Annual CADA Fair set for October
The annual Cotswold Art & Antiques Dealers’ Association Fair is set to return to Compton Verney Art Gallery and Park in Warwickshire this October. This tenth annual fair opens from October 13 to 16.
Some 27 exhibitors, mainly members of the Association, are joined by a few specialist guest exhibitors. New CADA member Houlston UK Ltd is exhibiting for the first time bringing 16th to 18th-century European items amongst which is an impressive Willian & Mary oak mural food cupboard with wavy lined slats for ventilation, c.1690, £4,950; a limewood bust of the Virgin & Child in the manner of Tilman Riemenschneider (c.1460-1531), Upper Swabia, most probably Ulm, c.1490-1520, £12,500 and a Charles II needlework picture, worked mainly in tent stitch, depicting Father Time holding an hour glass, flanked by Truth (Justice) holding scales and Victory (Fame) holding a palm frond, c.1670, £5,850.
Other early antiques can be found with Mayflower Antiques, specialist selling pieces from the Baroque and Renaissance periods. An extremely rare item coming to the Fair is a Gujarat mother- of-pearl goblet with English silver mounts and engraved initials to the silver mount underneath, 8.6cm tall, c.1680, £24,000.
Legge Carpets has an early French wool and silk tapestry panel dating to around 1600, priced in the region of £7,000. Another highly decorative 18th century wool and silk tapestry panel depicts an idyllic river complete with bridge, castle, people boating and enjoy the water, which you could enjoy spending time deciding upon the story behind all the characters, £4,800.
An important William & Mary period burr walnut fall front escritoire, c.1690, is £25,000 from W.R. Harvey & Co. (Antiques) Ltd. This feather banded escritoire has a convex ‘bible drawer’ beneath a shaped, moulded cornice, the fall front opening to reveal nine removable pigeon holes with secret compartments behind and an arrangement of drawers around a central cupboard containing a removable box revealing three further secret drawers, the right hand bottom drawer with a removable floor with a hidden compartment, the fall front fitted with a reading stand, the base with two half width and two full width drawers all raised on bun feet. Also on the stand is a slightly later George I period burr walnut kneehole desk, c.1720, priced at £12,500.
Early artwork from Elizabeth Harvey-Lee includes June by Aegidius Sadeler II (circa 1570-1629), an engraving dating from 1607, for the Twelve Months, designed by Pieter Stevens, selling for £1,000. A leading Northern mannerist engraver, after training in Antwerp. Sadeler worked in Munich, Rome, and Verona before settling in Prague in 1597, where he was employed by the Holy Roman emperor Rudolf II. Pieter Stevens was a Flemish landscape painter and draughtsman appointed Court Painter to Rudolf II in 1594. He made many designs for printmakers, such as the series of the Twelve Months of the Year, landscapes showing the seasonal activities of each month and with the appropriate sign of the zodiac in the sky.
Architectural Heritage brings Germination 1980 (Opus 405) by Robert Adams (1917-1984), a bronze sculpture on a wooden base, signed and dated 1980, edition 1 of 6, £15,800 plus ARR. Neil Schofield specialises in Modern British art amongst which he plans to show Pears signed and dated 1979 by William Scott RA (1913 – 1989), a lithograph (number 10 of 150) published by Christie’s Contemporary Art, £6,800 and Evening II a watercolour and ink on paper by Alan Reynolds (1926 – 2014), signed and dated 1955, £6,500.
Of local interest is Mill at Guy’s Cliffe, Warwick a watercolour by Henry W Pearsall (fl 1832-1859), £680 from Newman Fine Art. A nearby location to Compton Verney, the Saxon Mill on the River Avon was originally called Gibbeclive Mill. It was the property of the Augustinian St Mary’s Abbey in Kenilworth and then formed part of the Guy’s Cliffe estate. It was a working corn mill until 1938 and then converted to a restaurant and bar in 1952 – which it still is today.
Sarah Colegrave brings A Cotswold Stonebreaker by Charles March Gere RA, RWS (1884-1963), £4,000. This oil on canvas shows the Painswick stonemason, Percy Musty, accompanied by his dog Patch. He is shown working on the wall of building near Paradise, a small hamlet about half a mile north of Painswick. There is a study for the painting in a private UK collection. Although exhibited at the Royal Academy, London in 1938 (no. 671), it seems likely this is the earlier painting known as The Stonebreaker, exhibited at the Birmingham Group Exhibition in 1919 (no.133) and at the Cotswold Gallery in 1921 (no.3).
Russell Strachan of Strachan Fine Art said, “Because we all need a little cheering up, I plan to show a variety of paintings, drawings and sculpture of differing dates but all with an element of humour.” Among the humorous art for sale are a nymph and satyr mocking an elderly satyr, a pair of bronze reliefs by Charles Sargeant Jagger (1885-1934), £35,000 the pair, early illustrations by William Heath Robinson and work by William Kidd, Rowland Emmett, Michael Ayrton, Martin Honeysett, William Rushton, Axel Krut. There will also be several illustrations by Ronald William Fordham Searle (1920-2011) including The Geyser, a boarding house drama, pen & ink & wash, an illustration for Le Figaro, signed and dated 1955 and inscribed with the title by the artist, £6,400.