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People love the Olympia fair because of the offbeat treasures to be found, but also because of its relaxed atmosphere. The mix of antique and contemporary art works well and nothing about the fair is intimidating.

The fair, which runs this year from June 9-19, with more than 300 exhibitors, gets better and better each year. Olympia is the only antiques fair that allows dealers to create their own custom-built stands, and the results are often splendid.

Finch & Company, for example, offered antiquities, ethnographica and curiosities in a booth curtained completely by chain mail, which managed to look both medieval and high tech. Vanderven & Vanderven's booth was a Chinese temple, Roell Fine Art and Antiques constructed a two-story Dutch colonial house and Richard Philp's stand had a classical/medieval theme with fountains and a labyrinth on the floor adapted from the one in Chartes Cathedral.

Visitors flock to Olympia to see a variety of unusual objects found in no other fair. A group of 110 17th and 18th-century snuff rasps, for example, used to grind tobacco into a powder, were snapped up on the opening day at Hawkins & Hawkins for £300,000. "The buyer already had sixteen rasps and thought he had a lot," said John Hawkins, noting that there are only four examples in the Victoria & Albert Museum and three in the Wallace Collection.

Dealer Esther Fitzgerald brought a pair of Roman period chariot wheels from Central Asia that sold quickly for £22,000 to a private English client.

Robert Barley had a wonderful assortment of 13 carved wooden fish (£8,800 each), 2 birds (each £1,750) and 8 hands (each £1,300) made on Pitcairn Island by descendants of the Bounty mutineers. He expects them all to sell to one collector.

Vanderven & Vanderven Oriental Art sold a pair of extremely rare Chinese double-gourd Kangxi period vases for £300,000 to an American client . "No other piece of this shape has come on the market in 30 years," says Floris Vanderven, noting that only five other pairs exist, all from the collection of Augustus the Strong in the Dresden Museum.

Jay Arenski launched his book "The Art of the Black Forest" at the fair and sold a number of carved Black Forest bears, one of which was carved into a chair dating from around 1900 that sold to an American client "in excess of £30,000." He says that many Americans collect bear furniture, especially people from Colorado, California and Texas.

Many exhibitors agreed with Chinese textile dealer Jacqueline Simcox that the mood this year is more upbeat than it was at last years fair and that business is better. She says she sold a number of textiles to "new English clients." At the end of the first weekend, Richard Philp said he was doing a brisk business in mid-range medieval sculpture, priced at around £10,000, and that some of his American clients from a few years ago had returned this year.

THE HALI FAIR: CARPETS, TEXTILES AND TRIBAL ART

The Hali fair, now in its eighth year, has finally gotten everything in place, with the proper venue and the right look. This year the fair is on the ground floor of the National Hall, rather than one floor above, making it easier for visitors to the Summer Olympia Fine Arts & Antiques Fair to attend Hali as well.

Exhibitors in the past chafed at descriptions of the fair as a "souk" or "bazaar." This year, the works are displayed as art, in large elegant booths similar to those found at the Olympia fair.

Interesting pieces abounded at a variety of prices. Among them were mounted textiles from the 1960s, including a rare example by Victor Vassereley (Francesca Galloway, London, £3,500); a late Roman roundel of a musician (Marcuson & Hall, London, , £3,000); a 20th century chief's ceremonial hat from Cameroon (Junnaa & Thomi Wroblewski, London, £475); and a 19th century Sauj Bulagh rug that once belonged to Arabian traveler and author Charles Doughty (Anthony Hazeltine, London, £25,000). "Lawrence of Arabia walked on it," said Hazeltine.

Both fairs run from June 9-19 in Olympia, London.
Images courtesy of Tony Hazeldine; Junnaa & Thomi Wroblewski; Marcuson & Hall; and the Francesca Galloway