IACF’s October fair at The Newark Showground continued its long-standing tradition of being one of the busiest trade fairs of the calendar. Held on October 5-6, it even improved on last year with the gate up 20% , bringing in many local and international trade buyers.
Gaynor Prior from No. 43 Collectables with a late 18th century/early 19th century dough bin from a Lake District farm that she sold to a new private buyer for £200.
The US trade was particularly evident. Paul Stevens was among those who enjoyed a great deal of stateside attention, selling two French cherrywood farmhouse tables that were around 150 years old to an antiques dealer from Idaho for £1400.
Adam Harris with a George III mahogany chest of drawers which he sold for £600 to a UK dealer.
Furniture usually does well at Newark, Stevens said. Adrian Harris, who was sharing his stall, also had furniture successes with a £600 George III mahogany chest of drawers going to a UK dealer who planned to clean it up and retail it. Harris put the success among international trade down to the fact that “Americans and Europeans come over to get things ready for the Christmas rush”.
Arthur Horsman from Lots of Pots, Gatwick. He had been a busy fair and bread boards had sold particularly well selling for £30-45 each.
Johnny Fitzpatrick of The Thrifty Gent x Chapter Two Antiques shared a similar observation: “This is the biggest fair, there are international buyers, and they can source better here because there’s quite an array of stuff.” He sold a collection of bottles as one to an interior designer for a price of around £1500-2000, as well as a £2000 cabinet to another dealer.
Johnny Fitzpatrick standing with the bottles that had sold as a group to an interior designer for between £1500-2000.
Keith Oliver from Briggs & Oliver Antiques, one of the indoor traders at the showground found success with his adjustable Singer sewing machine stools. He sold at least five the first day, for between £200-250 each. An exhibitor at Newark for 35 years, he has tried other fairs, but this is the one that keeps him coming back. “I do save nicer stuff for this fair,” he said.
Keith Oliver from Briggs & Oliver standing with one of his popular adjustable Singer sewing machine stools which were selling for £200-250.
Matt Smith from Smith & Moon described the event as having “vibrancy”. Despite selling to trade throughout the day, Smith was particularly pleased with his sale of 19th century Japanese block prints to a private buyer for £450.
A 19th century Japanese block prints sold to a private buyer from Smith & Moon for £450.
Among those traders coming to buy rather than sell was US dealer Amanda Herring from La Petite Maison Antiques in Utah. She attended with a group of American buyers and found a huge array of items to ship back home for her store. One of her favourite purchases was a pair of leather army surplus trunks, the smaller for £750 and the larger for £950.
Army surplus trunks purchased by Amanda Herring for her shop in Utah, La Petite Maison Antiques. She bought the smaller one for £750 and the larger for £950.
She predicted that of her purchases, “all things will sell well; where we live you can’t find this stuff. These [trunks] were the find of the day, if he hadn’t already sold his others, we would have bought a lot more.”
Paul Stevens with one of the four French cherrywood farmhouse tables that he had sold, two of which are going home with an American dealer to Idaho for £1400.
A local trade buyer was James Hudson from Hudson’s in Stratford-upon-Avon, a new antiques centre (see ATG No 2613).
He said: “I came to Newark to buy today, mostly for its geography which means I’ve got access to a load of great dealers around the country.” One of his purchases was a scumble glaze petite set of drawers bought for £1860 which he was certain he could sell on for a good profit.
Trade buyer Natalie Egan from Magpie’s Vintage loading a wheelbarrow into her van to take back to sell in her Staffordshire shop.
Natalie Egan from Magpie’s Vintage in Staffordshire shared his sentiment: “It’s quite diverse, lots of different traders with a good eclectic mix.” With a shop full of varied stock, Newark is a good fit for her aesthetic. One of her favourite finds was a pastel-coloured wheelbarrow which she said she can get a good profit out of on resale.
Marilyn Bookal Antiques specialises in French windows turned into mirrors and has stood at the fair for 35 years. Each window sells for between £200-450.
Crowd photo down one of the main concourses.
The next IACF Newark fair will be held Thursday and Friday, December 7-8. Dates for 2024 can be found on the IACF website.
An outside stall at Newark.
