LEICESTERSHIRE.- A new addition to The Antiques Dealers Fair Limited’s calendar is the Luxury Antiques Weekend at Stapleford Park, which takes place in the delightful surroundings of Stapleford Park Country House Hotel, Stapleford, near Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire from Friday 17 until Sunday 19 September 2010.

The look of the fair is stylish and welcoming with a clever mix of antiques spanning the Georgian and Regency periods alongside the more contemporary art. Combine the informal luxury of Stapleford Park Country House Hotel – a member of the Small Luxury Hotels of the World - with the high standard of elegance and sophistication of the boutique-style fair and the event becomes a truly memorable experience. Visitors can either indulge in a weekend or overnight stay and enjoy the comfort of one of their individually designed bedrooms and visit the fair at their leisure or just come for the day.

Twenty professional antiques dealers from around the UK, predominantly members of either BADA or LAPADA, are featuring items ranging from town and country furniture, jewellery, oriental rugs, oils, watercolour paintings and original book illustrations, 19th century and contemporary sculpture to fine porcelain, glass and objets d’art.

Highlights of the fair include impressive pieces of Regency furniture from Freshfords Fine Antiques of Bath such as a 16-seater mahogany extending Imperial dining table almost certainly made by Gillow or by a journeyman working around Lancashire circa 1825 (£35,000), a rare Chippendale period mahogany secretaire chest on chest (£16,500) and a matching pair of 19th century Chesterfield sofas made by James Shoolbred, c 1875 (£15,000). James Shoolbred was a fashionable furniture shop in the 1860s located on Tottenham Court Road.

Of local interest is an oil painting of Ragdale Old Hall, Leicestershire by William Edward Cooke, who was a Loughborough artist. Ragdale Old Hall was an important 16th-17th century house in the county and was pulled down in 1958. Signed and dated 1884 the painting is on Cambridge Fine Art’s stand (£1,650).

The fair includes some eye-catching pieces of Victorian jewellery such as a diamond sunburst brooch, c1890 (£6,900) or a charming enamel and diamond bird brooch (£960) from The Pearl Partnership or an 18 carat gold, sapphire and pearl insect brooch with ruby eyes (£5,500) from T Robert. Later pieces from The Pearl Partnership include a pair of Edwardian button cufflinks (£650) or a 1920s green enamel bangle (£900).

Local dealers from the Leicestershire area exhibiting at the fair include Walter Moores & Son from Market Harborough who have been dealing in antiques since 1925. Examples of pieces they are bringing include a Georgian mahogany wine cooler (£4,950) and a charming antique woolwork sampler embroidered by Susanna Jones, aged nine, on May 8th 1843. The building in the picture is thought to be Brighton Pavilion (£950). Originally based in Stamford, Vaughan Antiques now has a Newark showroom and their stand includes furniture from the Georgian and Victorian periods as well as a range of jewellery from antique to contemporary. Local antique firearm dealer, Garth Vincent Antique Arms and Armour is bringing a wide range of items ranging from flintlock pistols to antique arms and armour.

Original book illustrations have become a collectors’ item and one of the highlights on Books Illustrated’s stand is the original illustration for the centenary edition of the children’s classic, ‘Wind in the Willows’, a watercolour of ‘Ratty and Mole Boating’ by Charles van Sandwyk, born 1966 (£4,500). This is particularly appropriate considering the fair’s proximity to Rutland Water. Also on their stand are contemporary wildlife and bird bronze sculptures by Vivien Mallock, an associate of the Royal Society of British Sculptors. Art World Gallery of Evesham is bringing oils and watercolours by their new gallery artist, Lélia Pissarro, the great grand-daughter of the famous Camille Pissarro. Lélia, born in Paris in 1963 has painted since the age of four. Until she was 11 she was nurtured by her grandfather who taught her the fundamental impressionist and post-impressionist techniques. At 11 she returned to Paris where she subsequently studied at L’Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Works on the stand include ‘Two of Us’, a watercolour enhanced with gold (£975).

Stapleford Park Country House Hotel & Sporting Estate sits within 500 acres of gardens, parkland and woods. The hotel boasts a host of activities including its own School of Falconry, archery, tennis, health spa and fitness centre, game and clay pigeon shooting and has an 18 hole championship golf course. For those in need of refreshments there is the renowned 2AA Rosette Grinling Gibbons restaurant (booking required, telephone 01572 787000), or light refreshments within the fair itself. The hotel has generously offered a free night for two (dinner, bed and breakfast) in a prize draw which will be drawn on Sunday afternoon prior to the fair closing.