Latest News Articles by Joan Porter
Firebacks feed the collecting flames
23 October 2017The earliest firebacks date from the 15th century, the early days of iron casting. These were placed against the back wall of a fireplace, an important feature when that wall was made of wattle and daub or soft stone.
Country living suits print dealer
23 October 2017Utterly English and with features including ‘seven golden rules for selling a country house’, Country Life has been described as ‘read by people who live the real country house style’.
Frome street market event generates vroom
23 October 2017The Frome Independent is a well-supported monthly street market in the Somerset town which covers the centre with some 200 stalls in total.
It’s all part of the Ealing process
23 October 2017As Sugar and Spice, vintage dealer Emma Newman sells vintage homewares and also organises a regular small and busy fleamarket, pictured above.
Bath’s Assembly Rooms host upcoming wedding show
16 October 2017There is nothing so stylish in the world of vintage frocks as a 1930s wedding dress – all Hollywood-style glamour with long silky satin gowns.
Vintage with Victorian values
16 October 2017Organisers of south London events select historic venues for ever-expanding operation...
Salvo reloads with change of organiser
16 October 2017It's all change for Salvo 2018. Organiser Thornton Kay is taking a sabbatical from running the annual architectural salvage fair next year.
Second Midlands event for 'Discover Vintage Home Shows'
16 October 2017Such is the ‘must-have’ vibe now for mid-century and vintage furniture and homeware that Keeley Harris’ 'Discover Vintage Home Shows', launched in 2012 at Manchester’s Victoria Baths, can attract 1900 visitors to the one-day fairs held three or four times a year.
Kent dealers show enterprising spirit
16 October 2017Chrissie and John Masters, of the Design Gallery in Westerham, are pictured below in their warehouse in nearby Enterprise Way, Edenbridge, both in Kent.
Lalique launch in Brighton
16 October 2017The Brighton-based Lalique Mascot Collectors’ Club is launching the second volume of 'Unique Lalique Mascots' by Geoffrey Weiner at Love Fairs’ antiques, vintage and collectables fair at Brighton Racecourse on Sunday, October 22.
Market meets the early music makers
16 October 2017Bennie Gray of Grays Antique Market, has a love for early music. So where better to hold a series of weekly recitals than the Music Room, the small events venue which is above the market in Davies Street, Mayfair?
Fortune’s fair is full of riches
09 October 2017Irish dealer organises events in Dublin with another coming up next month...
On the hoof way to offer French antiques
09 October 2017Trading as Hoof Brocante, Adrian Higham is among the most genial of men.
Bloomsbury Group haven hosts its first textiles fair
09 October 2017“If you lived here you could make it absolutely divine,” wrote author Virginia Woolf to her sister Vanessa Bell in 1916.
A prize under doctor’s orders
09 October 2017This original case of five silver catheters and three urethral sounds marked for the London maker J Millikan might be a strange offering as a prize outside medical circles.
Biannual fair held at Burton Court delivers great results, says established decorative dealer
02 October 2017If Julia Brisbane, organiser of Antiques in Tents, ever wanted a publicist for her biannual traditional and decorative antiques fairs at Burton Court, near Leominster, she need look no further than one of her exhibitors, decorative dealer Kieran Mathewson.
Poster girl for cult film collection
02 October 2017This film poster, below, was designed by the Czech artist Olga Poláčková-Vyleťalová for 'Une Femme Douce' (A Gentle Woman) based on a Dostoevsky short story.
Fine setting for a Welsh assembly
02 October 2017The long-running biannual antiques, art and design fairs held in the fine ornamental setting of the Orangery in Port Talbot’s 1000-acre Margam Park, has its next outing this weekend (October 7-8).
A booklover’s comedy française
02 October 2017Bibliomania has been running for three years at the Espace Champerret in the 17th arrondissement in Paris. The biannual fair draws around 100 exhibiting dealers from across Europe (including Pablo Butcher from Oxford).
Swallow Fairs moves indoors for winter months at Donington Park
25 September 2017Changes at Donington Park encourage moves indoors to Warwickshire during colder months...