Wendy Coleman of Vintage Forage pictured with her busy stands at the April outing of Blandford Vintage’s biannual fair
With 20 dealers spread out across multishowrooms, antique furniture is one of the big mainstays here with bedside chests, linen presses and writing desks selling well, said Watt, who counts arms and armour as one of his specialities.
“Fashion here has seen a move away from decorative furniture to the plainer Georgian classic styles, good period pieces with a history. We see plenty of decorators at the centre as well as people shifting out of London to the south-west.”
Describing her journey from buying to selling to organising, Mikaela Boon has always had a love of vintage fairs and what she describes as “time-worn objects”.
She and husband Roger, who live in the village of Wilton, were avid buyers at the Shepton Flea and the Dorset Brocante.
Next up in 2018 was selling locally in the Dorset town of Blandford. They organised a regular vintage fair as Blandford Vintage on a Friday several times a year there.
Roger said: “Post-Covid it was increasingly difficult to secure a date in Blandford and we had received so many requests to hold a Saturday fair that as we live locally in Wilton and had always admired the Michael Herbert Hall there it was a perfect idea. Fast forward to April 2022 and we had a wonderfully successfully fair with a lot of feedback.“
It all seems like a boon for the Boons as their next vintage fair in the hall is on Saturday, October 29, with 20 vintage dealers from across the south-west of England including the familiar names of Liz van Hasselt of The Washerwoman and Wendy and Darren Coleman of Vintage Forage.
