More than forty-five specialist dealers take part in Cooper Fair’s prestigious West Country event, The Cotswolds Decorative, Antiques & Art Fair at Westonbirt School, 11th – 13th April 2025. This premier event is a popular destination for collectors, connoisseurs and home furnishers from across the south and west of England.
Says organiser Sue Ede: ‘This is where people come to decorate and furnish their homes in their own personal style. Mixing and matching antique and contemporary with Mid-Century accessories, fine art, sculpture and furniture from the past centuries. The fair has something for everyone.’
The Cotswolds Decorative, Antiques & Art Fair not only includes leading fine art and furniture dealers but also specialists in silver and jewellery pottery, porcelain and glass, treen, collectors’ items, Art Nouveau and Art Deco, Mid-Century Modern, contemporary art, sculpture and much more. Prices range from less than £20 to more than £20,000
The fair takes place in the atmospheric setting of Westonbirt House, now a prestigious school, occupying the Great Hall, Orangery and adjoining rooms.
Among the many highlights for the spring event will be a superb Chippendale period triple ‘camel back’ settee dating from 1765 to be offered by furniture specialist W.R.Harvey Antiques. Priced at £12,500, it is described by owner David Harvey as one of the most comfortable and superb pieces of English furniture he has had the privilege to sell. W.R. Harvey will be showing other pieces including a very rare George II period mahogany tripod writing table that opens to reveal a compartmented interior.
Also on sale will be a very rare ‘memento mori’, a scientific and medical collector’s piece in the form of a decaying corpse held within a glazed mahogany case. Crafted from wax, bone, wire and real human hair, it depicts the human skeleton with muscles, veins and internal organs presented in a decomposing state. This composition model dates from the 19th
century and likely to be of Italian origin. Similar models are held in the collections of the V. & A, The Science Museum and most notably La Specola in Florence, Italy. This eye-catching exhibit will be shown by Andy Maule who specialises in unusual medical collectables and rare collectors’ items. It is priced at £3,000.
As Andy explains, ‘A memento mori is an object that serves to remind the viewer of the inevitability of their death and the brevity of life. ‘Memento mori’ is a Latin phrase that translates to ‘remember you must die.’ Throughout history human beings have been fascinated by their own mortality and examples of memento mori are found in almost every
civilisation. Andy Maule will also be selling a rare, fossilised dinosaur egg and a stunning hand-crafted manufacturer’s prototype scale model of a high-wing, single-engine aircraft.