The Friends of the BADA (British Antique Dealers’ Association) are delighted to support the purchase of a photograph by contemporary surrealist photographer Benji Reid for the Bethlem Museum of the Mind.
The museum already has a strong collection of art works by traditional artists such as Richard Dadd, Louis Wain and Jonathan Martin. However, the museum was weak in representing the lives and experiences of the black British community.
Although his tragically short career would last for only 12 years, Italian artist Rembrandt Bugatti has become recognised as one of the world’s finest and most gifted animalier sculptors.
Born in Milan in 1884 to an artistic family, Rembrandt was the younger son of Carlo Bugatti, an interior decorator, jewellery designer and manufacturer of Art Nouveau furniture, and his wife Teresa Lorioli.
From relatively humble origins, Thomas Chippendale became the most famous British furniture-maker of the 18th century. Patronised by royalty, gentry and countless public figures, his designs graced many of the finest houses both in Europe and America.
Born in the village of Otley, West Yorkshire in 1718, Thomas Chippendale was the only child of John and Mary Chippendale. The Chippendale Family had been carpenters in the timber trade for generations and John, a joiner, is thought to have trained young Thomas in the trade.
Terms of the Trade: Settle
Constructed in multiple forms and sizes, the settle is collective term used to describe a hardwood bench, usually built with arms and a high back, and designed to accommodate three or four sitters.
The form is thought to date from the 12th century with the high back design favoured as a means of protecting the sitter from unwanted chills common in draughty medieval buildings.
The British Antique Dealers’ Association (BADA) is delighted to announce the appointment of Ashley Gallant as the Association’s Managing Director.
Ashley brings a wealth of relevant experience to the role having spent eight years as Business Development Manager and Financial Controller with world renowned Asian art dealers Sydney L Moss. Having completed her law degree during this time, the role saw her take the lead on key issues such as the company’s preparations for Brexit, Anti-Money Laundering, and the Ivory Act.
The origins of the celebrated French jewellery Maison Van Cleef & Arpels begin with the marriage of Alfred Van Cleef to Esther Arpels in 1895.
The Van Cleefs, originally from Amsterdam, were diamond cutters by trade, whilst Esther’s father Salomon had established himself as a jewellery dealer after moving his family from Ghent in Belgium to Paris in the 1860s.
Prattware is the collective term given to a specific style of underglaze coloured earthenware, often relief decorated, produced in the UK from approximately 1780 to 1840.
The light earthenware body of a piece is decorated in a palette of oxide colours comprising, cobalt blue, yellow ochre, manganese, brown, and copper green, which are applied under a pearlware glaze. This palette had been previously used as the basis for polychrome delftware.
The home of Imperial porcelain manufacture from the Ming dynasty onwards, the Jingdezhen Kilns of Jiangxi province in Southern China are famed for producing the finest quality Chinese porcelain for both the domestic and export markets.
Although a comparatively remote location, Jingdezhen was ideally suited for the production of porcelain given the area’s abundance of high quality Petuntse deposits, forests to provide fuel for the kilns and the Changjiang river offering a convenient means of shipping.
Gadrooning, also called nulling, is the term given to a decorative motif which is comprised of a series of repeating vertical convex flutes or curves. The style became particularly popular as an applied decoration in 18th and 19th century silver, furniture, porcelain, and glassware.
The term treen is derived from the old English word trēowen, meaning “of the tree” or to put it in more simple terms, wooden. In the antiques trade it is the collective name used to describe handmade functional items which are made predominantly from wood.
From the earliest civilizations until the birth of the Industrial Revolution wood was the major raw material used in the production of most objects. This was due to its durability and versatility as a medium, as well as the prolific abundance of material available and its inexpensive cost.
Thank you so much for choosing the BADA Week colour for 2022. Could you tell us more about why you have chosen this particular colour?
I love olive green and find it is a colour that almost everything looks good with.
Piero Fornasetti was an Italian painter, artist and designer with an eclectic style. He was a very important figure in Italian industrial design culture, to such an extent that his name is internationally known. He was involved in a variety of disciplines, including painting, drawing, graphic and product design. In the course of his career he created over 13,000 works of art and was responsible for one of the largest outputs of objects and furniture of the 20th century.