Next week sees the opening of that most traditional of British antiques fairs, the Bada (British Antique Dealers' Association) antiques and fine art fair at the Duke of York Square in Chelsea, west London. The list of exhibitors is as blue-chip and orthodox as you might expect from an organisation which, since its foundation in 1919, has, as its literature states, "set the standard for trading in the antique business".
Anticipate, therefore, high quality throughout, from the grandfather clocks, jewellery and silver, to an unusual collection of 19th-century walking sticks with carved animal heads. A highlight will be an early 18th-century secretaire cabinet designed by Giles Grendey and decorated with scarlet and gilt chinoiserie figures and foliage, priced at £275,000 by Thomas Coulborn & Sons from Sutton Coldfield.
This year, however, something unexpected is going on. Amongst the Chippendale and the ormolu-mounted Chinese vases is an exhibition entitled Heroes and Villains. Flanked by the scarlet robe worn by Lord Lucan at the Queen's coronation, and the flowing white cloak worn by Lawrence of Arabia during the campaign against the Turks in the First World War, is an array of small objects: cigarette cases once used by Oscar Wilde and Al Capone; cufflinks that belonged to Wyatt Earp and John Lennon; Field Marshal Montgomery's beret; and watches worn by the murderers Dr Crippen and Clyde Barrow, whose story was immortalised in the film Bonnie and Clyde. Some might be considered antique, but none would be of any value were it not for the history of ownership from which they derive the generic description of "celebrity memorabilia".
The exhibition comes from the collection of David Gainsborough Roberts, an actor and wrestling promoter before he entered his family's financial business. Roberts now lives in Jersey and has long given up work to follow his collecting passions. Probably best known in art circles as a collector of modern British art, he is currently chairman of the advisory committee to the 20/21 British Art Fair. But last year, the residents of Jersey learnt of his abiding interest in celebrity when the local museum held an exhibition of his Marilyn Monroe memorabilia – including the sequinned dress she wore in Some Like It Hot, the Niagara "wiggle dress", and backstage photographs taken by Eve Arnold during the filming of The Misfits.
Roberts dates his collecting activities and enduring interest in history back to childhood, when his grandmother gave him some wood from Nelson's flagship Victory. Beginning in earnest with Monroe in 1991, he now has nearly 3,000 objects, ranging in subject matter from crime and the Wild West, to film stars and royalty.
When Roberts bought his Monroe dresses 20 years ago, they cost a few thousand pounds. Within 10 years, the dress she wore when she sang Happy Birthday to John F Kennedy had sold at Christie's for $1.4 million. Her dress from The Seven Year Itch is owned by the actress Debbie Reynolds who will accept no less than $8 million for it, according to Roberts. The stole shown on the left sold at Christie's for £42,000, four times its estimate.
"Our society is fixated on celebrity," says Jon Baddeley, of Bonhams, "and the market is driven by nostalgia." On this basis, the annual auction market for rock and film memorabilia has grown from about £200,000 in 1982 to £20 million. The most highly prized rock memorabilia are Beatles' lyrics, which can fetch more than half a million pounds. The drum skin which was used on the album cover of Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band sold for £541,250 at Christie's last July.
The Bada exhibition may not capture the glitz of Monroe or the Beatles, but it does beg the question: is this brush with fame being introduced to aid a flagging antiques business? And are these mementoes indeed the new antiques?
Jonathan Coulborn, chairman of the Bada fair, says the exhibition does not mean that dealers in celebrity material will qualify as members of Bada. The rules of membership are too strict. "It's more about having a bit of fun and attracting new visitors," he says. "It's also about stimulating the whole idea of collecting which the market might have lost."
On March 18, Roberts will give a lecture at the fair entitled "Keeping History Alive: The Thrill and Importance of Collecting". Even if the message is not that celebrity memorabilia are the new antiques, Bada members are hoping their presence will help to drum up business.