October, the Month of Fairs: Why Collectible Design Sells in London

Every mid-October, collectible design takes the train to London. PAD pitches its tent on Berkeley Square; Frieze and Frieze Masters open in Regent's Park the same week. What sells there is not what you rummage for on a Sunday.

What we call collectible design

Unique pieces or small numbered series, sold by galleries rather than industrial manufacturers. On one side, the period twentieth century — Prouvé, Royère, Perriand, Ponti — with provenance and catalogue raisonné. On the other, contemporary work issued in eight or twelve examples. The market runs like the art market: the gallery guarantees, and authenticity sets the price.

Why London, why autumn

PAD London was born in 2007, an extension of the fair Patrick Perrin created at the Tuileries in 1998. It slotted itself alongside Frieze, launched in 2003, then Frieze Masters, in 2012: the art collectors are in town, and the auction houses' autumn sales fall into step with the week. Autumn is the market's return to work; December closes it with Design Miami, to which we will devote a piece.

What it changes for an enthusiast

The prices under the tent are not the vintage market rate: they factor in the cost of the stand, restoration, the gallery's guarantee, provenance. But what the galleries show in October turns up in ordinary sales two or three years later, less pristine and far cheaper. Read the fairs as a barometer of taste, not as a buying guide.

Spotted a piece in a fair aisle? Scan it on Beyit: model, manufacturer or gallery, market rate away from the tent.