The Stapleford Park Country House Hotel & Sporting Estate is the impressive setting for the second Luxury Antiques Weekend at Stapleford Park, organised by The Antiques Dealers Fair Limited from Friday 16 until Sunday 18 September 2011, near Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire LE14 2EF. Surrounded by 500 acres of magnificent Capability Brown landscaped grounds, the informal luxury of Stapleford Park is the perfect place to enjoy a relaxed day out at this boutique-style antiques fair, to browse and buy, chat to the dealers and enjoy the magnificent antiques on offer.
The range of stock offered for sale will be enormously varied and the 22 exhibitors (mostly members of the British Antique Dealers’ Association or LAPADA, the Association of Art & Antiques Dealers) will be showcasing fine examples of town and country furniture, contemporary or antique sculpture, paintings, portraits and drawings, antique and designer jewellery, oriental carpets and rugs, arms and armour as well as porcelain, glass, silver, calling card cases and fine boxes. Whether you are in need of well-made period pieces or named designer items there is plenty of choice from the dealers at the fair who will have what you want, or if not can help source it for you.
Newcomers to this year’s fair include Peter Bunting Antiques from Derbyshire, specialist in English country oak antique furniture, pictures and tapestries. Peter Bunting is bringing early portraits, including an oil on canvas of Princess Eliza, daughter of King Charles I, English School, 1639, selling for around £18,000 and Mary Magdalene, oil on canvas, Flemish, c 1580, priced at around £4,500. Another newcomer is The Pearl Partnership from Norfolk who is exhibiting alongside three other jewellery dealers.
Well known in the Leicestershire area, furniture dealers Walter Moores & Son from Market Harborough, are exhibiting again this year and are bringing a rare Georgian mahogany tambour desk, English, c 1790, for which they are asking £3,750 and a set of six Lancashire spindle back ash chairs, English, c 1820, priced at £2,250. Hampton Antiques from Northamptonshire has exquisite boxes for every occasion, some japanned or chinoiserie in design. Amongst the tea caddies on offer is a rare Georgian fruit wood tea caddy in the shape of a squash, c 1790, priced at £8,500. An alternative to boxes and made in Derby by J&C Hayward circa 1870, is a ship’s wheel and aneroid barometer, which Hampton Antiques is selling for £4,995.
A feature of last year’s fair, the hog roast and light refreshments are also available throughout the day or visitors can enjoy lunch or afternoon tea in the relaxed opulence of the hotel’s drawing room and library. Why not spoil yourself and make a weekend of it? As well as the antiques fair, guests can partake in a wide variety of sporting activities, including a round on the 18 hole championship golf course. Alternatively, the former stable block houses the Clarins gold spa for those preferring a little pampering.
Stapleford Park has generously offered a free night for two (dinner, bed and breakfast) in the fair’s prize draw which will be drawn on Sunday afternoon prior to the fair closing. Once again, the fair’s charity is Rainbows Hospice for Children and Young People (www.rainbows.co.uk). Launched in 1994 and based in Loughborough, Rainbows has helped hundreds of children and families.
Image: Portrait of Princess Eliza, 1639, oil on canvas (detail), English School, £18,000 from Peter Bunting Antiques
Stapleford Park
Stapleford
Nr. Melton Mowbray
Leicestershire LE14 2EF
www.staplefordparkfair.com
