IACF is expecting a near sell-out at itsupcoming antiques and collectors’ fair at Alexandra Palace on Sunday, December 1, with nigh-on all the maximum of 365 pitches sold.
IACF’s Grant Nicholas said: “Last year’s December fair at this venue was pretty much a sell-out and we expect the same this year. December seems to be many of our regular stallholders favourite fair of the year here, with Christmas shoppers making it quite a lucrative event.”
An added attraction at the organisers’ Ally Pally fairs is Maxine Stonehill of Pop Up Vintage Fairs selling fashion, jewellery, homewares and posters.
Chinese market buyers
This Art Nouveau table box by Charles Stuart Green, Birmingham, 1903, with the foiled enamel inset “almost certainly by the French enamel artist Camille Fauré” will be for sale at £1195 with Greenfinch Antiques at Alexandra Palace in December.
One dealer who is looking forward to the fair is LAPADA member Mark Nelson-Griffiths of Greenfinch Antiques in north Norfolk which specialises in antique silver, of which it has an abundance.
Nelson-Griffiths, who recently sold for £10,000 a silver-gilt monstrance embedded with white sapphires, amethysts and diamonds made in 1894 by Blunt & Wray of London, is an enthusiastic fairs exhibitor.
He stands at a number of IACF’s fairs, as well as Lomax Fairs and Hingham Fairs in East Anglia. Nelson-Griffiths says that he has in his sights for 2020 Adams Antiques Fairs at the Royal Horticultural Hall and Cooper Events in Harrogate.
Nelson-Griffiths, a former teacher who retired at 53, adds: “At IACF large pieces of silver, early English silver, Arts & Crafts pieces and highly decorative pieces sell well – the latter in particular for various buyers we have for the Chinese market.
“A lot of our business is done to the trade and we do very good deals to trade and private buyers, especially returning customers for whom we source special items.”
