Bridport Antiques features more traditional pieces including fine art and furniture (“the higher end,” says Richard) from the 20 or so dealers there, while The Alleyways Antiques Centre based in the art and vintage quarter in the town has 50 dealers and a waiting list.
Richard adds: “The lower and higher ends are doing well, it’s the mid-range that’s suffering, price-wise.”
Furniture is certainly walking out of the door at Bridport Antiques. “Art does well here and we’re selling plenty of chests of drawers, desks and bureaux and, looking ahead to Christmas, large family tables,” he says.
The shop currently has an Edwardian oak extending dining table on carved legs with four extra leaves to seat up to 14 diners priced at £2750.
The centre benefits, as with many others, from cash-rich buyers who have sold up in London and other cities and moved to the peace of small country town living.
Vintage market
For many years the couple ran the monthly vintage market on St Michael’s Trading Estate in Bridport, giving it up in March.
That event is now organised by four traders on the estate including Tina Keating. The next is on Sunday October 30, the last until next year. Keating says: “This is an outdoor market and we usually have between 30 and 40 traders every month in the busy quarter.”
