Suffolk

Before Natalie Smith opened the Woodbridge Antiques Centre 10 years ago in the pretty Suffolk town, she told ATG that she was given a great piece of advice: never compromise on quality and presentation.

The second of Suffolk House Antiques’ two annual exhibitions has yet to kick off officially – Christmas Selling Exhibition 2017 runs from December 2-23 and showcases an array of early furniture and works of art in the Yoxford gallery. Even so, with the catalogue up online, sales have already started.

In the little market town of Eye in Suffolk, English and Continental Antiques is preparing for its final exhibition of the year (starting November 18).

Leading UK artists have donated works for an auction raising funds to establish a national centre for the artist Thomas Gainsborough.

A c.1860 century bronze horse group by Pierre Jules Mene (1810-71) is among the pieces on offer at English and Continental Antique’s selling exhibition.

Cavendish Morton became prominent as a landscape artist after the Second World War, focusing on pastoral and maritime themes, particularly in East Anglia, where he moved with his family in 1946.

The pretty Suffolk coastal town of Southwold is well known for its delightful pier, Adnam’s brewery, multi-coloured beach huts and a Grade II-listed lighthouse in the middle of the town.

Gary Halford of Guildhall Antique Fairs is anticipating upwards of 150 stallholders at his annual antiques and vintage event at the Rutland County Showground, Oakham.

Highly collectable in itself, this 1920s car showroom lightbox advertising sign, right, had extra appeal to one bidder at automobilia specialists Richard Edmonds’ (20% buyer’s premium) sale at Chippenham on June 16.

In our continuing series looking through the keyhole of ‘bricks and mortar’ shops in 2017, ATG talks to Paula Rippingale Mills, who runs Rippingales Antiques and Collectables in Suffolk.

A Suffolk antiques dealer who bought a cache of 19th and 20th century photographs and postcards of his home town at auction has used them to good effect by publishing a pictorial record in a book.

Andrew Singleton’s first of two annual exhibitions this year opens on June 10, and he is prepared for a rush of interest in early furniture.

A rare early photographic instrument – bought for a song by a member of the BBC’s Antiques Road Trip team – sold for £20,000 at Lacy Scott & Knight (17.5% buyer’s premium) in Bury St Edmunds on May 13.

In the continuing series looking through the keyhole of ‘bricks and mortar’ shops in 2017, ATG talks to Robert Frost, who runs Martlesham Antiques from a thatched cottage in Suffolk. It specialises in 18th and 19th century furniture.

English and Continental Antiques, the Suffolk dealership, has its second selling exhibition of 2017 on May 27.

It wasn’t so much a Road to Damascus moment for Edward Crichton but more the road back to Bury St Edmunds, a car journey that provided the Lacy Scott & Knight auctioneer with much-needed think time.

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.