Vintage Fashion & Textiles

While 19th century American-made needlework quilts can often sell for substantial four and even five-figure sums, it is a rare that an English example brings as much as this one offered at Tennants (20% buyer’s premium) on August 21.

Samplers made by siblings or generations of the same family can attract a significant commercial premium.

London Fashion Week is back from September 17-21 – a mixture of digital and physical events including the British Fashion Council’s famous shows at Somerset House.

Embroidered samplers and pictures in high demand stateside

Depicting Bacchus and Ariadne riding a golden chariot drawn by leopards, a monumental Mortlake tapestry led a small but significant textiles section at Dreweatts.

Set of tools was designed specifically to take apart rather than create fine textiles

The planned 30-stand Designer and Makers’ Fair on July 17-18 at Charleston Manor, near Lewes in East Sussex was cancelled at the beginning of July.

After 10 years based at London’s Old Spitalfields Market, Phil Taylor Cool Stuff is moving west to the antiques hub of Lillie Road in Fulham.

Vintage fashion dealer Samaya Ling has been in the trade for nearly 20 years but the rest of the world is cottoning on, it seems.

Anne Swift and her son Phil run Swift Antique Lace, trading from a stall in London’s Portobello Road antiques market.

Contents of a Straits Chinese shophouse sold at auction provide window to the past

Estimated at just £80-150, a Queen Anne or George I period needlework sampler sold for £10,000 via thesaleroom.com at Lawrences (25% buyer’s premium) of Crewkerne.

Antiques on High Cumbrian branch now open

A Mitchells (22% buyer’s premium) sale included selected contents from Greystoke Castle near Penrith – home to the Howard family for over 500 years.

With hindsight, the boast made by the Flying Steam Company – 'To China in Twenty-Four Hours Certain' – was a tad ambitious.

British wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill memorabilia in the form of slippers, brandy balloon and cigar box.

Esther Fitzgerald handles textiles from across the globe covering a time span of 2000 years. She has been trading for three decades and is based in Hampstead, London.