ALFayez at Alfies Antiques

The Ground Floor entrance to ALFayez

Those of you who shopped in the Mews at Grays will be familiar with the collective of dealers trading in Middle Eastern Art, Antiques & Design. Friday 1 June 2018 saw Alfies Antique Market launch AlFayez, a new department showcasing antiquities and museum worthy pieces to textiles, ceramics and jewellery from more than 25 professional Middle Eastern antique dealers previously based in the Mews at Grays Antiques. These new shops occupy the whole of the lower-ground floor as well as a newly refurbished area of the ground floor at Alfies, to setup a new collective called AlFayez.

Spanning two floors and spread over 4,000 square feet, ALFayez boasts an architectural staircase, large sculpture of a Roc bird of Arabian Nights legend and a styled water feature.

Left: Large Roc bird sculpture | Right: Roc bird viewed from the ground floor entrance of ALFayez

A shop at AlFayez & the bottom half of the Roc bird sculpture in the background, on the lower ground floor

Dealers include Yaseen Oriental Ltd specialising in fine quality Oriental and Islamic antiques, M & D Arsin Carpets who provide cleaning and restoration services and also sell antique rugs, carpets and kilims, Bakhtar Art specialising in ancient beads, jewellery and textiles, and Garo Kürkman an expert in the field of Ottoman Empire era art and artifacts.

Turquoise at Yaseen Oriental Ltd

Antique hand made rugs at M & D Arsin Carpets

Textiles at Bakhtar Art

Chinese Kangxi period rose water sprinklers at Garo Kürkman

AlFayez will be unique as the UK’s largest permanent collection of Middle Eastern antiques and will provide the perfect meeting of East and West design.

Live music at the ALFayez grand opening

A grand opening party was held on the 21st of June, where exclusive guests, such as Westminster Council officials, local antique dealers and Antiques Trade Gazette members had the chance to peruse the stock whilst sipping bubbly.

Live music was provided on both floors - a lively band on the ground floor performed traditional Turkish music, with Gizem Altinordu on vocals,  Kostas Glynos (Kanun), Ercument Ibrahim (violin) and Baha Yetkin (oud). Whilst Garsaaidi (oudist), provided a more ambient feel to the lower ground.

Alfies' founder Bennie Gray with ALFayez dealer Faisal.

Guests at the launch party

Alfies dealers, Monica of Vincenzo Cafarella (left), and Emilia of Thirteen Interiors (middle) and friend