West Yorkshire

Ex-industrial premises have been brought back by firms relying on heritage interest

Sunny Bank Mills at Farsley near Leeds has been in the Gaunt family for six generations.

While the market for post-war wares by Thompson’s of Kilburn – particularly the animal and figure carvings – has grown substantially in recent years, the ‘prime period’ for Mouseman collecting remains the 1920s-30s.

Top names in their different fields, ages and markets, Wurlitzer and Armand Marseilles were the star makers at Hartleys (17.5% buyer’s premium).

Few furniture forms suffered a bigger crash in prices than the davenport.

Dunhill Aquarium table lighters painted by Margaret Bennett and husband Alan in the 1950s-60s remain popular among collectors in these non-smoking days.

Spider-Man has made a couple of successful appearances in recent UK sales.

In West Yorkshire this weekend, Rose & Brown Vintage will occupy the atmospheric setting of Sunny Bank Mills, near Leeds, built in 1829 and disused as a textile mill since the mid-20th century.

Three modestly valued works selling at regional sales including a Herbert Thomas Dicksee polar bear print.

Although Charles Dickens is often credited with creating the ‘modern’ Christmas, some of the recognition should go to John Leech.

After the Hartleys (17.5% buyer’s premium) September 4 sale, auctioneer Andrew Hartley admitted: “Furniture did not perform as it was hoped from tiny chinks of daylight discernible in the last few months.”

In January this year we ran a Fairs & Markets story (ATG No 2374) about the Georgian former courthouse in Pontefract, West Yorkshire, which had reopened its doors as an antiques and cultural centre using the first floor only.

“Our visitor profile is generally interior style enthusiasts with an age range of 30-60 and it tends to be couples, families with small children and also ‘empty nesters’ who want to revamp their houses now they have it back to themselves.”

Former courthouse in West Yorkshire opens as antiques centre and community hub.

An album of 40 albumen images by pioneering photographer John Thomson with direct appeal to the market for early depictions of the Orient was the outstanding star at Hartleys (17.5% buyer’s premium).

Alan Cartwright’s two-day antiques and vintage fair at Wetherby Racecourse in West Yorkshire has been a strong runner in his Jaguar Fairs’ portfolio since he took it over in 2001. It now attracts up to 300 exhibitors at each of the three annual events.

An Edwardian Carlton House satinwood desk of the type which was once a best-seller at auction, but an early casualty of the furniture slump, was back in favour at the Hartleys (17.5% buyer’s premium) summer sale in Ilkley.

Designer Vicki Ambery-Smith is regularly selected to show at the prestigious annual Goldsmiths Fair at Goldsmiths Hall in London.