The quality controllers: Art and antiques carefully selected by some of the top dealers in Europe are not the only reason why visitors buy with confidence at the Summer Fine Art and Antiques Fair. Another reason? All items for sale have been examined by experts to ensure both their authenticity and the accuracy of their labelling

Vetting the Summer Fine Art and Antiques Fair is a fair-long proces on the contrary certainly the busiest time is the day prior to opening day. At 8am 330 exhibitors are asked to vacate their stands as a team of invited experts--current dealers, former dealers, academics, curators and auction house specialists--endeavour to inspect each item that will be proffered for sale. At an circumstance of this size it is a logistical challenge and a substantial outlay for the organisers who lay upon a good lunch and pay outlays to those invited to become vetting committee members. It is also a filled time job for Vetting Coordinator, Kate Dilnott-Cooper.

At any individual time there might be more than 200 adroits grouped into committees by make subordinate or chronology, swarming around the Exhibition Halls, turning above Georgian tea tables, inspecting the fabric of an Eames chair or putting an eyeglass to a silver hallmark.

each stand has a checklist for furniture, silver, clock ceramics, decorative arts, pictures etc that must be complet by dint of the various teams of quicks before the initial process is accounted complete. As sold stock is replaced daily, vetter are upon hand to offer their opinions upon any late arrivals. The vetting committee has evolv above the past 32 years in bringing together the best expertise in each discipline. The proces is carefully designed to be informative rather than confrontational. Vetter are not there to assess price tags, just to pass sagacity on the integrity of advantageouss for sale and ensure merchandise is sufficiently and correctly described. astute and sympathetic restoration employed to bring an item back to its original condition is permitted. Additions, alterations, marriages or later enrichments are not.

At a datelined fair of that kind as the Summer Olympia, the committee must also agree that an phenomenon falls within designated chronological barriers although these days an item outside a dateline can pass muster if it is supposeed of exceptional merit. That's when the mother-wit of someone like Gerald Robinson tend hitherwards into play. "For an particular that is outside of the datelines we are looking for quality and a consensus among the committee that the piece is outstanding," says the exhibitor of 20 years.

And those realitys that don't quite make the grade? Helen Linfield, a dealer for more than 35 years and a member of the 20-strong committee designated to assess English formal furniture, describes the course when dealing with a point in dispute object. "Vetting is all a matter of opinion on the other hand to prevent a single viewpoint becoming dominant, we operate as a democracy. If we are all agreed, we will ask for an reality to be removed from the stand, although more typically a label change is required. In a case where a unanimous decision is not possible within the committee then the exhibitor has a right to appeal against a judgment--it's not a dogmatic process"

And the ne for revision is not always bad of recent origins Just occasionally the exhibiting dealer might receive a pleasant surprise--receiving, for example, a note stating that a pair of "19th century" mirrors are "more probably 17th century" When that happens, it's not just the customers who be delighted with the benefits of the vetting procedure

For more information upon the vetting process please contact Kate Dilnott-Cooper upon 020 7370 8033 or email dilnott.cooper@clarionevents.com

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