Discover Highlights from the Treasure House Fair in London

There was plenty to decide about among the 70 dealers (70 percent UK, 30 percent international), who between them covered 20 collecting categories. Everything from an ancient Egyptian wooden statuette, at U.S. gallery Phoenix Ancient Art, to a Steinway hand-painted by Maria Ines Aguirre in 2019 (at London’s Piano Nobile) was on display. Serious antiques—including the finest English furniture at Ronald Phillips—shared the tent with a glorious display of Scottish colorists at Richard Green, including SJ Peploe’s Still Life with Tulips (1918), where angular flowers popped against a black background.

Sienna Miller could also be found at Richard Green. She is currently dating his grandson Ollie, who works in the business. (She confessed to be new to this collecting thing.) The U.K. television personality and art dealer Philip Mould, meanwhile, was on his own stand, surrounded by the Bloomsbury group. His friend from Oxford, interior designer Ed Bulmer, had created a standout Charleston-esque booth, and a staggering 1922 portrait of a beautiful young woman by Harrington Mann was there in its element. (It sold in the first hour of the fair.)

“It’s a joy to be part of the Season,” said Woodham-Smith. “Absolutely everyone is in town, tons of expats. The foreigners love this part of London, and of course we get all of the locals from Belgravia and Knightsbridge.” By the end of the first day, it was a sea of floral-print ankle-length dresses. “Our visitors are absolutely passionate collectors, often not specialists but total enthusiasts. Details are what art advisors are there for.” To ensure the buyers safety, however, a 70-strong vetting panel is led by Jocelyn Poulton who has been 40 years in the business.

Highlights were many but among them was a suite of four exquisite late lithographs by Willem de Kooning, signed and dated 1986, which had been in a Manhattan apartment in a portfolio case for the last 38 years. “I’m pretty sure they’ll go back to New York,” said a staff member at Shapero where it was on show. At Wartski, London dealers in the finest objets and jewels, a gold-rush watch chain decorated with buckles and finished with a tiny gold bucket was a unique piece for £150,000. A sugary sweet pastel seascape by Lucien Pissarro hung seductively on the walls of MacConnal Mason—and for £75,000 could hang on yours.

Meanwhile, the newly fashionable category of geological finds and fossils was doing good business. “It’s art from nature. It might be something a million years old,” said a dealer at Amsterdam’s Stone gallery, where the fossil of a pregnant dinosaur hung on the wall. “Or it could be something ugly.” He pointed to a lump sitting on a rather tired looking black velvet cushion inside a case. It was a lunar meteorite found in Algeria. “It’s been certified by NASA,” he added hopefully. The lump, it turned out, was not for sale. Instead, interested parties can sign up for an online auction later this year.