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Louis XVI ormolu-mounted Sevres porcelain pots pourris vases, circa 1770, will be shown by F.P. Fine Art.

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George Cruikshank, “The Antiquarian Society,” 1812.

FOR 3-9

BADA ANTIQUES, ART FAIR WILL BE MARCH 17–27 IN LONDON w/2 cuts

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LONDON — The BADA Antiques & Fine Art Fair on March 17–27 will showcase jewelry, furniture, clocks, ceramics, textiles, paintings, drawings, glass and silver dating from the Seventeenth Century to the present day from 100 art and antiques dealers, all members of the British Antique Dealers’ Association. It is held in the shopping area of the Duke of York Square, just off Sloane Square.

This year’s loan exhibition, “300 Years of Collecting: Treasures from the Society of Antiquaries of London,” will mark the society’s tercentenary. Exhibition includes works of art and antiquity that will be shown to the public for the first time, documenting the history of the society and its special place in the British tradition of collecting.

This year’s fair, the 15th, will include 12 new dealers and five exhibitors who are returning to the fair after a break. New exhibitors with paintings, drawings and prints include John Bennett Fine Paintings, Constantine Lindsay, Lowell Libson Ltd and William Thuillier. There will be two new dealers specializing in marine items, Julia Korner Fine Art and Langford Marine Antiques, and three new furniture and works of art dealers; Fluss & Charlesworth Ltd, Guy Dennler Antiques and F.P. Fine Art. The Clock Clinic will be the fifth clock dealer to join the fair, giving it the status of being the only event in Britain to have all the leading specialists in this field under one roof.

Furniture offerings include contemporary designs to complement more traditional pieces on the stand of Norman Adams Ltd. He will present the streamlined “Cato Rockers” rocking chairs in laminated maple by Tony Portus of Bristol, alongside a carved Charles II limewood mirror in the manner of Grinling Gibbons (1648–1721), English, circa 1680.

Silver dealer Mary Cooke Antiques will bring a set of 12 George III gadroon edge dinner plates engraved with an armorial made in London in 1810 by Naphthali Hart. The arms are those of William Joseph Denison of Denbies Co., Surrey, 1770–1849.

The Metal Gallery, dealers in contemporary silverware, metalware and jewelry, will showcase the American jewelry designer R. Simantov. Alongside beaten copper vases by Ndidi Ekubia and sleek silver candlesticks by Ane Christensen will be a Burmese sugarloaf cut peridot set in an 18K gold bezel and stainless steel mounting, inlaid with platinum and 24K gold stars, 2006.

Antique jewelers Sandra Cronan Ltd will show a Lalique carved sapphire brooch with pale blue enamel, pearls and diamonds and a Lalique enameled dragonfly pendant, both dated 1902, alongside other fine jewelry dating from the Seventeenth to the Twentieth Century.

Following its success last year, Green’s of St James’s, part of Green’s Restaurant &Oyster Bar of Duke Street, St James’s, London, will again be at the fair.

The Marie Curie Cancer Care will be the beneficiary of the fair’s Charity Gala evening on March 22. Established in 1948, Marie Curie Cancer Care is now one of the UK’s largest charities, providing free nursing to terminally ill people.

The loan exhibition at the fair will outline the history of the society since it was founded in the capital by three friends 300 years ago. The minutes of the inaugural meeting at the Bear Tavern on the Strand on December 5, 1701, still survive, and the Royal Charter granted in 1751 records that the society’s role was, as it still is, “the encouragement, advancement and furtherance of the study and knowledge of antiquities and history in this and other countries.”

The society predated the establishment of national museums in Britain and so became the repository for the discoveries and acquisitions of many of its fellows, some of who were among the earliest collectors of antiquities and works of art.

The exhibition will display pieces from the society’s collection kept at its London headquarters at Burlington House, Piccadilly, that are not normally on display to the public.

Highlights include a set of drawings of a ring worn by Mary Queen of Scots, who was executed on the orders of her cousin Elizabeth I of England in 1587. The ring itself has long since disappeared and the illustrations are the only surviving record of this historic piece of jewelry.

Exhibits will also include an illustrated Book of Hours dating from about 1500, caricatures by the English artists Thomas Rowlandson and George Cruikshank, a Fifteenth Century procession cross from Bosworth, Leicestershire, and a jewelry box painted by the Pre-Raphaelite Dante Gabriel Rossetti and his muse and wife Elizabeth Siddal.

Historian Dr David Starkey will give a talk, “Celebrating 300 Years of Collecting” on Friday, March 23, at 11 am. He will introduce the Antiquarian Endeavour with an exploration of the treasures in the society’s collections.

Tickets for the BADA Antiques & Fine Art Fair are $19.66 for a single ticket, $29.49 for a double. All tickets include a BADA Handbook and one reentry pass per person. For more information, www.bada-antiques-fair.co.uk or 44 0 20 7589 6108.