Fairs and Markets

Ahead of IACF’s popular Shepton Mallet antiques and collectors’ fair from May 5-7, with up to 600 standholders, the organisers have announced that the March event showed an impressive increase in buyers’ attendance.

Maxine Stonehill of Pop Up Vintage Fairs has launched a vintage market at a new London location.

The opening of the Turner Contemporary in Margate in 2011 reinvigorated the tourism industry in the north Kent area.

Launched last year by Kate and Mike Button of Blackdog Antiques in the pretty north Suffolk town of Halesworth, the monthly Halesworth Brocante, held in the Old Print Works, has become become a regular and popular fixture.

As Fox & Moon Fairs, Tony Crellin has been running regular vintage events at the National Coalmining Museum in Yorkshire, near Wakefield, for the past four years.

In the continuing series looking through the keyhole of ‘bricks and mortar’ shops in 2017, ATG talks to Lucinda Silcock who runs St Martin’s Antiques Centre in Stamford.

Since its launch eight years ago, Derwen Fairs’ antiques and vintage market at the National Botanic Gardens of Wales has gone from a one to two-day run, trebled in size to 100 stands and has four dates this year.

Petworth has faced some speculation about its future as a hub from members of the trade during the past few years. Once a celebrated spot for art and antiques, the closure of several local shops led to fears that it was losing its footing as a destination for collectors.

The first of the biannual Antique Scientific Instrument Fairs due to be held on Sunday, April 30, at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel in Bloomsbury, London, has been cancelled owing to unexpected refurbishment work at the hotel, advises Don Edwards, the organiser.

“Seeing the vans arrive and all the wonderful things being unloaded and then built into something beautiful on their stands is a real buzz: we can’t wait.” These are the words of Richard Burgoin, director of Arthur Swallow Fairs, when talking about his ‘summer of salvage’.

Helen Bowman and Ben Wray of Bowman Fairs launched their first fleamarket earlier this month in the unusual setting of the Skipton Auction Mart in North Yorkshire. In its daily life, the venue is a cattle market.

A framed limited edition print is Cattle Market by Jo Willis priced at £170, measuring 12 x 12in (30 x 30cm). It will be for sale at the Reading Contemporary Art Fair this weekend.

Since Lynn and Alan Cartwright of Jaguar Fairs ceased their antiques and collectors’ fairs at the Derby Roundhouse, there has been a gap in the market in the East Midlands city.

Someone else who has seen a gap in the market is Gaynor Lloyd. Her new antiques centre opened last month in Neath, seven miles north of Swansea.

Back for its 10th year, the annual Modern Movement Design Fair is held in a watery setting alongside the outdoor pool at the Grade II-listed Art Deco Brockell Lido in south London.

Plans have been approved by Wakefield Council to create an antiques centre and café at the Grade II-listed court house in Pontefract.

One Tuesday last month, Edward Cruttenden of Sunbury Antiques, the organiser of the hugely popular fortnightly market at Kempton Park Racecourse, had his busiest day this year.