Petworth Park Antiques & Fine Art Fair opens today

Official opening of inaugural event today at 11am

Lord Egremont will officially open the inaugural Petworth Park Antiques & Fine Art Fair at 11am on Friday 8th May.

Some 40 top specialist antiques and fine art dealers from around the UK are coming together to  showcase their best pieces including Terwick Mill, near Midhurst by Ivon Hitchens* (1893-1979) priced at £65,000, a monumental marble sculpture by Paul Vanstone weighing in at over a tonne (£18,000) and an 18 carat gold, diamond and emerald gazelle brooch by Chaumet, Paris (£12,750) are just a few of the wonderful objects for sale at the fair.

Other treasures  to buy at the fair include an Edouard Leon Cortès oil painting, previously owned by Elton John (the painting hung in his dining room); a painting of St Catherine of Siena (circa 1500) only recently discovered upon restoration; a bronze sculpture by Auguste Rodin; an oil painting of Don Quixote and the Players discovered up the chimney in Blackdown House (Haslemere) and rescued from a skip in a blackened state.

There is also a fine and rare early 19th century Chinese ivory Napoleon chess set, complete with its lacquered and painted Chinese chess board, one of a handful of this quality (fittingly for sale in the 200th anniversary year of the Battle of Waterloo); the definitive grape brooch (so ripe and juicy you could almost pluck and eat them off the vine) in gold, diamonds and opaline glass, circa 1890.

The fair will also feature paintings by internationally renowned Sussex artist Ivon Hitchens* and also by his son John; canvases by legendary wildlife artist and conservationist David Shepherd, his daughter and granddaughter; a George II oak hooded wall clock made by Francais Mitten of Chichester and a snuff box made from the deck of HMS Victory after Admiral Nelson died.  

For more information of the fair visit www.petworthparkfair.com