Fairs and Markets

“Mid-century is pretty unstoppable as the ‘new antique’ with exhibitions on Fifties and Sixties designers like Charles and Ray Eames and Harry Bertoia now regular events,” says Lucy Ryder Richardson, founder with Petra Curtis of the Midcentury Modern Shows.

Don’t call it dated, fusty or old-fangled. The British Antique Dealers’ Association (BADA) is here to prove that antiques have a place even in contemporary homes.

He’s 30 now but a love for antiques all started for decoratives and jewellery dealer William Driver when he was eight. His interest began with collecting Wade Whimsies, progressing to Clarice Cliff and other pieces as he trawled antiques fairs and markets.

Mid March in Manhattan is when the art market turns its cultural and commercial face east. This is the first of two New York Asian auction series (the other is in September), but what distinguishes the spring event, dubbed Asia Week New York (AWNY), is the input of dealer exhibitions.

Gene Hoyle, of Lancashire-based family firm Hoyles Promotions, which has been running busy weekly Sunday fleamarkets and car boots across north-west England for 40 years, is adding a “suitcase rummage” to his fleamarkets at Clitheroe Auction Mart in the Lancashire town.

A selection of stand-out items that dealers will have on offer as part of Asia Week New York (AWNY).

J’y Reste (I am there) is a clay sculpture evoking a symbolic birth created by Brigitte Moity in her studio at Savigny-sur-Orge, a suburb of Paris.

Holker Hall, the privately owned country house in Cumbria, hosts its first fair in nearly 25 years this month.

Tour & Taxis in Brussels is a vast swathe of Victorian industrial warehouses on the city’s canal. The complex includes the former train station and its spacious central hall, a long-disused international postal and customs office with links to the German Thurn and Taxis family.

To inject new blood into the senior ranks of TEFAF exhibitors, the fair’s organisers allow younger dealers, some from non-traditional disciplines, to do a live audition each year in the Showcase section. Kate Quill finds out what this tough test involves...

Like most enduring events, the Bath Decorative Antiques Fair boasts a formula both familiar and distinctive which has been tempered by gradual changes.

Lifting the lid on what it takes to be an exhibitor at a TEFAF fair, ATG asked three dealers – one American, one British and one German – to chart their preparations, concerns and hopes as they head to Maastricht for the 2018 event. Compiled by Lisa Johnson.

Galloway Antiques Fair’s next event takes place at Scone Palace, the Georgian Gothic historic house near Perth in Scotland.

Michael Todd is celebrating his 50th year in the business. At Bath Decorative Antiques Fair he offers a selection of 18th and 19th century items, folk art, samplers, naïve art and original painted furniture. He is based in Somerset.

The TEFAF Art Symposium 2018 will focus on collecting in the 21st century.

The Palladian home of the Earls of Pembroke will host the 41st staging of venerable vetted antiques fair on March 2-4.