LONDON.- As a long-standing exhibitor of TEFAF Maastricht, Koopman Rare Art to be exhibiting at the inaugural TEFAF New York this fall (October 21 to 26, 2016)

Lewis Smith, Director of Koopman Rare Art, said: “ We have high expectations of TEFAF New York. TEFAF is undoubtedly one of the world’s leading art fairs and there is no reason why this should be any different in New York. TEFAF is continually striving to achieve greater levels of ‘Excellence, Expertise and Elegance’ and we hope to see this intensified when it opens in New York.

“The American market has always been an important venue for top quality antique European silver as can be seen from the magnificent collections in all of America’s top museums, for example, The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and the Portland Museum of Art, Philadelphia.

“In fact it was American collectors in the 1950s and 1960s who really appreciated European silver and took advantage of the low prices in post-war Europe. There are still a large number of very keen and discerning American collectors who continue to collect antique silver.

“Koopman Rare Art have been exhibiting consistently in New York since the mid 1980s and are thrilled to return to a market we feel very at home in.

“There were fewer American clients at TEFAF in Maastricht this year so we are delighted to have the opportunity provided by TEFAF New York to make things more convenient for them by showing our silver in their own country

“Visitors to our stand at the first TEFAF New York will therefore be treated to an important selection of superb silver masterpieces by all the great names in antique silver. As we did at Masterpiece in London in June, we will have an area designated to the great English silversmith Paul Storr.

“We are confident that TEFAF New York will also prove to be a magnet for the world’s top collectors and curators and are looking forward immensely to being part of this new and important Fair.”

Among the notable pieces being taken to TEFAF New York is a majestic silver tureen and cover by Paul Storr (1771-1844), which has the additional interest of an American connection. The tureen was presented to Thomas Willing, President of the Bank of the United States, by the bank’s stockholders on January 8, 1799. Willing was an important member of the Philadelphia ‘aristocracy’ who also served as mayor of Philadelphia and was a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania, from 1760 until 1791. He was also a co-founder of the firm of Willing, Morris, and Company in 1754, the most powerful commercial credit, trade, and transport enterprise of the American colonies. As detailed by the engraving on the tureen, Willing’s service is recognised during the recurring yellow fever epidemics that plagued Philadelphia throughout the last decade of the 18th century. The tureen has an asking price of £150,000 ($210,000).

A sumptuous pair of Victorian marine inspired table-centre dessert bowls, made in London, between 1838 and1848, also bear the maker's mark of Paul Storr and John Samuel Hunt for Storr & Mortimer. The bowls are engraved with the Tollemache crest John Jervis Tollemache, 1st Baron Tollemache, for Peckforton Castle in Cheshire (asking price £245,000 ($345,000)).

Another great silversmith Paul de Lamerie (1688-1751) is represented by several pieces most notably a set of four George II candlesticks (asking price -£130,000 ($185,00)), as well as an elegant soup tureen of oval form (asking price £165,000 $230,000)).