In establishing the fair, a foundation (stichting in Dutch) seemed the most fitting legal entity for the purpose of creating an event 'run by dealers, for dealers... so that nobody had an advantage over anybody else.' That Tefaf operates as a not-for-profit differentiates it from other major art fair brands. There are no shareholders demanding a return, no owners to primp the thing for sale.
This first edition book of Shakespearean poems was published by Kelmscott Press, the private press founded by the English designer and author William Morris in 1891. This example is covered in an opulent, bejewelled binding from the renowned London bookbinders Sangorski and Sutcliffe. The decoration, set with mother-of-pearl and more than 100 precious stones, takes inspiration from the sonnets inside.
The heavy brick mass of the early twentieth century warehouse stands steady at the corner, its facades still marked by decorative lintels and deep-set openings. Above, two added floors sit within a perforated aluminum veil that glows softly at dusk. The metal skin reads as a light canopy hovering over the old masonry, a precise intervention that contrasts the museum's new public life with its working past. See designboom's previous coverage here.