BADA 2017

The Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association will have a brilliant selection of fine books including a first edition of Cecil Beaton’s The Book of Beauty (1930) with a dedication to fellow aesthete Sacheverell Sitwell. And there will be an extensive display of antique timepieces, including 17th to 19th century English clocks presented by horologists Tobias Birch and Howard Walwyn.

Other highlights from this year’s show include specialist antique jeweller Sandra Cronan’s bugs and butterflies display; an exquisite scarlet japanned cabinet, of which only three exist in the world; an abstract drawing by Andy Warhol; and a rare chronometer carriage clock. Alongside these will be an unrivalled selection of painting and furniture, as well as sculpture, glass, metalware and ceramics.

A Stubbs painting that was at first mistakenly thought to be a copy will go on sale by The Parker Gallery today at BADA 2017.
Entitled ‘Two Hacks, the property of Henry Ulrick Reay Esq of Burn Hall Co. Durham and their blue-liveried groom in a landscape’, the painting’s authenticity was uncovered earlier this year by The Parker Gallery. The work had gone on sale in New York having been deaccessioned by The Huntington Library in California, who had incorrectly catalogued the oil painting as a copy after Stubbs.

Dated 1789, the painting is signed in the lower right hand corner, putting it a year ahead of another version by the artist in a private collection.  
After the sale, Dr Bendor Grosvenor of the BBC's Fake or Fortune, said: “it's one of the biggest deaccessioning blunders of modern times.”
Archie Parker of The Parker Gallery, said: "I'm very excited to show this re-discovered work at BADA 2017. For a long time, it has been hidden in a dark store thought to be a copy. This discovery shows that even the major auction houses can make mistakes."