PAINTINGS and inspiring ballet costume designs created by the renowned stage designer and artist Yolanda Sonnabend will be displayed for the first time at the Winter Decorative Antiques & Textiles Fair in Battersea Park, London.

Miss Sonnabend is best known in Britain for her set and costume designs for the Royal Ballet Company, where she worked regularly with Kenneth MacMillan, Anthony Dowell and Michael Corder. She also worked with Derek Jarman on his 1979 film of The Tempest.

Her designs have been commissioned by ballet companies from Japan to Norway and have been seen at Covent Garden, Sadler’s Wells, Bonn Opera House, La Scala and in Stuttgart and Lisbon. Her work as a painter, portraitist and stage designer is included in collections at the British Museum, the Theatre Museum, V&A and the National Portrait Gallery.

On display will be a selection of costume designs from the winter ballets — Cinderella, The Nutcracker and Swan Lake — as well as a series of large canvases showing the development of Miss Sonnabend’s work over several decades.

The exhibition aims to show how art, stage design and interior design can merge and is the backcloth to a fair featuring more than 100 decorative antiques and textiles dealers. Art Deco and early Modernist designs are much in evidence in this fair and all antiques are independently vetted by a panel of experts.

A pair of 6 ft square panels, comprising French wallpaper by the master designer Dufour, which show scenes along the River Seine in Paris (c 1815), is offered by Daniel Mankowitz (£14,000). The dealer also has a pair of almost lifesize reclining terracotta lions made in Italy in the 19th century (£7,000).

A stylish mid-20th-century French circular table, which was in the private collection of Nina Ricci, has a fixed mirror top and gilded feet. It is being shown by Interior Eden (£4,250).

Two pairs of unusual 1960s armchairs, made from polished pale Canadian driftwood with rope and tassel seats, are offered by Dench Antiques, as well as a sofa, c 1835, after a design by George Smith.

There is expected to be much interest in a 1760 tavern clock with a 32in dial. Made by William Nash with a lacquer, chinoiserie front, it is exhibited by Spencer-Blaxill of Sevenoaks (£14,000). The same dealer also has a 1690 London long-case clock by Thomas Johnson with a 30-hour movement (£7,500).

Among the most unusual articles are Chinese ancestor portraits. These were painted posthumously, after a parent died. The images would be rolled up and kept in specially designed long boxes and brought out on special days, such as the Chinese New Year. A mandarin’s rank would be represented by embroidery on the front of the robe. A 150-year-old pair have been remounted on rice paper and silk and are offered by Apsara (£1,800).

The Decorative Antiques & Textiles Fair is open from today to January 25 at The Marquee, Battersea Park, London SW11 (12-8pm today, 11-8pm all other days except 7pm on January 24 and 6pm on January 25). Tel 020-7624 5173.