For the second year in succession, the RDS will play host to an antiques fair during Horse Show week. Opening next Wednesday and due to run until Sunday, August 9th, the event will feature some 20 dealers from throughout the country. However, the capital will be represented also by a number of familiar names, such as Courtville Antiques from the Powerscourt Townhouse Centre. This stand will be concentrating on Victorian and Edwardian jewellery, with pieces such as 19thcentury pearl chokers with unusual clasps, 18-carat French chains and bracelets - among the last of these a platinum sapphire, pearl and diamond example dating from circa 1900. More jewellery will be available from the John Farrington Antiques stand, where art deco items on display include a diamond line bracelet, two diamond necklaces and diamond brooches. Mr Farrington will also be offering an assortment of Victorian gilt mirrors. These ought to complement the furniture being shown by Morrin Antiques of Dublin, not least a Regency mahogany and rosewood sofa table and a William IV rosewood fold-over card table. A highlight on this stand is likely to be a Victorian rocking horse.

Several other Dublin dealers participating in the fair will be showing furniture. Roxane Moorhead, for example, intends to bring to the RDS a selection of late 18th/early 19thcentury sideboards, an early 19th-century writing table, a William IV chiffonier and an oak butler's tray.

Flanagan's of Mount Merrion and Buncrana, Co Donegal, will have a distinctly musical flavour, thanks to two Edwardian pianos, a Steinway grand and a Bechstein upright. The same stand will include a heavily carved 19th-century colonial rosewood table and a Victorian four-poster bed. Victoriana will be to the fore on the Oman Antique Galleries stand, where dining room furniture - eight, 10 and 12-chair sets - a three-door breakfront bookcase and an inlaid display cabinet will be on show. Among the selection of pictures to be seen will be 19th-century engravings of pastoral and classical scenes from Nora Lucey of Dun Laoghaire, who will also be displaying early 20th-century ivory miniatures. Berna Townsend of Dublin plans to show a set of 11 framed prints of the Crimea, first published in 1856, as well as a set of six 1812 English country market prints.

And Irish silver will be plentiful too, thanks to the presence of J.M. Weldon, who is bringing a George I octagonal teapot made in Dublin in 1714; because of its rarity, this is valued at £50,000. On the same stand will be a pair of tea caddies made in Dublin in 1785 by James Kennedy and a fruit basket, three times the usual weight for such items, made by Richard Williams in Dublin in 1755. More Irish silver will be provided by William Crofton's stand, where a pair of tazzas made by Thomas Bolton of Dublin in 1708 may be found along with a pair of slightly later sauce boats from the same maker and an Irish epergne made by William Williamson in 1748. From outside the capital, Jonathan Beech of Westport, Co Mayo, will have an Irish mahogany bracket clock and a brass dial in mahogany by Sanderson of Dublin. Anne Duggan from Adare, Co Limerick, is to offer a selection of jewellery as well as porcelain and silver, while Colm McRory from Omagh's Spires Gallery will be showing Irish art from the past century. Finally, one of Co Galway's best-known businesses in this field, Moycullen Village Antiques, is to concentrate on furniture, such as a pair of Regency sofas, a Victorian walnut hoop-backed sofa, an Irish Regency sofa table and a Regency mahogany breakfront table.

An extremely rare George I Irish octagonal teapot, valued at £50,000, one of the items on J.M Weldon's stand for the antiques fair at the RDS. BELOW: Lady on a chair by Maurice C. Wilks, valued at £1,500, another item for the RDS fair