AT the time of writing one can only hope, but, this Friday, the rescheduled Petworth Park Antiques and Fine Art Fair is due to open for a three-day run to Sunday, September 13, in the grounds of the great West Sussex house —although, before travelling, visitors are advised to check online at www.petworthparkfair. com for the latest updates.
As the organiser Ingrid Nilson says, there are some changes to the usual layout, with a one-way system, allowances for social distancing and a track-and-trace system. Face coverings will be mandatory in the marquee, and some queuing will be inevitable. However: ‘The catering has been brought outside in front of the marquee, so visitors can relax, if they wish, while awaiting their turn to enter the fair.’
There will be about 50 exhibitors, with the usual wide range of specialities. Among those who can be relied upon for the less usual is the King’s Road dealer Hatchwell Antiques. Here, there are two offerings from Denmark: at £14,000, one of the designer Poul Henningsen’s remarkable pianos—an upright with an elm and leather case by Andreas Christensen Flygler of Copenhagen dating from 1931—and, with a price of £22,000, a pair of historically interesting swivel guns—bronze falconet one-pounder cannons (Fig 1).
Following the British bombardment of Copenhagen and the destruction of much of the Danish fleet in 1807, the Gunboat War, or Kanonbådskrigen, continued until 1814 between Danish privateers and British shipping in the Baltic. As Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen) romanticised it in The Supper at Elsinore, one of her neo-Rococo Seven Gothic Tales, ‘there were cannons singing once more in the Danish fairways’. Among the heroic Danish captains and their boats, Dinesen places her hero Morten De Coninck and his ‘Fortuna II of Elsinore with a crew of 12 and four swivel guns’.
Denne historien er fra September 09, 2020-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra September 09, 2020-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Kitchen garden cook - Apples
'Sweet and crisp, apples are the epitome of autumn flavour'
The original Mr Rochester
Three classic houses in North Yorkshire have come to the market; the owner of one inspired Charlotte Brontë to write Jane Eyre
Get it write
Desks, once akin to instruments of torture for scribes, have become cherished repositories of memories and secrets. Matthew Dennison charts their evolution
'Sloes hath ben my food'
A possible paint for the Picts and a definite culprit in tea fraud, the cheek-suckingly sour sloe's spiritual home is indisputably in gin, says John Wright
Souvenirs of greatness
FOR many years, some large boxes have been stored and forgotten in the dark recesses of the garage. Unpacked last week, the contents turned out to be pots: some, perhaps, nearing a century old—dense terracotta, of interesting provenance.
Plants for plants' sake
The garden at Hergest Croft, Herefordshire The home of Edward Banks The Banks family is synonymous with an extraordinary collection of trees and shrubs, many of which are presents from distinguished friends, garnered over two centuries. Be prepared to be amazed, says Charles Quest-Ritson
Capturing the castle
Seventy years after Christian Dior’s last fashion show in Scotland, the brand returned under creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri for a celebratory event honouring local craftsmanship, the beauty of the land and the Auld Alliance, explains Kim Parker
Nature's own cathedral
Our tallest native tree 'most lovely of all', the stately beech creates a shaded environment that few plants can survive. John Lewis-Stempel ventures into the enchanted woods
All that money could buy
A new book explores the lost riches of London's grand houses. Its author, Steven Brindle, looks at the residences of plutocrats built by the nouveaux riches of the late-Victorian and Edwardian ages
In with the old
Diamonds are meant to sparkle in candlelight, but many now gather dust in jewellery boxes. To wear them today, we may need to reimagine them, as Hetty Lintell discovers with her grandmother's jewellery
