Dealers

Two south-west of England antiques dealers have launched an ‘Antiques Watchdog’ site designed to raise awareness of shoplifting in shops and centres around the country.

Tapestry and textiles specialist Franses has won a landmark Supreme Court case against its landlord, allowing it to continue to operate from the London gallery that has been its home for more than 25 years.

MADAM – As someone who has been dealing in early furniture for over 50 years and who has served on vetting committees for the Grosvenor House and BADA fairs as well as having been a consultant for Sotheby’s, I find TEFAF’s decision to exclude dealers from their vetting is frankly bizarre.

“When I was putting this exhibition together, a lot of people thought I would not be able to find 50 different women British artists to show. In the end, I could have shown 500,” says Sacha Llewellyn of 20th century British art specialist Liss Llewellyn.

Doom and gloom surrounds retailing in the UK but in the trade plenty of antique centres are bucking the trend. Here we bring you a short focus on a few of them – ideal places to buy a variety of stock offered from a number of dealers in one spot.

When Natalie Smith opened the Woodbridge Antiques Centre in the pretty Suffolk town 11 years ago, she said she was given a great piece of advice: never compromise on quality and presentation.

Paul Garner of Garners Antiques has a showroom in Rutland which offers art, antiques and British handmade furniture.

A regular stallholder at Arthur Swallow Fairs is Liam Woodgates, director of the Hopkinson Vintage Antique and Art Centre in Nottingham, where a corner display is pictured below.

Keith Richards Antiques brings a selection of early 20th century silver modelled on historic pieces to the first 2019 staging of The Cotswolds Decorative Antiques & Art Fair at Westonbirt School.

Dealers spend a lot of time and thought on the catalogues they bring out to showcase stock – here is the first in an occasional series looking at recent examples covering a range of art and antiques.

Among the works selling at the recent Art & Antiques for Everyone fair in Birmingham was a watercolour by John Roddam Spencer Stanhope (1829-1908).

Nudity and sensuality are themes running through London gallery’s look at eroticism

Anna Wakerley of Oriel Fine Art specialises in pre- and post-war Modern British painting.

A new destination for antiques shopping in Arundel has opened at Merchants Hall.

Jean Lurçat’s 'Sun Dancer', c.1955, is from a range of vibrant ceramics that the French artist produced during the 1950s, many of which are now on offer in Whitford Fine Art’s exhibition Poetry in Motion.

A number of dealers and auctioneers have reacted to TEFAF’s new policy on vetting which will prevent all commercial specialists from being members of its vetting panels.