ONE of Wales’s premier regular antiques events, almost certainly the most popular, has its summer outing on the weekend of July 17 and 18 when The Carmarthen Antiques & Collectors’ Fair runs at the United Counties Showground.
As usual, some 170 exhibitors take up stands, and you may have
noticed this number is a little down on a couple of years ago.
Actually, this is a measure of the fair's success - it's because
the exhibitors are taking bigger and bigger spaces.
Collectors and dealers know Carmarthen for its quirky variety.
There are specialist dealers in such corners as vintage fishing
equipment, wind-up gramophones and rural bygones alongside the
staples like furniture, pictures and textiles.
Welsh ceramics, such as Swansea and Llanelly, are always strongly
represented, but this month visitors will find an extensive
collection of Ewenny pottery, specially brought together for this
fair.
More than 50 examples, dating from the late 19th and early 20th
centuries, will be offered at prices from £40 to £1200, including
some rare examples of animals, as well as the more traditional
decorative pieces associated with this Vale of Glamorgan
pottery.
The Ewenny collection is offered by Robert Pugh, who with his wife
Carol founded and still organises the Carmarthen fixtures under the
name Towy Antiques Fairs. This is no real surprise, since until
they became Towy the Pughs were well-known ceramics dealers and,
indeed, last month was the first time they have not taken a stand
at summer Olympia.
Dealing has taken a back seat to fair organising but you might see
a little more of the Pughs wearing their dealers' hats in the near
future; for a start they have booked a stand for the NEC's August
Antiques For Everyone fair.
Admission is £3.50.
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