NORTHUMBERLAND.- The Luxury Antiques Weekend at Linden Hall returns to the Macdonald Linden Hall in Longhorsley, near Morpeth in Northumberland from Friday 12 until Sunday 14 March 2010. The third of seven fairs being organised by The Antiques Dealers Fair Limited around England, it is the most northerly.

The first of the exclusive boutique-style fine art and antiques fairs launched by Ingrid Nilson of The Antiques Dealers Fair Limited in 2008, it set the bar high for her future events. At Linden Hall this March, some 24 exhibitors, from across the UK, are coming together to offer jewellery, silver, furniture, paintings and watercolours, sculpture, oriental carpets, maps and prints, original book illustrations, glass, ceramics, clocks, arms and armour, antiquities, calling card cases, objets d’art and much more. All the dealers are members of the UK’s two leading associations - The British Antique Dealers’ Association and LAPADA, the Association of Art & Antiques Dealers.

For those interested in arms and armour, Garth Vincent Antique Arms and Armour from Lincolnshire has a superb example of a German footman’s armour, c 1575, priced at £25,000. There is an opportunity to own a Colt pistol, used in the American Civil War, complete with the original owner’s name engraved on the back-strap..."W. J. Willkinson Topeka Kansas 1856." Other pieces include long guns, flintlock pistols, sabres and Japanese swords. On Saturday 13 March, experts from the Alnwick-based Hotspur School of Defence is demonstrating fencing techniques taken directly from historical manuals, using some of the period swords displayed by Garth Vincent Antique Arms and Armour including rapier, broadsword and smallsword. There will also be copies of original fencing manuals on display for the public to view.

Local dealers from the north of England are joined by those from as far away as Sussex, Kent, Norfolk and Suffolk. From Cumbria comes BADA member Valerie Main Limited with an extensive range of quality Royal Worcester porcelain including a fine pot-pourri vase and cover decorated with highland cattle and signed by John Stinton, c 1918, selling for in the region of £13,000. John Newton Antiques from East Yorkshire also has an English encrusted porcelain pot-pourri vase, cover & stand, c 1845, selling for £1,695. The vase is exquisitely painted with a scene depicting Windsor Castle and deer in wooded parkland, the reverse illustrates a study of game birds.

Amongst the paintings for sale, Edinburgh Anthony Woodd Gallery is offering a dramatic oil painting ‘Dumbarton Rock’ by Jane Nasmyth, dated 1846, daughter of celebrated Victorian Scottish artist Alexander Nasmyth, priced at £12,000 and ‘A Quiet Nook’, a dappled scene of sun and trees, oil on board, signed by Scottish artist William Bradley Lamond RBA (1857- 1924)J, selling for £4,600. On Newcastle-upon-Tyne dealers John Nicholson & Dunelm Fine Art’s stand is ‘The Fisherman’s Return - View South to Cullercoats and Tynemouth’ by Henry Perlee Parker, oil on canvas, signed & dated ‘H.P. Parker 1836’ and also inscribed on reverse, selling for £13,250. Angela Hone Watercolours from Buckinghamshire, London and Paris is bringing 19th and 20th century English and French watercolours and pastels.

One of the most popular models by the master animalier sculptor, Antoine-Louis Barye, is a lively and vigorous bronze study of an elephant running. 'Elephant du Senegal Courant', c 1879, is £6,250 from Sussex dealers Garret & Hurst Sculpture, who are also bringing a captivatingly rotund ‘Friar Tuck’ bronze by Adelaide Pandiani, c.1877, priced at £4,195. The wickedly cheeky, smiling Tuck is seen clutching a chicken in one hand and a bag of comestibles in the other.

Furniture comes from Graham Smith Antiques from Jesmond, Church Street Antiques and TV antiques expert Mike Melody of Melody Antiques, both from Cheshire. On offer from Graham Smith Antiques are regency mahogany open book shelves in the style of Gillows of Lancaster, c1810, priced at £2,200. M&N Oriental Rugs has an attractively coloured Persian silk qum, selling for £2,500 and a Persian Asmylak camel decoration, c1920, priced at £1,200.

Opulent jewellery includes a magnificent Art Deco platinum and diamond triple line bracelet, c.1930, £14,500 from Hampshire based Trivette, while Plaza has a sapphire and diamond watch by Vulcain for £5,800. From Grays Antique Market in London, Shapiro & Co also sells jewellery, as well as Russian objets d’art and glass. They have an attractive Art Nouveau glass inkwell, c 1905, for £575. Amongst the amazing collection of carrying card cases and other boxes from Simply Antiques of Suffolk is a 1913 ten-peg silver butt marker for the shooting enthusiast, price £1,900.

The Calvert Trust/Kielder, a UK charity that enables people with disabilities, together with their families and friends, to achieve their potential through outdoor adventure
activities in the countryside, is again the Luxury Antiques Weekend’s chosen charity.