The 30th Battersea Decorative Fair opens today and taking part is Nick Gifford-Mead Antiques amongst whose current stocks and featured on the September newsletter is a large and imposing marble bust of Achilles. Carved around 1920 out of Bardiglio marble from Carrara, it stands on a grey marble pedestal inscribed in Greek with a Homeric passage from the Iliad.
 
The translation reads: The son of Chronos spoke, and bowed his dark brow in assent, and the deathless locks shook on the king's immortal head, and he made great Olympus shake.
 
This passage is about Zeus, son of Chronos, agreeing to the request of Achilles' mother Thetis to intercede on behalf of Achilles in the Greek war against the Trojans who Zeus supported.
 
Co-incidentally Gifford-Mead also has a splendid compo bust of Zeus by Austin & Seeley, modelled after the Zeus of Otricoli, a Roman copy of an ancient Greek original from the 4th century BC, now in the Clementine museum in the Vatican. On the Roman original the socle block is inscribed 'IOVE' for Jove or Jupiter, the Roman equivalent of Zeus, king of the Gods.
 
The Battersea fair was started in 1985 by London-based decorative antiques dealers, Patricia and Ralph Harvey bringing together dealers and interior decorators looking for unfussy antiques and elegant period design that fell outside the remit of traditional antiques fairs. The Decorative Fair moved from the Café Royale to Chelsea Harbour and to Battersea Park in 1997, and was first to host a major central London event in a marquee. It grew from once to three times a year was bought by exhibitors David and Jane Juran in December 2008. At the Autumn 2015 Fair 145 dealers will be displaying painted, decorative and fine antique furniture, rare and unconventional objects, collectors' items, and elegant 20th century design dating from the 17th century to 1980 - the dateline was 1950 when the Fair launched.