News

14 December 2021

The Winter Show: postponed until March 2022

Winter Show New York 2022 The organising team behind the Winter Show has worked strenuously and successfully since the last fair to maintain enthusiasm for this year’s event.  Sadly, the fair has now been postponed until March.  A series of online panel discussions in advance... Read More...

25 February 2021

Some memories of Christie’s in the 1970s

A recent correspondence in the Antiques Trade Gazette about how the art world has changed over the past forty or fifty years brought back happy memories.  The following note is based on my own contribution. *** While I had the... Read More...

13 September 2020

Speaking from Experience: Legacy firms on Navigating Marketplace Ups and Downs

Martin Levy - H. Blairman & Sons

This note appeared as part of a series of ‘interviews’, conducted by Laura Beach, at the end of a front page article celebrating ‘The Liverants of Colchester: Thoughts on Turning One Hundred’ published in Antiques and the Arts Weekly, 18 September…

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12 July 2020

Museums and Mentors, Scholarship and Friendship: Stories from the world of fine ceramics dealing

The organisers of Masterpiece rose to the challenge of keeping this year’s cancelled fair alive through a much admired online programme.  If you missed it during the fair, you might enjoy these entertaining anecdotes from four leading dealers in ceramics,…

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17 April 2020

News from London

H Blairman - News from London April 2020

2020 will be a year we shall never forget. As I write from the relative comfort of my home, it is impossible not to reflect on the millions so less well placed to cope with this pandemic, even in the…

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20 February 2020

TEFAF, Maastricht, 2020: a celebration of Regency design – and more

Blairman at TEFAF 2020

For three generations, H. Blairman & Sons has enjoyed a reputation for Regency design. On the occasion of the bicentenary of the Prince Regent’s accession as George IV, we are devoting a substantial part of our stand at TEFAF, Maastricht…

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6 December 2019

New Address: 15, Queen Anne’s Gate, London, SW1H 9BU

H Blairman Queen Anne Gate Entrance

15, Queen Anne’s Gate is a distinguished early eighteenth-century house in one of London’s most charming streets, to the south of St James’s Park and just a short walk from Westminster Abbey and the Palace of Westminster. The house was…

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17 June 2019

Kelmscott Manor: Past, Present and Future

Kelmscott

Nearly five years ago, the Society of Antiquaries of London organised a small fund-raining auction to kick-start an application to the Heritage Lottery Fund to secure the future of Kelmscott Manor, William Morris’s ‘heaven on earth’. Last November, the Society…

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6 June 2019

Masterpiece, London, 27 June-3 July 2019

It is with pleasure that we are, once again, exhibiting at Masterpiece, London. The elegant architecture of Sir Christopher Wren’s late seventeenth-century Royal Hospital forms an appropriate backdrop for a fair that brings a rich and varied display of works…

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20 April 2019

Pair of chairs for Walter Morrison (1836-1921): a new discovery

Walter Morrison, the ninth (of eleven) children born to James Morrison (1789-1857) and his wife Mary (1795-1887) was just twenty-one when his father died leaving him £300,000 (a fortune that today would be the equivalent of £28m) and the Malham…

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11 March 2019

TEFAF, Maastricht, 2019: a full two-day installation

We have been flattered and delighted by the response of our colleagues to this year’s presentation.  But none of this would have been possible with out our team: K-Pak for transport and Nicky Aubury and colleagues for creating a more…

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16 January 2019

English Arts & Crafts design at the Winter Show

During the day on Tuesday, the team made light work of turning tool boxes, lighting tracks and crates containing furniture and works of art into an elegantly decorated black box.  One day, perhaps, I’ll arrive on a stand believing that…

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8 December 2018

As 2018 draws to a close…

Benin bronze at British Museum

Benin bronze on display at the British Museum [Credit: Son of Groucho/Flickr] On the big global issues, 2018 is drawing to an uncomfortable close.  And on undoubtedly more parochial matters, of cultural significance, the zeitgeist seems to be driving us…

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30 September 2018

PAD London, 1-7 October 2018

Blairman PAD London Sept 2018

London is the next stop for the the international art market circus, with big tops for PAD in Berkeley Square, and for Frieze Masters and Frieze in Regent’s Park.  As ever, October in London is the place to be. Our…

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25 June 2018

Masterpiece, London, 2018

Masterpiece 2018 setting-up

However well we plan in advance, it is always daunting to arrive in a half-built hall, surrounded by machinery, pots of paint and lengths of uncut timber, all of which need to be negotiated by precious works of art.  As…

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25 March 2018

The Elephant in the Room: Ivory and the Art World

Queen Mother Pendant Mask

Queen Mother Pendant Mask, Nigeria (Benin), Edo peoples, 16th century. Metropolitan Museum of Art, gift of Nelson D. Rockefeller, 1972.   On 22 March, the Courtauld Institute, London hosted a debate on how we should consider historic works of art…

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