ART MARKET / Up for Sale

JERMYN STREET, especially the section between Fortnums and the Ritz, is one of the best-selling addresses in the art world. Offer Waterman, 34, and his brother Saf, 31, expect to have about 60 potential purchasers per day at their gallery at number 74a - Offer made four sales from the Christmas exhibition during the hour I spent there last week, at prices ranging from pounds 300 to pounds 1,500. 'On Christmas Eve,' Offer tells me, 'last-minute shoppers often go off with three pictures at a time.'

But the secret is not just their location. It is also the kind of art they have for sale - contemporary artists who are strong academic draughtsmen or work skilfully in impressionist and intimiste style. The Christmas show concentrates on small paintings by artists who are popular with many notable critics and collectors, Brian Sewell and Giles Auty among the first, the Duke of Devonshire and the Prince of Wales among the second.

Prince Charles likes to keep a low profile as a collector but he is known to own paintings by Martin Yeoman, Edmund Fairfax- Lucy, Stephen Goddard, Peter Kuhfeld and John Ward, all of whom are included in the exhibition. He likes to have an official artist in attendance on his foreign tours; Martin Yeoman has been to the Middle East and India with him. They were introduced by Sir Brinsley Ford, a famous collector and connoisseur, now 85 years old, who has acted as unofficial advisor on the Prince's collection. Edmund Fairfax-Lucy, the grandson of John Buchan, and John Ward are among Sir Brinsley's own favourites.

(Photographs omitted)