Galleries - December 2010

items then at least some extremely flamboyant garments. Firebird T-Shirt anyone? It's at times like this that visits to particular dealers take the pain out of present-hunting. For art nouveau jewellery, for instance, you can hardly do better than Tadema , with Lesley Craze offeringan equally wide selection of the best makers of today. For a Wilf Hardy watercolour of a Russian Polikarpov fighter, try the Illustration Art Gallery or if you admire the incredible diversity and richness of children's books today, visit the Illustration Cupboard . Bookaholics will enjoy the Cambridge Book and Print Gallery for the opportunity to browse both the printed page and works on paper. Architectural enthusiasts should head for Gallery 19 , while the London Silver Vaults offer the largest collection of antique silver in the country, selling, valuing, exchangingand repairingwhat has proved to be one of the best investments in recent years. London boasts two hot-glass studios with galleries attached, Zest and Glass Art , both offering for their winter fair, on 4 Dec, with an intriguing list of exhibitors from 009 Textiles to West Country Whimsy. Jewellery enthusiasts should drop in on Dazzle at the National Theatre, which runs through December to 8 Jan, or visit the Designer Jewellers at the Barbican, this year featuringsix fresh-from-college new talents. Both these shows are top class. Phew, and we haven't yet got out of London. There's Made by Hand at Tredegar House, Newport (3-5 Dec), Zoe Arnold's sculptural curiosities at the Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh, mulled wine and mince pies at Farfield Mill , Sedbergh . . . Of course, all year round public galleries such as Ipswich's Town Hall Galleries or Penzance's Exchange sell distinctive objects of desire, from ceramics to handknitted silk scarfs, and special exhibitions such as Diaghilev at the V&A provide an opportunity to buy if not unique 7. GALLERIES DECEMBER 10 Christmas is a time for dispensingwith self-control. Eat, drink and be merry, as Ecclesiastes recommends, and joyfully succumb to the myriad temptations on offer from designer-makers at the annual events aimed at the seasonal shopper. In London, Cockpit Arts are organising the second of their Christmas Open Studios as an alternative to high street and internet shopping: a wide range of jewellery, ceramics, textiles and accessories will be on sale over the weekend of 3-5 Dec at their Deptford location. The East London Design Show occupies Shoreditch Town Hall from 2-5 Dec, jam-packed with tempting ideas and is, so they say, 'a really nice way to spend a few hours' (unless one's allergic to spending money). For anyone on the other side of London, the first weekend of December can be spent wanderingaround the workspaces of the Great Western Studios, now housed in a purpose designed building and nurturingsome hundred creative spirits. We Make London have booked Chelsea Town Hall again C GALLERIES hristmas Sarah Drury helps you choose the best christmas gifts