Aya Takano, "Crane Island" (2009). Acrylic on canvas. 181.8 x 227.3 cm.

The seventh edition of Frieze ended Sunday, and though it was not a complete sell-out for all involved, there were enough primary market sales to earn big smiley faces on each of the sleek white tents in Regents Park.

It was difficult to find a dour face among the international cast of exhibitors, and one could almost hear a collective sigh of relief that the market is alive and well after an ugly spring and summer.

Frieze is not about blue chip but young chip, with work under six-figures usually generally performing well.

This year, that trend was apparent at Victoria Miro’s stand, which was hard to miss with the banner-like Walthamstow Tapestry by Grayson Perry that resembled a Book of Hours completed by a monk on steroids. Editions of the work sold for £48,000 ($79,000) each.

“Even though we’ve done well at Frieze, we don’t do well with big ticket items,” said gallery director Glenn Scott Wright. He explained, “That is, anything over $200,000.”

That certainly seemed to be the case, as a 47 by 65 inch Peter Doig painting they brought, City Entrance (1998-99), priced at $950,000, had no takers.

“Frieze is associated in most collectors’ minds with emerging art," Wright continued. Unlike Art Basel and Art Basel Miami, it doesn’t have a section for blue chip galleries, so it attracts a different collectorship.”

It was a rather astute observation, highlighting the fact that there is plenty of renewed energy in the primary market for emerging and recently established artists.

In the newly launched Frame section of Frieze, situated in a corner of the fair that resembled an old time bazaar, gallerists with fewer years of business under their belt conducted plenty of business.

One London-based collector didn’t want to believe a Daniel Silver marble sculpture, situated on a wooden plinth at London’s IBID Projects, wasn’t available. “But I know just where it belongs,” moaned the anonymous collector, who wasn’t interested in the three other Silvers that were still available in the installation, which was almost sold out.

Priced between £12,000 and £25,000 ($19,600—$41,000) the series resembles ancient Roman statuary and consists of reclaimed marble works from Italy’s famed Carrara region, where Michelangelo once sourced his stones. The marble figures are mated with a pedestal that remind one of something Brancusi might have touched.

Referring to the sculpture that the disappointed collector had so admired, IBID director Magnus Edensvard looked sympathetic when he boasted, “We could have sold that one 25 times.” That is a sound bite one could easily have mined from the boom days, when dealers were wheeling-dealing and prone to such silly pronouncements.

London’s Seventeen Gallery — another Frame exhibitor — sold out its clever installation by Susan Collis, which included what appeared to be found objects or remains from a construction site but were actually meticulously fabricated sculptures made out of exotic materials (black sapphires and exotic woods) and priced in the £5,000 ($8,200) range.

Back in the main fair aisles, business was brisk for Paris gallerist Emmanuel Perrotin, who sold a number of the hard-to-miss blue sculptures of famous architects by Xavier Veilhan, who is currently featured at Versailles.

Perrotin sold Veilhan's sculpture of Richard Rogers to a Canadian collector and his depiction of Tadao Ando to an American buyer for €65,000 ($97,000) each. He also sold a brand new figurative, cartoony work measuring 71 ½ by 75 inches by Aya Takano, Sans Titre (2009), for €125,000 ($187,000).

“I’m very happy and it’s been very active,” said Perrotin after finishing some business with New York dealer Per Skarstedt, who will feature Takano in a solo exhibition in New York next month, her first in the primary market.

Getting back to Perrotin, the dealer seemed delighted with the reception for Veilhan, and struck a patriotic note. “The moment has arrived for French artists, and I feel we are in better shape now because no one is joking anymore about French artists,” he said. “People are starting to think seriously about them.”

It would be incorrect to brand Frieze as a fair where seven figure works have absolutely no chance, since there were a handful of paintings and sculptures that sold in that range, including Ed Ruscha’s A Riot of Atom (2009) at Gagosian’s stand for around $1.5 million and a David Hammons installation at New York’s Salon 94 that went to a Greek collector for a similar price.

But the beauty of Frieze remains its fresh-to-market profile, showcasing some of the best, brightest, and newest art around. Future editions are avidly awaited.