bengal Bay, Near Chattagong Pakistan," which measures 12 by 19 inches. As legend has it, Yoakum used to sit on the steps of the Art Institute of Chicago, hawking drawings to tourists and students in exchange for spare change. 

The booth shared by New York's Van de Weghe Fine Art and Galerie Vedovi of Brussels showed a rich assortment of blue-chip works, including a beautiful ten-unit, galvanized steel-and-blue-Plexiglass work by Donald Judd, entitled "Stack" (1980), which went for $2.6 million, as well as a large-scale Christopher Wool painting from 2004, "Untitled (P447)." At $1.2 million, this piece had no takers so far on the evening of the preview.

"What have you sold?" asked Paolo Vedovi, the devil’s advocate to his booth partner Christophe van de Weghe, who answered, "Nothing."Vedovi, however, did manage to sell a striking abstract shaped canvas by Agostino Bonalumi, "Untitled (Bianco)" (2010), for €34,000 ($47,340).

Newcomer exhibitor Robin Katz also made several early sales, including Keith Vaughns "Pupitre," a 1945 work-on-paper form in ink and crayon, at its asking price of £25,000 ($39,800), and John Lathams mixed media "Light Novel" (1961) at its asking price of £27,000 ($42,980).

Bigger names attracted a handful of early sales, as well. An untitled 1971 mixed-media-on-canvas abstraction by Antoni Tapies sold in the region of its $465,000 asking price at London’s Hopkins Custot Gallery, and the same gallery’s stunning Robert Delaunay, "Tour Eiffel" (1929) sold, nestled in an antique Italian frame, at $3.6 million. The Delaunay had served as a kind of beacon to lure collectors to the booth. Hung on an exterior wall of the stand, it was visible even from the fair's entryway.

Sales of big-ticket items were barely in evidence after the first private preview, though London’s Lefevre Gallery sold a jaunty 1962 gouache-on-paper by Jean Dubuffet, "La Noce Galouche," for its asking price of $2 million, according to source outside the gallery. Like others among Frieze's younger crowd of dealers, Lefevre doesn't publicize its transactions. 

Geneva-based Espace Nelombos and Olivier Thomas, also newcomers to the Berkeley Square venue, dedicated their stand to late works by Picasso. Of the ten masterworks, at least one had sold by Monday evening for a price in excess of €1 million ($1.4 million).

Amid the abundance of champagne, a bit of bad-mannered awkward drama did manage to occur when a world-famous powerhouse art dealer strolled into Todd Merrills stand and quickly bargained for a handsome pair of matching stainless-steel-and-silk-velvet-tufted sofas, as well as a sculpted-steel, glass-topped Paul Evans coffee table, ultimately beating four other interested collectors with his willingness to pay $85,000. However, when Merrill called the dealer’s office on Tuesday as directed, he was told the deal wasn’t going to happen, according to a source familiar with the episode.

Luckily for Merrill, the Evans’ ensemble went to another interested party, ultimately illustrating the nail-biting ways of art fair commerce. The New York dealer also had no trouble selling a pair of hand-carved "Belle of the Ball" walnut stools by Michael Coffey for $24,000. "Last night was a crossroads of great buyers from Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and America," said Merrill, who has apparently recovered from his earlier fright.

Pavilion of Art & Design London (www.padlondon.net) opens to the public tomorrow and will run through Sunday, October 17.