At the FAB Paris fair, antiques and finds

Created in 1956 by the National Union of Antiquaries, installed under the leadership of André Malraux at the Grand Palais in 1962, the Biennale des Antiquaires has long been the most popular social event in Parisian life, attracting better than any other international elite event. Sumptuous decor, gala dinner for the benefit of good works, everything contributed to the prestige of the event. However, increasingly sharp internal dissensions and some high-profile scandals tarnished the prestige of the fair, which had to reinvent itself.

This has been done since 2022 after the merger with another, more recent, fair, Fine Arts Paris, a competitor created in 2017 by the organizers of the excellent Salon du Dessin. Inaugurated on November 20, FAB (for Fine Arts la Biennale) Paris, as it is now called, has not regained the splendor of yesteryear but shows, in a peaceful climate, the finds of 100 galleries (a quarter of new entrants, a third of foreign merchants) representing very different specialties, from antique jewelry to furniture and paintings or sculptures from all periods, including booksellers for book lovers rare. Thus, this exceptional copy of Portuguese lettersby Gabriel Joseph de Lavergne, Count of Guilleragues, legendary book published in 1669, in a period binding, unearthed by the Jean Baptiste de Proyart bookstore. Or the manuscript of The Disappearance (1969), by Georges Perec, where the only appearance of the letter e appears in the author’s name, unearthed by Benoît Forgeot.

On the furniture side, we can rub shoulders with “Rothschild taste”as they say in the industry, with a lacquer secretary made by Adam Weisweiler around 1790-1795 (Léage gallery) or a flat desk stamped BVRB (Bernard II Vanrisamburgh) shown by the Steinitz gallery, both having belonged to the famous family, of which another member, Baroness Ephrussi-Rothschild, also received a tribute (nothing is for sale) by the reconstruction of a room from his villa in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat (Alpes-Maritimes), now owned by the Institut de France. Or for fans with more modern tastes, let yourself be tempted by a sofa, a unique piece by Martin Szekely, but also the “Mexico” bookcase designed by Charlotte Perriand in 1952, exhibited by Jousse Entreprise.

Good eclecticism

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