PAD London's 18th edition got off to a brisk start at its tent on Berkeley Square, where VIPs flooded in for a 67-gallery line-up of historical and contemporary design. Beneath the social surface, the opening day delivered genuine commerce: the Parisian gallery Lafanour sold a Pierre Jeanneret Chandigarh console, while London dealer Charles Burnand was in advanced discussions over a large ceramic wall work by the Brooklyn artist Peter Lane.

Collectors also pursued two unglazed white porcelain works by the late Japanese ceramist Taizo Kuroda, shown by dealer Tristan Hoare, who collected them from Kuroda's Izu studio around 2019; the ceramist's atelier has since opened to the public in Japan. At New York's Friedman Benda, Adam Pendleton's round onyx coffee table — the artist's paintings deploy letters and marks, his furniture reduces form to circles and straight lines — hung alongside a riotously coloured Misha Kahn tapestry that recently appeared in The Devil Wears Prada 2, underscoring the increasingly porous boundary between art and design.

The fair's more unusual offerings drew their share of attention. Brussels gallery Objects With Narratives showed designer Sofie Middernacht's consoles, benches and stools built from the steel tanks once installed outside post-war Belgian houses to hold heating diesel, left encrusted with mud and tar and finished in jewel-toned resin. FUMI gallery presented the Ghanaian ceramist Kobina Adusah's first work in bronze, a reconstruction and deconstruction of the traditional Abusua Kuruwa vessel. Meanwhile jeweller Glenn Spiro pulled back his most audacious creations for a retrospective, turning mammoth bone, sliced rubies, Mughal gems and gold baulé medallions from the Ivory Coast into new pieces — creations Beyoncé reportedly owns.

PAD London runs until 18 October, overlapping with Frieze week for the design-minded half of the market. After a difficult few years for live fairs, the buoyant opening suggests collectors are willing to spend when the mix is right.