Below is a sample of the emails you can expect to receive when signed up to penman-fairs.
Thank you for applying to become an exhibitor with Penman Fairs. Your application will be processed shortly and we will email you details of how to access your account once approved.
Anyone know who painted this portrait?
We are doing ''our bit'' here at "Unique Lalique Mascots", in that we have produced these posters for you to hang-up in your shop window or wherever they may be seen. They will hopefully boost morale, and more importantly boost the funding to the NHS, as half the profits of sales will go directly to our NHS.
Very shortly they will be promoted on eBay and other on-line sites. Firstly they are offered to you as ''A first Edition'' as the Great Britain will be shortened to ''GB'' in the second edition., so please go ahead and BUY now while this limited edition lasts!
A3 size it is 11.69" x 16.53" (also an A4 smaller size will be produced shortly).
They are £5 each of which £2.50 is donated to the NHS. They can be paid for and picked-up direct from our premises as on the website below. Or if you would like them sent, please add £1 each poster for packing & postage costs. Keeping our hands clean at all times!
5. From Anthea Gesua, anthea.gesua@btinternet.com
We the dealers of Grays downstairs have our own what’s app group so we can keep in touch with each other.
We report on our day, encourage each other to walk for an hour lest we get fat, share jokes etc
It helps as we don’t know when a Grays will open again.
This might work for dealers in other antiques centres around the country...?
__________________
Selling Online:
Without face-to-face sales, fair dealers must consider online sales. The BADA and LAPADA have their own portals, which, as members, you should consider. I have asked 3 independent and relevant online antiques sales portals to write a few paragraphs outlining their operations and the cost of putting items online....
But please, if you go to them, don''t forget to return to fairs when we are back to normal!
Option One:
12-month contract payable each month by Standing Order or Bank Transfer for £195 pcm (plus VAT).
Option Two:
Receive two months FREE subscription throughout the 12-month period by subscribing to our annual membership option, payable by Bank Transfer for £1,950.00 (plus VAT).
B Selling Antiques, paulo@sellingantiques.co.uk
We have 4 sizes of membership, as follows:
Up to 75 items for sale at any one time - GBP 90 per month (ex vat)
Up to 150 items for sale at any one time - GBP 124 per month (ex vat)
Up to 250 items for sale at any one time - GBP 225 per month (ex vat)
Up to 350 items for sale at any one time - GBP 331 per month (ex vat)
We collect a monthly flat fee for the service. There is no surcharges, commission or anything like that. We also consider larger membership sizes under request.
I always recommend to start with the smallest one, the 75 items for sale, and increase the membership as the member reaches that limit. It is a simple recipe, the more items the dealer displays, the more enquiries and sales.
Each dealer has an unique control panel on Sellingantiques, available 24 hours 7 days a week. The dealer is responsible for the uploading of items onto the system. The control panel is very easy to use.
In practice, we are a shop front for our members. Buyers from all over the world will call or email directly to the seller. The seller will guide the buyers through the sales when contacted addressing any questions, collecting the payment, arranging the shipment, etc.
Note there is no contract to sign to join Sellingantiques.
None of the existing members is tied up to the membership service, they are with us because we are effective for them and not because they are tied up to a contract.
Important, Sellingantiques is a datelined website.
Please visit the link below for more information about our accepted datelines:
https://www.sellingantiques.co.uk/dateline.asp
Sellingantiques dominates the search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc). This is how we bring the visitors to the website. Over 10,000 unique visitors come to Sellingantiques each day for browsing for their antiques.
I look forward to discuss any enquiries.Call on 01293 804 684.
C Antiques Atlas, enquiries@antiques-atlas.com (Est over 20 years)
We are one of the longest established Antique portals in the UK with 55,000 items of stock for sale from dealers all over the UK, Ireland, Europe and the USA.
There is NO COMMISSION on sales and buyers deal directly with the dealer.
Prices start at £130 for 3 months (gold package) with the facility to upload 100 items within that period.
Thereafter £40 per month (33 additional items each month). Or £480 over 1 year (400 items).
We also have a silver package for more specialist dealers who may only have a very limited number of items of stock. It allows you to upload 30 items over the period of 1 year for £130.
Please note, on both the silver and gold packages, the allocation is finite, if you sell or unlist an item you cannot replace that item with another one.
Note. selling on Antiques Atlas is available to bona fide antique dealers only, it is not available to the general public. We are independently owned and are not answerable to shareholders.
We also host THE FAIRS DIARY https://www.antiques-atlas.com/dbevents/
Sadly, due to the current lockdown, this is very limited, but when the tide turns and the fairs swing back into operation all the information and future dates you need will be available for dealers and public alike.
THE LOCATION BASED DIRECTORY https://www.antiques-atlas.com/listings/
We have what we believe to be the UK''s most comprehensive location based Antiques Directory of shops, centres , fairs, dealers, garden/architectural dealers etc throughout the UK.
Any antiques related business (shop, fair, dealers etc) can list their business for free. If you are not listed yet, you can submit a (no obligation) listing here https://www.antiques-atlas.com/freelisting/
All dealers selling through Antiques Atlas automatically get a premium listing in our location listings, highlighting their latest 3 items of stock and appearing before all the free listings.
If you have any questions or are interested in selling on Antiques Atlas, just give us a ring on 0161 6135715.
However we have missed our friends, fellow dealers and clients many of whom regularly visited us (especially as there was always champagne in the fridge) – many of whom we would never have met without exhibiting at fairs. They have been the backbone of my business.
Even this morning I received an e-mail from a wonderful couple I met at Kensington Fair wanting me to replace their beloved black Labrador dog who had passed away (breeding Labradors being another string to my bow and has also kept me busy during lockdown!) As an afterthought they might be looking for a dresser!
I really cannot imagine how difficult it will be to ramp up exhibitors again to form a good fair, but if anyone can do it Caroline, you can. We have exhibited at your fairs successfully through heavy snow storms when London came to a halt, and the hottest August on record and still came away with sales down to your ingenuity.
It is all very well buying and selling stock on line but nothing beats items being sold in top condition at a fair from someone who knows their trade, therefore giving buyers so much confidence when spending their money. I do hope we can all rally together later this year or definitely in 2021 to create top class fairs once again.
Keep up the good work Caroline. There was never a better or fairer organiser than you who has kept in touch with everyone and always done your very very best for your exhibitors and the trade.
In the famous lyrics of the late Dame Vera Lyn, or was it Dame Gracie Fields - or both:
We’ll meet again, don’t know where, don’t know when ……..
From Ken Jacobsen - oldastime@hotmail.co.uk
What a pleasant change. On Sunday [12th July] my wife and I went to Sawbridgeworth to visit The Maltings Antique centres to find replacement stock items and were fortunate to find two interesting clocks to add to the collection we offer. One being an "Art Dec" Mantel Clock ,the other a late 19c English Carriage Timepiece. Both have now been serviced and are being offered in our collection of datelined clocks.
From the Tweets on the following Monday a lot of dealers had been doing the same and from reading 17th Dealers'' Digest there was a strong sense of positivity and eagerness to get back into the Fairs and re-establishing personal contact with our customer base and prospective buyers.
I totally agree with Dan Leyland''s comments that we have to be both creative and flexible to succeed in this "New Market" and use all the tools available to attract new business as well as maintain our customer base.
I am hopeful of exhibiting at the Little Chelsea Town Hall Fair in late October, but with the stats from London this may not be viable due to the lack of visitors and overseas buyers coming to London. To overcome this and to maintain sales of items and services we are focusing on maximizing our social media visibility. This has over the last 3 months maintained steady sales from our collection and of our services.
An actual assessment of "foot fall" and trading activities in London would allow accurate judgements and planning to be made. Can anyone supply this info, thanks?
From Matthew Adams - adamsantiquesfairs@gmail.com
Some of Dan Leyland''s email last Saturday struck a chord with me as an organiser. It constantly amazes me how many people still haven''t embraced the Internet and email. When asked why not, a lot of them say "Oh, I''m too old for all that". My own mother is 97 and is constantly on Facebook, WhatsApp, etc.! Whilst there seems little we can do to get the older fossils that refuse to "get with the programme" on board (I can call them ''fossils'' because as Dan says, they won''t be reading this!), at my vintage fair, Frock Me, in Chelsea we have a much younger age group of both exhibitor and buyer who are all pretty much turned on to and tuned into the Internet and the difference is remarkable. In fact it has been my policy for the past two or three years to not consider applications from exhibitors for Frock Me unless they can demonstrate that they have a social media presence.
If you have exhibitors who have 20k followers on Instagram then their posts about where they will be selling reach as many (if not more people) as does our own publicity. The result is that we sell out of our arbitrarily allotted 600 pre-sale online admission tickets within a day or two of them going on sale and have a queue going down the King''s Road most of the day of people wanting to buy tickets on the door.
I try very hard to use the same social media exposure with the antiques fairs as I do with the vintage fairs and it is very clear that those exhibitors who do engage on Instagram, etc, do considerably better than those who just turn up and expect all the promotional work to have been done for them. The whole way that people shop and decide where to go and what to buy is changing so rapidly throughout the world and unless exhibitors accept this and embrace the new technology my fear is that they will eventually be left by the wayside.
From Deco Dave - report on Detling
Just to let everyone know what a great first outing at Detling Antiques Market was had by the majority of sellers.
We arrived at 6.00 am to find a huge queue of dealers champing at the bit to get in. Exceedingly well organised by Helen, Alan & the team at B2B, as though they had done this set up for years. All arranged around the buildings in a large circle, the dealers were very quickly set up and began selling immediately. I heard one say "Good grief! Look at the horde of punters coming into the fair!"
For the first four hours, we could not wrap quickly enough, with everyone obeying the strict two metre rule, using hand sanitizer before touching anything, but most importantly buying.
Unfortunately, the rain began at ten o’clock so it somewhat dampened things a bit, but we continued to sell, even as we packed away.
All in all, it was great to be out meeting people, selling and enjoying ourselves. Let’s hope it continues.
----
Please send me any dealing anecdotes/memories, news on upcoming events, and opinions on th4 future for the trade for next week.
Caroline P.
Welcome to the 31st Dealers Digest.
From John Robertson - ex-Bourne Gallery, Reigate
WHEN PIGS CAN FLY…
I think it fair to say that picture dealing is not generally regarded as a physically dangerous occupation. It hardly ranks with being a lumberjack, steeplejack or bomb disposal officer – although a tin hat can be useful when telling clients you’re not interested in buying back paintings you sold them at the top of the market. If you gave a buyback guarantee then a handkerchief to cry into is all you need. A tin hat however would not have saved me in the following story… my mobile phone did that.
Dealers are optimists by nature, always ready for adventure, and it was in this spirit that I went to view a sale at an auction house new to me. The premises were not large and temporary display panels had been erected for the viewing. I was delighted to find several pictures of interest and would normally have attended the sale but my wife and I were booked on a walking holiday so I left commission bids.
Our walk followed the Great Glen in Scotland and we were half way between Fort William and Inverness when I received an email of my successful bids. I was delighted and arranged payment immediately but explained that it would be at least a week before I could collect. I was assured that was not a problem. A phone call to say I was on my way would suffice and they’d have them ready.
Ten days later I drove over to collect and, knowing it wouldn’t take long, paid for just half an hour’s parking. As I crossed the street I saw a traffic warden and thought it wise to start the timer on my mobile phone. I rang the bell and introduced myself but it was clear that the message regarding my arrival had not been passed on. They were apologetic and a porter was instructed to find my lots. The room had been cleared of display panels and was now full of glass cabinets. They were getting ready for an Asian Art sale and there were numerous ceramic and cloisonné vases, bronzes, netsuke and other objects…some already in the cabinets but many laid out on a long trestle table.
The porter soon located six of my seven pictures, but the last proved elusive and time was getting on. When I pointed out that it was unframed and might be stored flat he looked relieved. “I know!” he said…it will be on this shelf behind these screens.” Happy that I’d soon be on my way I bent down to examine my purchases. As I did so my phone went ‘Bleep!’… “Damn it!” I thought… “That’s my parking!” and stood back up. There was a blast of air and a flash of light as something flew inches past my face…followed by an explosion of breaking glass. For a second I thought a bomb had gone off. With bangs and crashes objects were falling all around me. I flinched as something landed on my head and found a small, ivory pig in my hair. (A symbol of good luck in China!) Across the room the porter was wide eyed and white with shock. Meanwhile I was stuck…backed up against a cabinet with my legs trapped by another that lay shattered at my feet. There were wooden panels splayed out like cards on top of it.
I surveyed the devastation in eerie silence. To access the shelf the porter had lent the display panels against the back of a six foot cabinet which, unable to support the weight, had come crashing down where my head and neck had been seconds earlier, but for my phone I’d have been under it… possibly decapitated! To compound matters, as it fell the cabinet had struck the end of the trestle table, catapulting everything on it high in the air, ceramics, bronzes… and ivory pigs!
As the narrowness of my escape dawned on me an irate gentleman emerged from a back office. “What the devil is going on?” he demanded accusingly, before seeing my state of shock. “I say…are you all right? You look a bit shaken…let me give you a hand out!”
I thought it best to leave fairly promptly so they could clear up and assess the damage. As I struggled out with my six pictures a traffic warden stuck a ticket on my car. I was going to protest but thought “What’s the point, she’s never going to believe me when I start talking about finding a pig in my hair! My luck appeared to have run out but a week later I received the missing picture and a most welcome case of wine from the auction room. Better than a tin hat any day!
From Rex Stark, Massachusetts. rexstark@yahoo.com (Apologies, this should have been included in last week''s Digest)
I read with great interest your history of the illustrious 70 years of the Chelsea Fair. I first attended in 2000, the 50th anniversary show, and have crossed the pond in March every year since. This year I made the fortunate choice to cancel my trip less than an hour before I was to leave for the airport. President Trump had just issued a travel ban for Europe, and I correctly surmised that within a few days it would be extended to the UK. I could have been stuck there for weeks. London is far and away my favorite city, but I wouldn''t relish being held captive there.
While the main draw for me has been the BADA Fair, I have usually managed to find a couple of things at Chelsea as well. There was always a small group of five or six dealers who I rushed to see in the first ten minutes, to be followed by a more relaxed viewing of the entire fair. The overall high quality of the objects and the superb presentation has never failed to impress. I feel the same way about Petersfield, but I only manage to get there if the September date closely coincides with LAPADA.
I am delighted to hear that you have found a good organization to assume management of Chelsea, and I suspect that a few excellent BADA dealers will opt for Chelsea instead. While BADA has been one of my favorite shows for the past 20 years, I''m somewhat pessimistic for the future of the fair. The new owners have made it clear that the presence of modern/contemporary art will be increased, and unless a new (larger) venue is found I fear that a number of the dealers in high-end antiques will be pushed out to make room for more purveyors of art. That would be a shame, as the BADA Fair had achieved a reputation as one of the top antique shows in the world. Now the word "antique" does not even appear in the show name.
From Jane Alexander, Dovehouse Fine Antiques Fairs –
We were very pleased to be able to re-open the Dorking Halls Antiques Fair, last Sunday (18/10). Stand holders were enthusiastic to be back, not only keen to sell but to meet up with their fellow ‘comrades’.
There was a good but manageable flow of trade and visitors during the day, carefully monitored; visitors were definitely there to buy.
By offering an event where people feel safe is paramount and generates the confidence for people to not only return but to encourage others to visit. Offering ‘timed entry’ tickets was also keenly taken up and greatly assisted with managing the numbers in each hall.
Although we are under the threat of further ‘tiers’ and or ‘lockdowns’, being able to open an ‘ indoor’ fair offers a twinkle of light at the end of this very troubling period including, I hope, for other indoor fairs still waiting to open.
Our next scheduled fair on the 15th November and I am keeping everything crossed that there are no further changes to the guidelines.
From Miles Wynn Cato - mileswynncato@gmail.com
Just back from the Burton Court fair (near Leominster) - where the sun always shines and it didn''t let us down today. Beautiful setting, the big marquee worked really well and the place was packed (with excellent Covid safety in place). It was so good to get out again and see some great stock and some old trade friends. Spirits definitely lifted.
then, a day later.....
I recently came across a badly mis-catalogued painting in a country sale which set my heart racing. Although the auction was set up under the current Covid regulations, it was possible to book in to bid in person at the sale. However, I was bemused to discover that on the day the large saleroom was populated by 3 members of the auction house staff and only 2 potential bidders, so I constituted half those present. Happily, I was able to buy my potential discovery for a very modest price and left the auction feeling both excited and happy to have had a ''real'' experience bidding for a change.
The picture in question was sold unframed but came with an interesting provenance, having been bought at a country house contents sale some decades ago. Being an academic dearer by nature, my first action on returning home was to contact the relevant in-house expert to enquire whether the vendor might still have the original frame and also the original catalogue from the original auction. I was somewhat dumbstruck to discover that I had actually viewed the frame and indeed had seen it sold for a trifling sum while waiting for my lot to come up, but that there was no notification to say that it belonged with my canvas. However, the auctioneer did at least offer to put me in touch with the buyer, who, to my surprise, I was told was overseas. ''My'' frame was lotted in with another (a very florid Victorian number), both were large and heavy and I was amazed that anyone would think them worth shipping overseas given the likely cost.
However, thanks to the picture expert''s helpfulness, doubtless motivated by guilt at having not given any notice that the frames belonged to unframed pictures in the sale, I was soon in touch with both the vendor of both the paintings and their frames, and also the buyer of those frames. The former did indeed still have the original country house contents catalogue and a decent offer secured this valuable evidence of provenance. The latter, ''though living abroad, was an Englishman who had bought the frames for his son and daughter to display photographs in at their forthcoming wedding! It turned out that his parents live near the saleroom and the wedding would be taking place nearby - so the puzzle of overseas shipping was a red herring. Happily, when I explained that one of the frames belonged with the picture I had bought, he was sympathetic but he explained that he was up against his wife, son and future daughter in law who had their minds set on using a nice period frame to show their photos. Fortunately, at this point I was able to offer an alternative as I keep a stock of antique frames and just happened to have a similarly decorative gilt plaster frame of similar size. Bizarrely, I only had this because it had been rejected as a possible addition to another canvas originally bought in the hope that it was a work by the same painter I believed to be the author of my new discovery...... As it turns out, the first picture is probably only by a follower although it is a very beautiful painting which merits a better frame than that I was now able to offer as an exchange.
So after a lot of jiggery pokery I am now in possession of a potentially exciting rediscovered picture, its original frame (which suits it admirably) and the mid-20thc house sale catalogue which proves its provenance. Such are the opportunities, challenges and vagaries of the life of the determined art dealer even in these most challenging of times.
From George Schrager, Schredds of London - grizzly.robin@gmail.com
Having enjoyed Elizabeth Nicholson''s story perhaps I can return the compliment?
How did a physicist-turned publisher come to start a silver business?
Well, it was like this, Your Honour:...
It was the late 1960''s when a group of us got together and decided to raise money for good causes: we would empty our lofts and take a table at the Camden Passage market and see what we could raise. None of us had any relevant experience but, once we got going it became a lot of fun and even made the early starts worthwhile. It wasn''t long before it became obvious that our attics would soon be empty — and then what? Give up or carry on — but how?
Around this time an elderly cousin left me £1,500 (that''s £14,800 in today''s money!). In a rash moment, I suggested using some of it to buy ''antiques'' and when a piece sold, paying any profit into the ''Good Causes'' kitty. It would mean turning our ''joke'' stockbook into something more serious, but the others agreed that if I was prepared to do the work, they would fill in the figures as things got sold.
Next question: what should I buy?
Certainly not glass or porcelain because I would be sure to break it. It had to be weatherproof because the Camden Passage tables were in the open air. Well, I liked Eastern carpets so I began reading up...
Then I saw that there was a Sotheby''s carpet sale coming up, so I attended, sitting in the front row! As each carpet came on sale, the porters threw it down and then held it up to show it. Came Lot 5 and my nose twitched: by lot 10 I was sneezing and my eyes were streaming. By lot 15, I was out on Bond Street.
Meanwhile, experience at Camden Passage taught that, to be successful one needed a sales pitch and the most frequent questions were "How old is it?" and "Where is it from?"
Ha...! English silver ticked all the boxes — given a copy of Bradbury!
And so it began... I was soon joined by my wife-to-be. Gradually the others fell away, leaving us with the remains of the loft-stock. We moved to the Portobello Road and called ourselves SCHREDDS, that being a combination of my now-wife''s maiden name and mine. Soon we were joined by Luke in his ''under-the-counter'' carrycot!
And now, SCHREDDS is his.
The first page of SCHREDDS first stockbook!
Now some sad news, in case you missed it in this week''s ATG: Aged 96, after a short illness, Tony Foster has died - my treen hero, who showed at Chelsea for many years. I am sure you will join me in sending condolences to Stephen his son and all the Foster family.
That is all for this week. Please send me some interesting contributions for October 31st. How you started in the trade? or memories of characters at old fairs? Thank you in anticipation.
Caroline P
Having watched with interest the stories that have been sent in to Caroline over the last few weeks to fill the fascinating Dealers Digest email, I thought I’d pitch in. Not all of them were negative but I thought that with the kind of forum Carolines elite email black book no doubt contains, it got me thinking that this would be a good place to get on my soapbox and add what it’s like form the organisers point of view. Obviously I don’t speak for all organisers I can only speak from my own experience. Any resemblance to characters real or fictional are purely coincidental.
Our online fair “opened” yesterday. We launched almost 100 new webs pages simultaneously – given none of us are IT experts this was no mean feat. There were some initial hiccups, just like a ‘real-life’ event where there’s always an electrical blowout, an air conditioning problem to sort, blocked toilets or a lost visitor or two but this did not deter the buyers and many have seen very strong sales already.The successful ‘stands’ are notably those who promoted the showcase themselves ahead of the event and have their own websites.Some Stats from Day 1:Page Views: 12,054Users: 934Average Session Duration of almost 10minutes – this is a fantastic result for a website – how often do any of us spend this long browsing one site?We’re really pleased with how the Showcase has gone so far, it’s been a great opportunity to reconnect with our exhibitors and visitors and help them through the toughest trading period any of us have known. We may not have made any money from this endeavour but we hope it’s been a boost to morale for all involved – although Jo, who’s put it all together might disagree! We’re hosting the Showcase until the end of August allowing us plenty of time to feature each exhibitor on our own social media accounts.Jo reports that there are consistently strong visitor numbers this morning too and as Exhibitors replace sold items it’s a constantly changing visual feast for the visitor.
This has of course been a rather odd last few months. And with the down time, it has provided some of the more resilient dealers a chance to spring clean their website, sort out their stock, photograph, catalogue, restore all those items that they should have dealt with ages ago but didn’t have time as they were too busy on the treadmill of going to fairs, setting up, breaking down (literally in some cases), vetting, attending auctions, driving the breadth of the country delivering or just generally recovering from some of these activities.
It seems odd that in 2020 we still have a number of exhibitors that we cannot contact on email and still have to post contracts out to. It might seem like I am pointing these people out but how can I when they will never get this email anyway? Maybe this virus will separate the wheat from the chaff in both exhibitor terms and visitor. Dealers were always asking me to stop the “sandwich brigade” that come to the NEC who according to them, just have a look and a nice day out at the NEC. This pandemic may have just sorted that out for them - those who attend fairs going forward will be committed buyers who are prepared to take the risk to indulge their love of art and antiques
The are dealers that cannot - or will not - send in some items to be included in a free of charge online platform to sell their wares. Personally, I do not understand why you would not want to do this. But perhaps the wider conversation should be around what it will take to survive in this community over the next few months. Is there a place for business to thrive when they don’t have email, can’t be contacted easily, don’t understand the benefits of a social media presence? Is it about time that the dealers who do not want to engage with their customers retire and let the next generation of stalwarts and trailblazers to take on the baton? Is this our chance to innovate ? The people who had money 4 months ago will still have money in November. The people who want beautiful things in their homes will still want these items. The housing market has been given a boost this week and that always has a knock on effect with our sector. People want to sell stuff and people want to buy it. The wheels of this immensely rewarding, hugely entertaining, interesting, passionate, bewitching world will keep turning and I certainly want to remain part of it.
There will be new post covid measures in place for large world class venues like the NEC - managed visitor flows, enhanced cleaning regimes, better ventilation, social distancing, track and trace - but all things can be achieved if we want our fairs to come back - maybe even better organised than before...
As Fair Organisers we are keen to re-ignite business by running our Fairs from October. There is an appetite for business as usual from all sides. As we well know there is nothing like the face to face conversations and ability to see pieces to seal a sale and build relationships for ongoing business as well as the camaraderie and the fun of the Fair. There is a great deal of preparation going on behind the scenes by all Organisers to ensure that Fairs are run in a safe and welcoming environment for exhibitors, visitors, contractors and all involved - and some great collaboration between fair organisers.
With the news of indoor events & exhibitors returning from 1st October, the MaD Events team are looking forward to putting together a fair in November - we are one of the lucky ones by virtue of our timings - but we all finally have a date we can work with, and a future we can embrace. Roll on the end of 2020.
Answer next week 
Dear Dealer
Sadly the Government does not allow me to run the
September Petersfield Antiques Fair.
However, the Petworth Park Antiques & Fine Art Fair,
(11th-13th September) run by Ingrid Nilson of ADFL
will be allowed as it is an "outdoor" event
in a marquee. (subject to any changes in Gov rulings)
I will therefore forward you a Complimentary E ticket
for Petworth in a few days'' time.
In the meanwhile, I invite you to
visit the would-be exhibitors at Petersfield Fair,
listed here with links to their websites,
or see them all listed with illustrations on the Penman website
Books
Art of the Imagination booksillustrated.wixsite.com/alicesite
Fine illustrated books, this is Alice''s Adventures in Wonderland
Petersfield Bookshop www.petersfieldbookshop.com
comprehensive/enormous selection of antiquarian & second hand books
Ceramics:
Drove House www.drovehouseantiques.com 
and www.antiqueparian.com
Ceramics English, continental & Oriental ceramics and Oriental textiles
Jupiter Antiques www.jupiterantiques.co.uk
Mainly English ceramics pre 1900
Candice Horley www.20thcenturyglamour.co.uk
Deco & mid 20th Century figures, also drawings & jewellery
David Scriven - davidscrivenantiques@gmail.com
18th & 19th C British ceramics, esp 18th C porcelain and 19th C transferware.
Roger de Ville www.rogerdeville.co.uk
Early pottery figures, commemoratives etc.
Clocks:
Southern Clocks www.southernclocks.com
Clocks of all kinds
Furniture
Malcolm Bowdery - mjbowderyantiques@hotmail.com
18th & 19th C English & Continental furniture
W R Harvey www.wrharvey.com
Fine 18th & 19th C furniture
Jeroen Markies www.jeroenmarkies.co.uk
Art Deco furniture, lighting, bronzes etc.
Mike Melody www.mikemelodyantiques.com
Furniture from oak onwards, and accessories
Shine On Design - shineondeco@yahoo.co.uk
Art Deco Furniture and accessories.
General mixed Antiques:
Bank House - stephanie.antiques@yahoo.co.uk
A varied selection of interesting antiques, esp silver, oriental ceramics and furniture.
Lesley Blackford - lpblackford@hotmail.com
Mainly 18th century small furniture, boxes & objets d''art.
Ben Cooper - b.cooper@lineone.net
Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art. Plus general antiques
John Ebdon - johnrebdon2@aol.co.uk
General antiques - furniture, boxes, domestic metalware, silver & garden items.
Manor Studio Antiques - sandyverdon@hotmail.co.uk
Textiles, jewellery, silver, paintings & decorative objects. 
Glass
Hickmet Fine Arts www.hickmet.com
Art glass and bronzes from 20th Century
Joscelyn Vereker www.jvantiqueglass.com
Interesting glass, plus silver wine labels
Mark West www.markwest-glass.com
19th & 20th C mainly coloured glass
Jewellery
Candice Horley www.20thcenturyglamour.co.uk
Vintage and signed Costume Jewellery
Thomas Glover www.thomas-glover.com
Mainly 19th C fine jewellery & wrist watches
Markov - marcusmarkov@gmail.com
20th C decorative bronzes, contemporary glass and jewellery
Henry Nicholls www.henrynichollsantiques.co.uk
Wide selection of jewellery & objets.
Plaza www.plazajewellery.com
19th and 20th C fine gemstone jewellery
T. Robert www.t-robert.com
Interesting mainly 19th C jewellery & virtu
Shapiro & Co www.shapiroandco.co.uk
Jewellery, Russian silver & objets virtu
Paintings
Art of the Imagination www.booksillustrted.com
Contemporary illustration
Ashleigh House www.etsy.com/uk/shop/Victorianpaintingsuk 
Mainly 19th C Oil paintings.
Baron Fine Art www.baronfineart.co.uk
Extensive selection of watercolours and oils.
Berlin Walls Gallery. www.facebook.com/berlinwallsgallery
Prints & monotypes from late 20th C Germany, esp by Walter Lindner.
Ellis Fine Art www.ellisfineart.com
Mainly oil paintings with some furniture.
Michael StJohn - johnslater672@gmail.com
19th century watercolours.
Sculpture
Art of the Imagination www.booksillustrated.com
Contemporary fine bronzes
Hickmet Fine Arts www.hickmet.com
Nouveau, Deco and cold painted Bronzes
Silver
Antiques in Oxford www.antiquesinoxford.co.uk
Specialising in boxes & collectors'' items.
Dansk Silver www.dansksilver.co.uk
Mainly Danish silver and Jewellery
Eastdale Antiques www.eastdaleantiques.com
Comprehensive stock, specialising in early spoons.
S & A Marsh www.marshantiquesilver.com
Mainly 19th & early 20th C silver table and flatware
Elizabeth Nicolson - emnicolson@gmail.com
Quality silver from the 18th to 20th centuries.
Schredds www.schredds.com
17th-19th century silver and historical objets for the collector
S & A Thompson - silvericeman4044@gmail.com
Original good quality antique & early 20th C jewellery, also some silver & enamels.
Trevor Towner - trevor@trevortowner.co.uk
Hallmarked antique & vintage silver and gold items.
I sincerely hope the next Petersfield Antiques Fair, scheduled for February 5th-7th will be able to take place and we can welcome you to Petersfield again.
I will keep you informed!
Kind regards
Caroline Penman
Penman-Fairs.co.uk
From Charlotte Morris Roper, Plaza Jewellery (plazajewelleryuk@gmail.com)
“Tales from the French Riviera” No2. HOW TO OPEN A SAFE! We were doing the quite prestigious antiques fair in Cannes, at the Palais des Festivals and were sharing the safe with a colleague, Joelle. It was a 3 hole combination lock like we use here and she had requested the safe company put the code on for us (we do it ourselves now but this was 25 years ago). Chris and I arrived first on opening morning and attempted to open the safe with the code 350, 35 being Joelle’s age. Nothing happened. A few more tries and still nothing happened. As it was a bank holiday we couldn’t get hold of the safe company (pre mobile phones). Time went on and it was getting close to opening and everyone’s stands were ready except ours and our friend’s. After much discussion and logic we decided that as there were three keyholes then the maximum number code was 999 so all it needed was to go through every combination of 3 numbers up to 999. So I sat on the floor (the fair was open by then) and started 001, 002, 003 etc. Half an hour later I was in the hundreds 101,102 ..... 150, 151 etc with an increasingly aching arm. We took it in turns as we approached the 200 mark and still ... nothing, nothing in the 300s and 400s either. We were, at this point several hours into the fair then I took over again when we reached 500. At least we knew we were halfway by then. I ploughed on through 540 -554 and then suddenly at 555 the safe opened with a click!! Much cheering and clapping, along with disbelief! Joelle explained that she had said “Trois, cinq” to the safe company who had understood it as “trois cinqs” ie trois fois cinq (three fives ).
We were just relived it wasn’t a four or six digit key safe!
Happy Days!
From Will Rand, Osbourne Antiques, Isle of Man (osbourne@manx.net)
A few months into our trading I became acquainted with an older gentleman, Mr G, who, on his weekly jaunt down the high street, would come and look in my shop window. We got chatting and he said he wished to acquire a bookcase for his study. I had an Edwardian piece by Druce & Co which he liked and I made arrangements to deliver it.
As it was early days, my mode of transport for delivery was a very old and well used blue Ford Transit van, which smoked and banged like Onslow’s Ford Cortina in the nineties comedy, Keeping up Appearances. I also needed a second pair of hands and my mother very kindly volunteered. She arrived with her black lab, Tess, in tow and we carefully loaded said bookcase plus Tess into the van and headed off.
We arrived at the substantial property to find the gates very helpfully open and waiting for us was Mr and Mrs G who were eagerly anticipating our arrival. Ironically Mrs G could be a doppelgänger for Hyacinth Bucket! Oh nice!
In unloading the bookcase, I was slightly alarmed to hear quite a ferocious barking emanating from the back of the house. We proceeded to carefully unload the bookcase and pushed the back doors of the van closed to contain Tess.
We carried the bookcase through the house to the sound of much barking behind a closed door and carefully set it down in the study and positioned it into its desired location. The four of us stood admiring the bookcase in its new home and I was delighted when Mr G explained he was looking to source further furniture for the room. As I was straining to hear him over the incessant barking, I could see in the corner of my eye, a black shadow heading towards us. To my horror, Tess had escaped from the van, straight into the house though the open doors and was running towards the window where I spied a dog bowl full of food. Before anyone could say or do anything, being a typical black lab, her head was in the bowl and she was wolfing down the food. My mother and I leapt into action and got Tess by the collar and safely back into the van.
Fortunately both Tess and future sales were safe and well and no one had to go home with their tail between their legs. I learnt that Mr G had owned dogs for nearly 50 years, namely infamous Staffordshire Bull Terriers, and the incessant barking came from his current rescue dog, who had a deep dislike of other dogs and strangers to her home.
I did go on to source Mr G further antique furniture and a painting and he continued to call in to see me on his weekly jaunt. He always talked most proudly of his daughter who I subsequently met. His daughter is now my beautiful wife and we have a four year old son and a lovely little baby girl.
..........
Finally, a name from the past: I was delighted to receive a short email from Nona Shaw, who had the digest passed onto her from Linda Cropper. You may remember Nona who had two shops in Ditchling (Sx)
Welcome to the 24th Dealers'' Digest
A short one this week
From John Robertson (formerly Bourne Gallery in Reigate) - john_bourne@hotmail.com
A VIST FROM HEALTH AND SAFTEY …
After an accident free twenty five years we received a visit from a Health and Safety Officer. A solicitous fellow in late middle age who was anxious to spot any risks we may have overlooked in the Gallery. All went well until he spotted our First Aid Kit in the back office. “Is this for your use or the general public?” he asked. “Both” I replied. His face immediately darkened. “No! No!...this will not do! You’ve got headache pills in here which someone might be allergic to. They can’t be kept in here and you certainly can’t offer them to anyone. Don’t you understand? They could sue if they suffered a reaction.” I confess I didn’t think this very public spirited but promised to remove them and not give any to clients suffering from price shock.
He then turned his attention to our fridge. “Is it far enough back from the wall? We don’t want any overheating”. (Well no, I thought. The idea is to chill the champagne for Private Views…not warm it up!) “And what are all these jars, bottles and tins doing on the top?” I explained they were solvents, polishes, touching up paints and varnishes for repairing frames. “This won’t do at all” he huffed. They should be kept in a box where there’s no risk of them falling over.” I found a plastic crate and did as instructed, placing it back on top of the fridge, next to a tall metal cabinet. Looking up he said “…and those dusty old files on top look as though they might fall and hurt someone…best to get them tidied up”. Satisfied that he’d improved public safety he left with a cheery wave.
Opening the following day I detected a slight smell of varnish in the gallery, but as we’d just had a collection of pictures delivered I thought little of it. On entering the back office to turn off the burglar alarm I became aware my feet were sticking to the carpet. On grasping the fridge door to get some milk I found I couldn’t let go of it. I put my other hand against the metal cabinet to get some leverage and found that stuck too. I felt like a fly stuck to fly paper. Looking up I saw that one of those ‘dusty old files’ had tipped over and fallen into the plastic crate where it had landed on a can of aerosol gloss varnish. With uncanny precision it had depressed the nozzle and emptied the entire contents over every surface in the back office. My blood pressure rocketed and I felt a headache coming on. “Where the f*** had I put those pills!”
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Penman plans: my "Fair Friends" idea: I have only received 5 replies expressing interest, so that seems to be dead in the water - sad!
News snippits: (correct at 5 Sept)
Ingrid is set to run Petworth "outdoors" (Sept 11-13) - we wish her and the exhibitors a successful fair.
But she won''t be running the Northern in Harrogate, nor Mayfair in January, due to venue restrictions.
TwoCs Fairs'' Ludlow Racecourse fair is going ahead 26/27 Sept, with an outside Country Living Show.
Little Chelsea isn''t happening this October.
Olympia seems to be forging ahead confidently for October.. cross fingers.
Sue Ede says she is hoping that the Pavilion of Harrogate MAY happen (30 Oct-1 Nov).
Meanwhile Dan Leyland is seeking support for November NEC from a worthwhile number of exhibitors... Please support him, the trade needs it!
News from you please:
Reports on Ardingly (as a buyer or seller) please!
Any plans to show at 2020 fairs?
Plus, as always, your reminiscences of your time in the Trade and at Fairs.
Keep safe
Caroline P.
INNOCENTS ABROAD…
In the 1980s, in those wonderful pre-internet days when expertise was still valued and before the world and his wife knew more about your business than you did, I decided to try my luck at the New York auctions. I made contact with an old American friend living in Brooklyn who was happy to have me stay. Richard was a teacher and had an apartment on the sixth floor of an old brownstone mansion overlooking the Museum and close to the subway. “Bring your wife” he said. “You can have the place to yourselves. It’ll be half term and I’m booked to see family upstate. I’ll be here to show you around and back before you leave”.
My wife, also a teacher, couldn’t take the week off but I persuaded her to join me for a long weekend. I was determined that we’d have a good time so booked tickets for “Phantom of the Opera” on Broadway.
Before leaving Richard had warned me “By the way, if you take the subway don’t get in the last carriage. Some of the rush-hour trains are too long for the platforms. You only get in the last carriage if you want to be alone or die!” he laughed.
The tickets where for a matinee so we boarded the subway around mid-morning. It was crowded but we found seats half way down the carriage. Within minutes we became aware that a female passenger seated opposite was rocking back and forwards with closed eyes. When she began moaning loudly the other passengers began moving swiftly away, leaving us alone in our seats in polite British fashion. A glance down the carriage revealed a sea of faces staring back, wide eyed with apprehension and concern. We felt uncomfortable but thought it rude to move away. After a whispered conversation we thought it best to get off at the next station in the pretence that it was our destination. Happy with this decision we remained seated. Without warning however, just as the train began to slow, the woman projectile vomited across the carriage. The gruesome mix landed at our feet...the colour and smell indescribable! Our British reserve evaporated and we dashed for the exit. As we stepped off someone announced “Stay cool man… she’s a regular!”
Shaken, we took the next train downtown but recovered sufficiently to enjoy the show and have an early dinner. We had decided to take a taxi back but it was rush hour and raining when we came out so made a dash for the subway instead. The train was already at the platform so we walked straight on. As it pulled out I realised we were in the last carriage and we were the only occupants.
Two stops later half a dozen youths got on. They couldn’t have been any older than thirteen but were wearing puffer jackets and oversize sneakers that made them appear older. They walked with a swaggering, rolling gait that suggested trouble. As soon as the train moved off some began unscrewing the light bulbs and pitching them down the carriage to where another hit them with a baseball bat. Glass flew everywhere! Others broke into the unoccupied guard’s compartment and ransacked it…emerging with an axe! As they paraded up and down we shrank down in our seats pretending to be absorbed in our theatre program. After another whispered conversation we thought it best to get off at the next station and change trains. To our relief the boys completely ignored us.
When we got back to the apartment the answering machine was bleeping. Thinking it might be a message from Richard I pressed the play button. It was the Brooklyn Police wanting to speak to our host who had reported being mugged the previous week on the subway. The detective was concerned for his welfare and wanted to know if he had required hospital treatment. When the message ended my wife asked when we were going home and if there was any chance of an earlier flight!
Richard returned the following morning and we passed on the request from the police. He admitted that he had indeed been held at gunpoint the previous week and been relieved of his wallet along with several other passengers. He hadn’t wanted to mention this as he thought it might alarm us and spoil our visit!
In the years since we’ve visited the States many times but never been back to New York. I’m told it’s quite different now and a really fun place. Let’s hope Covid hasn’t turned the clock back.
From Marie Claire Boyd - Mary.Claire.Boyd@clarionevents.com
Our plans for the Winter Art & Antiques Fair at Olympia were well advanced but in light of the resurgence of COVID-19, it is with great sadness we took the decision last week not to go ahead with the Fair which is extremely disappointing for all involved.
We were so excited at the prospect of celebrating our 30th Anniversary together, with all our COVID-secure measures in place to create a safe and controlled environment for all involved. We are as saddened and regretful as you will be, having done everything within our power to try and make it happen.
We want to thank all our exhibitors, visitors, partners and suppliers who have supported our endeavours to bring the Fair together this year. We understand that this decision will be a disappointment to the many who eagerly await the Winter Art & Antiques Fair.
Like many, we eagerly await the time Fairs are back up and running again. Whilst we won’t be coming together this year within the halls of Olympia, to celebrate the art and antiques we love, we will continue to share stories, memories and news across our digital platforms.
We are working on our plans for 2021, the dates are as follows:
We thank everyone for their continued support and our thoughts are with people everywhere that have been affected by the current situation.
From Sue and Katie Ede
We regret to announce the cancellation of the Shepton Flea schedule for Sunday 11th October.
Unfortunately, due to the resurgence of the corona virus pandemic, we feel we cannot guarantee the safety of our clients, customers and staff at the event.
However we are working towards the next Shepton Flea Market on Sunday November 29th when we hope to have indoor and outdoor stallholders once again.
Thank you for your continued support and we wish everyone well in these difficult times.
From Deco Dave - decodave@ntlworld.com
An excellent outing at Bingley Hall, Stafford last weekend!
Arrived to a cheery welcome with a van full of new stock on Friday morning to find a well organised system in place for dealers to bring in their stock and set up ready for opening on Saturday morning. There was plenty of room between the rows of stalls in the table top section, and obvious systems in place to maintain Covid security.
The stand fit section where I exhibit, was easy to access and had safe distances between stands.
Saturday began with a good wave of early trade buyers, all who seemed eager to spend and was followed by a steady stream of public later. I must say the trend appears to continue with good sales for me all day, so another good fair was in the offing.
Sunday arrived with a lot fewer people at first, but it got quite busy later towards lunchtime.
All in all, a good weekend trading.
I would like to offer a thought to any traders, public or organisers out there, are any of you under recent rules from HM Government going to stop going to any of the supermarkets?
No, I guess not because you are going to a shop, so what’s the difference with going shopping to an antiques fair? Nothing at all! WE ARE A SHOP, NOT AN EXHIBITION! There is no difference!
CP: I wholeheartedly endorse these sentiments!
From Jill & Trevor Towner (Petersfield silver dealers) - trevor@trevortowner.co.uk
We took part in the Vintage, Antique & Militaria Fair last Sunday 27th September in The Festival Hall, Petersfield. We did not have the same stock as we would sell at Penman fairs but had vintage china, glass, silver plate and some vintage jewellery. We were fortunate to be welcomed by the customers.
The event was a great success, everyone wore masks or visas. On arrival customers had their temperature with an electronic thermometer, fulfilled the Track & Trace requirements with their mobile phones or gave written details.
People followed the distance rules and everyone said how nice it was to be able to attend an event.These people understood that they had to wait a few moments to enter and everyone behaved in a sensible way.
In The Antiques Gazette dated 3rd October on the front page it states that events in conference centres and exhibition halls in England will not be able to take place. I believe this is due to the fact that one conference or one exhibition immediately follows another giving no time for the venue to be unused.
The Festival Hall does not come into that criteria and that is why it is able to be used for the occasional fair . This was checked by our MP Damion Hinds.
We think that the standfittings that Penmans arrange give a great deal of security as the stand sides themselves make social distancing safe.
Trevor and I think it is important not to try to create more concerns but keep things simple. One of the first symptoms of the virus is a raise in temperature so checking that will keep anyone who could be a risk from entry. Customers make up their own minds whether to attend an event or not and going by last Sunday, people are really wanting to live a life not just exist.
It goes without saying that all exhibitors MUST put in some hard work of contacting their customers to give confidence to attend and most importantly of all to support you !!
I do hope this information about Sunday will lift your spirits, the vintage fair was completely different to Penman fairs and is in no way any competition but has a charm of its own. The event has shown the main hall and the Rose room can be full as there were 50 exhibitors and hundreds of customers.
CP: Thanks for this encouragement - I certainly intend to run Petersfield in February, subject to covid rulings.
From Caroline Penman - info@penman-fairs.co.uk
I am delighted to announce a change in the organisation of England''s longest running Antiques Fair.
Having presided over some 65 editions of the Chelsea Antiques Fair, since 1984, I am so pleased to have found a group of people who are ideally positioned to take over the responsibility of Chelsea Antiques Fair, and bring it proudly back into the limelight, post Covid. Ex Chelsea exhibitor Peter Bunting (oak & country antiques) introduced us, and everything fell easily into place. We have arrived at a very amicable agreement, whereby they will run the fair and employ me as Consultant (at last for the first fair).
As nothing can be set in stone while Covid dominates our lives, the new owners are busy setting up a new website, gaining an understanding of the Old Town Hall''s assets and wonderful architecture, and making as many detailed plans as can be arranged at the moment. A further announcement will be made some time in the Autumn introducing the new organisers and the Chelsea Antiques Fair website, which will detail the next Chelsea Fair and give everyone an opportunity to participate or simply register for complimentary tickets.
Next week: Illustrated article on Chelsea Antiques Fair 1950-2020.
Keep well and safe
Caroline P
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YOU COULDN’T MAKE IT UP…
One summer evening I was at my desk with the gallery door wedged open by an old wastepaper basket. I was about to close when I heard a motor bike roar up outside. Looking out I saw a leather clad young woman removing her helmet and throwing back her hair. I thought I must be dreaming. “Hello” she said “I’m from the council and I’ve come to ensure you’re disposing of your trade waste correctly.” I pinched myself to ensure I was awake but she was already inspecting an old sandwich wrapper in the wastepaper basket. “What’s your procedure?” she demanded.
When I’d recovered I explained that we really didn’t generate much ‘trade waste’. Jokingly I said we did our best to recycle paintings and that all we threw away were empty champagne bottles and boxes of unused catalogues. “So how do you dispose of those?” she asked. Proudly I explained that I personally took the bottles down to the bottle bank in a nearby car park and put the catalogue boxes in the paper recycling bin.
With shoulders back she proclaimed “That won’t do! The bottles I can accept but the catalogues should be taken to the Trade Waste Disposal Centre and you’ll have to pay a charge”. Astonished, I asked where that was. “Your nearest is in Epsom” she replied. “That’s ten miles away!” I protested. She was adamant and said the new regulations were being strictly monitored.
“Stuff that!” I thought when the leather clad harpy finally left.
A month later we staged our last exhibition of the summer. The Private View was held over a long weekend and on the Saturday evening I realised we’d need more champagne. “I’ll just dash down to Sainsbury’s and drop the empties off on the way” I said. With a pang of conscience I also threw in the car a couple of boxes of old catalogues. Five minutes later I parked at the recycling centre, threw open a bin and chucked in the empties. I grabbed a heavy box of catalogues and was moving down the line to the paper bin when an imperious voice called out “Excuse Me!”
I couldn’t believe it… I’d been caught red-handed! I turned around to be confronted by an elderly clergyman complete with dog-collar. He was lost and wanted to know the way to St. Mark’s Church. With a sigh of relief I gave him directions. He was profoundly grateful and I, thankful that a higher power wasn’t onto me, threw the box in the bin. There was a deafening crash of breaking glass and my heart stopped! It was the wrong bin!
I peered inside and thought my goose was cooked. The box contained a hundred catalogues with my name printed on every page. I’d be dragged into court, fined, shamed and made an example for all. There could be no escape…or was there?
The bin came up to chest height and was less than a quarter full. It was on wheels and I reckoned that if I pulled it out a little I could get a foothold on the neighbouring bin and climb in to recover the box. Without further thought I removed my jacket, hung it on a post and did just that. I lowered myself in, crouched down and picked up the box. Unfortunately, just as I straightened up the bin rolled back into its slot and the lid slammed down on my head.
Stunned, I found myself sitting in darkness with a shard of glass in my ankle. I pushed on the lid but it wouldn’t open. It appeared to be was stuck fast. “Just how stupid could I be” I berated myself. “I might never be found! I could die in here!” Acute embarrassment prevented me calling out but, with growing panic, urgent action was required.
“I know” I thought “I’ll use the box as a battering ram”. Holding the box above my head I hurled myself against the lid, smashing it open. I must have appeared like a ‘Jack in the Box’ to the crowd of astonished onlookers clutching their bags of empty bottles.
“My God!” said one.” We thought there was giant rat in there!”
“No” I declared…just an art dealer.” Then, with bleeding ankle, bruised ribs, a lump on the head but my reputation secure, I drove off to Sainsbury’s for more champagne.
As I hobbled around the wine section I couldn’t help feeling something wasn’t quite right. When I arrived to pay at the checkout I realised I’d left my wallet in my jacket…still hanging on the post in the car park. Unable now to use my car, as I couldn’t even pay for the parking ticket, I had to run panting back to the recycling centre. Unbelievably my jacket was still there with my mobile phone ringing in the top pocket. It was my wife. “Hi…How was your day? she asked brightly…you sound a bit out of breath!” "Just a little” I gasped…clutching my wallet in relief
Now, more seriously:
From Arthur Swallow Fairs:
We just wanted to reassure everyone that the recent government announcement hasn’t affected the running of the Antiques & Home Show at Lincoln on Wednesday 7th October.
The Show will adhere to current Covid-19 secure guidelines from the government and the National Market Traders Association to protect exhibitors and buyers. The rule of 6 applies, so please ensure you observe this by not arriving or shopping in groups of over 6.
From the Decorative (Battersea) team:
The effects of Covid have struck again: we are deeply disappointed to announce that our Autumn 2020 Fair, scheduled for 22-25 October, cannot take place. Given the recently re-imposed, UK-wide restrictions, our decision to cancel is taken to protect the health and wellbeing of visitors, exhibitors and everyone involved. Whilst our hearts are heavy today, we send best wishes to all our supporters and everyone in our industry at this time. Trust us: we remain unbowed, and will spring back as soon as we can to present another exciting edition of our much-loved Fair.
From me, Caroline:
I have been trying to get clarification from Petersfield Town Council (who own the Festival Hall) on their interpretation of the Govt guidelines. They are apprehensively allowing a "Vintage, Militaria and Antiques Fair" tomorrow, 27th Sept, advertised as having 50 table-top stalls. They say they will monitor it closely, and stop entry if it gets too full (but they have no idea how many people will equate to "too full"!) They will hopefully be able to give a clearer ruling about fairs/markets in Petersfield after this test case.
To help everyone get clarification, in an effort to understand the current variation of local venue/council attitudes to antiques fairs, on Friday I emailed 37 organisers, asking for any concrete results of their venue negotiations. I hope to then collate them all and come up with a logical standard formula which might be suggested by these organisers to the venues as a template for dealing with smaller antiques fairs & similar events throughout the country. I had hoped this might clarify the situation, but my hopes were dashed by the following:
Subsequently, and in answer to my email to organisers:
From Matthew Adams - adamsantiquesfairs@gmail.com (this is just one paragraph of his detailed reply)
Although this week''s legislation does not yet appear to have been published, Boris Johnson was quite adamant in his speech to the House on Tuesday that conference, events and sporting venues will not be allowed to reopen on 1 October (2 minutes in on this video here). The ban is on the venue and not the organiser. Although some venues might not think that it applies to them, once the legislation is published, I do feel that they would not risk the massive fines that could be imposed should they be seen to be in breach of the said legislation. Whether fines would be payable by organisers as well as by the venues remains to be seen. Anyone thinking that they might be able to slip through unnoticed is taking a massive financial risk and is likely to breach the terms of their insurance policy as well.
Comment: Our only hope is that some smaller venues might not be considered "conference, events and sporting venues", so might not be subject to this new ban. Cross fingers!
Sorry to end on such a downer, but realistically, it doesn''t sound good for table-top or standfitted fairs!
Keep and safe (and please send me some news or stories!)
Caroline P
Dear Dealers
This initial email is to the 400 or so dealers on my potential exhibitor list, but I am developing a further trade mailing list, to include fair organisers, restorers, the odd auctioneer and PR people involved particularly i Antiques & Art Fairs. They will join into this "Post" in a few days.
We all feel isolated and apprehensive as to the future. . . who can tell what will the the eventual outcome? But it''s the here and now that we need to address - what can we, especially fair-going dealers, do to keep up some activity and stop going stir crazy?
Straightforward online sales are all very well, but I fear the public''s focus is not on antiques & fine art just now! Though I can see many quietly sneaking off to Buying Antiques, Antiques Atlas, 2 Collect and the like.
I hope to send out regular posts with contributions from any of you with something positive and encouraging to say... I will not alter your words, but hope you will bear in mind your thoughts will be sent to many and varied people in the Trade.
Is there something we can do between us which will keep our sense of community and sanity if not our turnover....?
Please reply with a paragraph or two and perhaps one picture which will positively lighten our spirits and broaden our outlook.
I propose to collate / curate your contributions and send them out including the contributor''s email address - once I have about 10 contributions - so don''t all rush at once - we have months to put together positive ideas, and disseminate them around the trade.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Take care, and keep well
Caroline P
From Helen Yourston of B2B Events - helen@b2bevents.info
Looking back from the end of June to the beginning of March we could not have predicted such an uncertain future. Being ever the optimists we were convinced that by now we would be back to our regular fairs and on the trail of travelling from Kent to Malvern and then Scotland. How wrong we were.
It doesn’t matter which side of the fence in the Antiques Industry you are this has been an extreme roller coaster of a journey for all of us, and in some cases it is not over by a long way yet. Thank goodness that some dealers have managed to embrace social media, keeping themselves going. We could have gone down the road of virtual fairs; it was too much for us, especially as there was only one of us working, the rest of our staff having been furloughed.
Planning for the future as an organiser is fraught with difficulty. We have spent the last three months planning to have fairs in May, June and July. By planning this entails changing all our floor plans to social distance dealers from each other, putting in one-way systems, organising PPE equipment for our staff. You name it we’ve done it. Then talking with the show grounds agreeing new Health & Safety arrangements then BOOM the Government and now Council’s knocked us back.
JULY WE ARE BACK At long last a glimmer of hope came from the Government that we would be able to get our Detling two day fair up and running in July. Again all the plans and H&S paperwork done, the show ground in Kent had agreed everything and was quite happy with our plans. We had contacted our dealers to find out if they were willing to stand at the event, yes we had a go situation.
By now local Council’s were given the authority to say if an event could go ahead, with the Police also having to be contacted. The result was a smaller BOOM. The word came back that we couldn’t have our inside stall holders. However we could have an all-outdoor event.
Back to the drawing board. An outside two-day event just wasn’t viable BUT a one-day was, just about.
SO for Sunday 19th July we are offering the DETLING OUTDOOR ANTIQUES MARKET. Let’s just pray for good weather. Details are posted on our website www.b2bevents.info.
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Other organisers, please tell us all how you are progressing with plans and permissions
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Now, dealers'' contributions - and very interesting they are!
From Mike & Hilary Emeny, Art of the Imagination - booksillustrated@aol.com
I think that most people that know me would say that I am an optimist. When I look at our current situation I am generally optimistic but have had serious pessimistic thoughts about how we do business in this current generation. Considering why and how we might fail is not a negative attitude to take. Survival in nature and in business is more likely when you look around at the dangers so that you can make a plan to overcome them if they present themselves. So, I will make a couple of points that I think we should all consider as both Hilary and I have done with our business over the years.
Ten years ago we attended a LAPADA conference as we where starting to experience a downturn in our sales. At the time, we could see that we seemed to be competing with the auction houses as they where actively going after the retail market and our fair going clients were getting older with fewer younger people attending. We put the attendance decline down to another attack this industry was enduring coming from how we were being represented by TV shows. So we spent a lot of time considering what we needed to change in our business.
We were pleased to see that one of the speakers at the LAPADA conference was a retail brand specialist; she spoke very well as a person looking into our market without all the historical baggage. We enjoyed her talk immensely as she addressed many of the concerns we had. The conference lecture stirred up raw emotions as she pointed out that the word ''Antique'' together with the word ''Dealer'' was not helping our industry at all. Her point was that words have associated meanings, which lead to people reacting in a certain way. It may be uncomfortable to hear, but that is no reason to not take a moment to consider if the point has merit. The words associated with Antique to us mean Valuable, Rare, Desirable, Historical etc and Dealer means Specialist, Businessman, Expert (maybe), etc. However, to many people outside our industry, Antique means Old Stuff, Ancient, Clutter, Granny''s Stuff and Dealer associates with Dodgy, Dell Boy, 2nd Hand Car Salesman, etc. To the younger generation it is simply not what they want and it is seen as very uncool.
We all know that our business is selling Antiques but we have to be like King Cunute - we know we cannot turn back the tide so we have to play the game. The word Antiques WILL come back into fashion but not for quite some time. We sell antiques because we see the value and beauty of the art and how it can enhance a home and enrich ones life. So I think that if fairs, and therefore our businesses, are to be a success we need to refresh our client base with younger, affluent clients and we need to bait the hook differently. Our fairs are places where they can find unique, green, beautiful, valuable and desirable objects. We need to brand and market fairs accordingly and dress our beloved word Antiques in pretty sheep''s clothing.
PS: I hesitated to write this as I feel I could be the object of hate mail :) I could have written about how we should focus on online strategies (which is VERY necessary) but fairs are very important to Art of the Imagination as a means to meet new people as well as build relationships.
PPS: After the Lapada conference we decided to trade under Art of the Imagination and it was the start of a rebranding exercise that definitely made a difference. We acted on the information given at the conference instead of resisting it. We also got our teeth into online marketing and now have two Facebook pages of around 11,000 followers each and mailing newsletter of over 5000. People have to reinvent their businesses or suffer a slow decline.
From Sally Honey, Opus Antiques - opusantiques@hotmail.co.uk
I’m really looking forward to getting back to fairs there’s nothing like meeting your customers in person. Many have become good friends over the years....However there is a lot of caution amongst them as to if and when they will return to visiting fairs again.......
At present I’m concentrating on my web site and having contact via phones and emails.
From Emma Duveen - duveen@duveen.plus.com
You asked how we saw the future. To be very honest, for me, the crystal ball has completely misted over.
On one hand there is nothing like placing an object in the hands of a customer, explaining to them face-to-face why it is fascinating and beautiful and seeing them trip off happily with something wonderful to enjoy. You are able to look the client in the eye, answer any questions and know that both of you are certain and content about the transaction. Deal done: splendid.
However, having been keen to get back to the relative simplicity of face-to-face dealing at Fairs, I do have major concerns, which will be shared by many. Will autumn Fairs be fantastic as all rush madly to spend their money on something lovely, having been locked away for so long? Or will it be that customers are still worried to be in a room with other people, have slipped out of the habit of Fair-going and stay away? None of us can guarantee success, we can only try to minimise risk. I do think Caroline has been very astute in looking for ways to cut overheads, thereby reducing our initial outlay and making it at least worth a roll of the dice.
The last 4 weeks have seen me wrestling with the ways of Instagram. I have a website but it is time-consuming and cumbersome. My teenage daughters have been nagging me for ages to "post it all on insta", to which my response has been "with 10+ big shows a year, a house to run and you lot to look after, tell me when I sleep?" Well, with husband also unable to work since mid-March, he''s assumed cooking duties and I''ve tackled Instagram.
It is not easy won business. I have spent at least 5 hours a day, every day on my phone accessing the site. The remaining hours have been devoted to getting stock unwrapped, photographing and repacking, answering queries, rushing to PO/calling couriers for quotes, rumaging for the perfect box and dealing with the weirdos.
My 18yr old said, "Mum, start each day by blocking the insta weirdos", apparently it''s just a fact of life on social media but it can be at best irksome and at worst threatening. It seems that despite being in C21st, women are still seen as prey on the web. Some are just sad, others fraudsters, there are the gigolos, those purveying illegal substances, the chancers out for cash and some who are positively nasty and quite possibly dangerous. One has to be ruthless and delete all immediately, unless they demonstrate from their posts a definitive interest in your sphere of interest. It is depressing to wake up to 30 new followers and have to delete 27 before the bizarre and weird messages start coming through but as teenage daughter says, "welcome to the C21st Mum".
In 4 weeks I have had interest : now oover 400 followers, (weirdos mostly weeded out), and posted over 150 objects. There are also problems. One customer decided she didn''t want something, then sent me a pic of an item damaged (when I know it hadn''t been previously), demanding a full refund plus postage and collection. She informed me that consumer law lays the onus on me to prove that the item wasn''t previously damaged - clearly she''s done this before - and has demanded another 2 pieces from my stock free-of-charge to make up for her ''inconvenience''. I suspect there may have been substitutions going on but it looks like, (short of spending big ££££ on a lawyer), I''ll have lost every way and had hours of horrid email correspondence on top.
So where does the future lie? I do not know. Sense says that one has to keep trying something, (despair & inaction bring no rewards), and that one has to minimise potential losses.
The good news is that dealers are posting lots of lovely views of their gardens, dogs and jam-making online, all which lift the spirits!
From Stephen Welbourne Fine Art - s_welbourne@sky.com
The first fair I did with you, Caroline, was at the Corn Exchange in Brighton I think early 80''s the second or third last you ran. It was at a moment of fantastic business for the trade as the pound was so weak versus the dollar.I walked down North Road before opening on the first day. and was staggered to see a massive queue extending all the way up New road.It was my first proper fair and we sold a few pictures and made a small profit.The furniture dealers however did fantastically well.
Sadly times have changed and I must say a word of thanks to all the organisers I have been involved with over the last few years to include yourself, Ingrid Nilson, Galloways, Works on Paper, and all at Clarion [Olympia and the NEC]. You have all done a terrific job often with barely enough support.
Regrettably at my tender age [70] I have decided to give up on fairs.It has been increasingly difficult for the end to justify the means.The customer base is dwindling and one is increasingly reliant at these events on a few loyal customers.
From Elizabeth Nicolson - emnicolson@googlemail.com
Everything you put in your last digest applies to me! You couldn’t have put it better. I love standing at the Fairs , Petersfield being my favourite, but having celebrated a significant birthday ( or rather not celebrated) is this the time to quit?
I would miss the whole business, the buying. the selling , and mainly the people, other dealers and customers, not forgetting the organisers.
In fact, having written all that makes me realise I do want to carry on. But maybe not until next year.
Your digests have been so interesting, I can only think of one really unpleasant encounter with a customer a few years ago at the NEC. when he told me he wasn’t there to make me rich! And he meant it.
From Frank Wilson - frank@WilsonsAntiques.com
I am 71 and due to the pandemic I have decided to retire from exhibiting at antique fairs. We are currently having a retirement sale at www.wilsonsantiques.com and welcome any trade offers.
My father started Wilsons Antiques in 1936 and for the last 53 years I have worked full time in the business.
I am still carrying out valuations, the latest, last month, on WhatsApp, in an apartment in central London.
Our van is being sold this month and our stock is slowly reducing, thanks mainly to our email mailing list.
As to the future, I will trade a little online, and I hope to spend more time sailing with my family in the Solent and occasionally over to France.
From Michael Moore - Restorer - moorerestore@hotmail.co.uk
I felt in your last newsletter a certain feeling of despondency about the current situation and I think something that we all would share. However, I do agree with you we must look to the future - whatever form this will take, who Knows?
Personally, I am looking forward to the prospect of getting out and about a bit more, attending fairs and buying and selling a bit as we go. Apart from the obvious work, and any feeling of uncertainty of how the day might go, attending a fair has always given us that feeling of "anticipation" and as dealers if we lose this then you might as well as fold up the sales table and retire to the armchair.
Whilst I appreciate, we all need to make a living from our activities I would miss getting together with fellow traders and enjoying the banter that is part of any event. The conversations "how is the day going" or the reassuring comments "it was good last time we did this event, perhaps it will be worth trying one more time" as well as the quiet celebration as you pack up with less stock and celebrate a "good day" all would be lost if we gave up now.
During the lockdown we have survived, and subsequently enjoyed, viewing and bidding "on-line" and succeeding in both some sales and some nice purchases. Mostly bought with the intention of adding to stock for our programme of Fairs which look to start in September. We are starting to look at other possible venues to try "New horizons" for possible sales. The hope is that organisers will be understanding of the tentative steps we are prepared to take and allow some flexibility in both the space and rents they hope to achieve. We wait and see.
So do please try and keep the newsletter going for the foreseeable future, I have found it interesting and although to date have not made a contribution, I have found it interesting and reassuring to hear the tales of others in a similar situation and how they are dealing with it.
From Susan Blacker, Fox House Fine Art - sales@foxhousefineart.co.uk
Thank you so much for taking the trouble to produce the Dealers'' Digest. I have really enjoyed reading it, and have been meaning to reply for weeks. Speaking to others, it seems quite common for the lockdown to induce a state of lethargy, whereby it becomes increasingly difficult to be motivated, and I think it had this effect on me.
I feel very sad that I did not get the chance to do my first ever Chelsea fair. I hope to get another opportunity. Exhibiting at fairs is stimulating in a way that virtual selling will never replace, and gaining knowledge and information from fellow exhibitors and members of the public is what makes me want to keep exhibiting. If I happen to make money, that is an added bonus. I remember when I first did fairs in the 1970s there was always a big queue on opening day, and I couldn''t write out my invoices quickly enough, but I don''t expect those days to return.
For the last few years I have been paying for a Verifone card machine, which I have to pay for monthly, and I know I am not getting value for money, especially when I have not made any sales for a while. I am just wondering if other dealers have signed up to any of the latest payment processors and what their experiences have been. Has anyone tried Apple Pay for instance?
The wonderful, addictive, thing about buying and selling antiques and works of art is that chance that you might find something special, that someone else has missed. It has happened to me on a few occasions, and I once stood at a very modest one-day, village hall fair in Oxfordshire to help out a friend. I didn''t sell a single thing all day, but I bought a little tumbler from the lady standing opposite, for £18. It was an example of early C18th Silesian swischengoldglas, painted with a hunting scene. The gold decoration is sandwiched between two layers of glass to protect it from rubbing. I then took a stand at a specialist glass fair, and sold to the best offer I received that day. It paid for a holiday to St Lucia.
From Ken Jacobsen, Old as Time - oldastime@hotmail.co.uk
Firstly, I would like to thank Caroline for providing and presenting this platform on which we could voice our opinions and experiences. It’s been both entertaining and informative.
Yes, the current environment is one of rejuvenation and anticipation. The Auctions are starting to operate, although many are providing a virtual auction option with viewing via the internet. A service which Lots Road of Chelsea have recently adopted. The out door Markets like Covent Garden, Spitalfields and Portobello are planning to open imminently.
However, there is still caution in my mind with many of the multi-day fairs cancelling their autumn events and should the Little Chelsea Fair in October be cancelled then I will be putting a line through 2020 with respect to selling at antique fairs. To overcome this loss of possible income I am working towards operating in a “Virtual Platform” to sell my collection to prospective clients and my existing client base. Initial reactions have been promising with sales from our collection using a pro-active approach, whilst our Repairs & Servicing service has been consistent throughout this period
Where do I see Old as Time in the next 5yrs? We will not divorce ourselves from the Multi-day Antique Fairs as the environment is a stimulating one. Alongside the fairs I realise that there has to be an alternative retail outlet. This cannot be a shop as the cost burden is too high, especially if we have another lockdown. The alternative is the virtual platform which allows us to demonstrate our collection to clients anywhere anytime whilst maintaining a healthy and safe environment.
Wishing everyone the best of health and success in the forthcoming period.
In case this is relevant to you, Casemate Display Case Hire (Candy & Simon Moss) are retiring after 33 years bringing cabinets to fairs.
They have ben invaluable to the multi-day fairs, always there, with a smile and cleaning cloths! We will miss them, but there remain Tableau Display and the new GR Cabinet Hire company to take up the slack. Candy and Simon will continue as exhibitors at some fairs with their mid-Century furniture & design (and probably a cabinet or two for sale too). I am sure you will all join me in wishing them well and look forward to seeing them as exhibitors soon.
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From Jane Alexander- Dovehouse Fine Antiques Fairs. www.dovehousefineantiquesfairs.com
Since my recent contribution two weeks ago, we were waiting to hear if our mid-summer fair at the Dorking Halls Antiques Fair could go ahead. Well, ‘curveball No.3’ arrived & sadly, August is cancelled but we press on to our Autumn schedule with a contingent of very enthusiastic stand holders at the ready and, for us, an eye on what ‘curveball’ may come our way.
Whilst we appreciate the theory behind the guidelines, the ‘curveballs’ & my frustration lies in the lack of continuity and interpretation. Sadly, several indoor events are unable to open including Caroline’s announcement for Petersfield and Royal Horticultural Halls for September due to the current guidelines limiting the number of people allowed in at any one time. (30)
In my case, the number of people was not referred to. Instead, it appears that if our event was historically called a ‘market’, (and therefore retail), you can open inside or out! I’m aware of two such indoor ‘antiques markets’, one local to Dorking, recently opened with social distancing compliances, which, I was told worked very smoothly and was very well attended… is it me?!
Undeterred, we are currently looking at alternate plans at the Dorking Halls for September (27th) if, once again refused, including plan B., a marquee.
So, whether it’s a ‘fair’ or ‘market’, how very reassuring it is to hear events are open, positive responses from stand holders, good attendance and most importantly, the level of purchases made. Love it or hate it, social media is fundamental to this profession and need to take full advantage of technologies to advertise/sell. But, I think we all would agree the buzz, pleasure and camaraderie cannot be replicated in attending live events & our 2 day London fair, the ‘Little Chelsea Decorative Arts & Antiques Fair’, on the 26th & 27th October 2020 also remains in place for the moment, (Inc. further guidelines from the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea ), followed by 8th & 9th March 2021.
Updates will be added to our website & social media for both events.
From Jeremy Dodd, Southern Clocks jd@southernclocks.co.uk
I was fascinated to see the contribution about Instagram fairs this morning on the Digest. I would love to take part and it is something that I have been tangentially been discussing with my social media consultant, i.e. how to sell on Insta.
It may be that I can get her to set this up for you at a fairly modest cost. I suspect it is a setup and teach-in process that is required, but as always with these things is not as complicated as it may first appear.
Instagram is certainly a good platform to use because it is so visual, so although part of Facebook, is definitely a better tool.
May I suggest regular Instagram fairs, say once a month. If it was me I would be selling it on the back of preparing ‘oven-ready’ (god I hate that term!) mailing list for fairs based on Instagram likes. It would not cost much to establish a design template for the newsletters and a subscription offering. I would suspect that you would only need a few subscribers to cover the modest cost.
Subscribers to your Instagram and info service would then receive say 10% off exhibitor fees when actual stands are booked. You will in any case be having to raise fees to accommodate social distancing requirements and the effects of fewer exhibitors, so it is a good opportunity to raise fees generally without regular exhibitors moaning.
OH NO Jeremy - I keep my stand prices right down and intend to continue thus - so I couldn''t afford discounts!
Jeremy continues: It is of course possible that the older and less agile marketers will drop out but I suspect that the majority will see that this is the inevitable way that selling is going and a combination between face2face and online is a good result.
So, what if I try to do an Instagram monthly fair, with participants paying a very small fee? Jeremy has a contact who might educate me to do this efficiently... What do YOU think?
Well, with the somewhat pessimistic news over the last couple of days, I begin to wonder if any fairs will work this autumn - Lets hope things will take an upward turn, and the Govt will give us some relevant guidelines,
In the meanwhile I hear Ingrid''s Petworth has, for the moment, been given the green light! I''m sure ou will join me in wishing her and the exhibitors every success!
Keep safe - and positive! Plus please send in your thoughts on future business for next week''s Digest
Caroline P
BADA exhibitors will be very reluctant to throw more money at Fairs which they think will not cover their costs. LAPADA is a very costly event – it will be particularly difficult to cover exhibitor costs there and the older clientele and foreign visitors will probably/definitely be absent. Cancellation until next year would be sensible in my opinion.
The economy is suffering – our stock is not essential and even wealthy clients, who have, amongst other things, seen their share portfolios devastated, maybe thinking twice about purchasing ‘luxury’ items in this climate.
All in all, a rather bleak outlook for the coming months in my opinion.
From Ken Jacobsen - oldastime@hotmail.co.uk
Remember an additional problem with fairs: the willingness and ability of non-UK buyers to return to our Fairs to procure either stock or personal items. Whilst trading from Grays The Mews most of my sales were with European or Asian customers, especially Chinese and Japanese nationals and domestic visitors were small.
You are getting this on Fridays from now on, as my new multiple emailing system from gmail only permits 500 "send"s per day.
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Louise Phillips?tells me that Annie Marchant's wonderful kitchenalia collection has gone to?Kiplin Hall in North Yorkshire. She assures us it's well worth a visit.?
But she has some important news of her own..
BADA Elects First Woman Chairman
The British Antique Dealers' Association (BADA) is delighted to announce the election of Louise Phillips as the Association's new Chairman. Her appointment marks the first time that a woman has held this position since the association was founded in 1918.?
Louise is a second-generation dealer in the company of Elaine Phillips Antiques, which was established by her mother (Elaine) in the 1960's, and specialises in 17th and 18th century oak furniture and associated decorative items. After a successful career in PR & Marketing in the fashion industry, Louise joined the family business in 1985, and was responsible for launching an interior design and project management service which runs in tandem and has represented major clients both in the UK and throughout Europe.
Based near Leyburn, North Yorkshire, Louise has played a very active role in the administration of the BADA serving as a Council Member and Northern Regional Representative since 2012, and more recently as Chairman of BADA's member-led PR & Marketing Committee. Louise will replace Chairman Michael Cohen, who will step down from the role after a seven-year tenure, on Tuesday 1 December 2020 at the BADA's AGM.
Speaking of her appointment, Louise said: "I am delighted and honoured to be given the opportunity to lead our association through the next phase of its development. It is more than 40 years since my mother was first elected to BADA membership in 1977 and 21 years since I was elected in my own right. "The closure of shops, fairs and exhibitions has presented tremendous challenges for the trade this year, but with the development of the Association's online marketplace?www.bada.org?we are seeing an encouraging increase in online sales, helping us reach new clients and customers worldwide. "2020 and the Covid pandemic has had a disastrous effect on the trade and speaking as a dealer whose sole income, like many dealers, is our business, it is essential that the BADA support our members and colleagues through the difficult months ahead. "One of my priorities as Chairman, once travel restrictions ease, will be to meet with all our members, particularly in the Provinces, to listen to and discuss their thoughts and expectations, so that I can be a voice not just for members of the British Antiques Dealers' Association but hopefully as a representative for the antiques trade as a whole."
I'm sure you will all join me in congratulating Louise, and wishing her well in her new position.
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Lennox Cato?would like to thank all those who messaged him with congratulations on his appointment as a Deputy Lieutenant of Kent.
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At Petersfield's Festival Hall there will be a?Vintage, Antiques & Militaria Fair?this Sunday 6th?December, 10am-4pm. This is a busy and flourishing table-top fair, but nothing to do with the Penman Antiques Fair which is planned for February 5-7. Cross fingers that we will not be suffering post-Christmas- madness lockdown at that time!
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Otherwise I have no contributions from anyone else.
My news is that I broke my right thumb - stops me from doing useful things like washing up, ?peeling potatoes, making beds etc - but also stops me from writing/addressing Christmas Cards or wrapping presents!? Damn useful at times!
Please send me something to publish next week!
Keep safe and enjoy some shopping!
Caroline P
As we are all isolating at home at the moment and there are no fairs, antique shops, markets or auctions open, the Dealers’ Digest is a great way to keep in touch with the antiques business and to read dealers’ stories. So here is mine!
I started out in the antiques business in 1982 running a small shop with a friend and business partner. This first shop was followed by a second and then a third. In 1990 I branched out on my own trading from an antiques centre and selling from Kempton Park Antiques Market, where I had a stand for 13 years. I used to get up at 4.30am twice a month and arrive at the market at 5.30 to set up, then the trade came in at 6.30. What heady days they were! I suppose I really cut my teeth at Kempton, learnt a great deal, made many great friends in the trade and established a London trade base to whom I still sell today.
Many moons have passed since those days of bargains everywhere and antiques that were so easy to sell. Both my business partner and I agreed, all that time ago that although we found lots of ‘goodies’ from other dealers, we usually did consistently well when we bought at auction. Things were oh so different then from now. We were well known at the local auction houses where we were treated as friends as well as customers.
Fast forward over thirty years and I am still dealing full time and still going to auctions. I say ‘going to auctions’ but this has dramatically changed. It is a very different buying business now, there is a certain anonymity to it all. I am computer literate and do alot of buying – viewing first or getting condition reports - and then bidding online. This is a much more efficient (sometimes!) but a more solitary way of buying. Instead of chatting, drinking coffee with colleagues and generally being sociable as one buys, you are stuck at home alone. Now don’t get me wrong this is a far more practical way of buying e.g if you have huge spaces between bids you can get on with other things, so you definitely use your time more efficiently.
All that said the online bidding technology was in its infancy when I started to use it to buy. This means we all had some glitches whether for those running the online bidding sites or those using it. However we have come a long way since then and my story really centres around how certain auction companies run their online bidding services and how they generally viewed those who are bidding and buying from them. I have always thought there were two customers for an auction house – the buyer and the seller. You can’t run an auction room without both.
Over the years I have cut down on the amount of different auction houses I buy from, choosing more local auction rooms from where I have been buying for decades. This said my nearest auction rooms are 20 minutes away, and then the next is three quarters of an hour away, so for the 45 minute run it is an hour and a half round trip which is not next door!
The auction room which is nearer to me has been the most helpful, grateful and professional rooms I could wish for. Having acknowledged I’ve spent a good deal with them, they never quibble when I ask for a complimentary catalogue and they go out of their way to help me on every visit e.g missing lot numbers, age of item etc. The other rooms which I have a difficult drive to get to (busy towns to go through etc) are the total opposite. They always seem to give the impression that I am SO lucky to be able to bid there. Very strange! I have sworn blind on many occasions I will never go back, but business not emotion must triumph and I have bought some excellent pieces over the years from them, although not without problems! Nevertheless when balancing up their inefficiency and some of the good buys I’ve had, I come down on the side of struggling on with them. This was some years ago.
Nowadays, things are very different because the online buying sites are much better technically and things only very occasionally go wrong. However, the dreaded Buyers’ Premium is a nightmare. It is now near enough to 30% + vat at some auction houses! It was non-existent when I started.
Unfortunately, because of the flood of programmes on television, which focus on antiques, the public have been encouraged to buy from auction houses instead of from dealers at fairs, shops and markets. This has made a big difference to the auction rooms which have hugely benefitted, but it has had a damaging effect on antiques dealers.
Nevertheless, we stagger on and we have to adapt. I now do a large amount of selling through my website and through my dealer base who know me and they do buy quite regularly.
I have exhibited at many of Caroline’s fairs over the years and enjoyed every minute of it and have always seemed to do very well! Unfortunately due to the ‘antique dealers’ disease (back problems) I have had to give up fairs, but despite over 35 years of dealing, I still love every minute and wouldn’t choose to do anything else!
Gill Coe www.gillcoeantiques.com
From Amelie Caswell (amelieandmelanie@hotmail.com)
How often have we heard the words "I have just come in" when talking to potential customers at a fair.
A real classic: I once stood at a fair in a very large rambling house with dealers set up in several small rooms. My stand was the last one in the last room. To get to it one had to pass through all of the other rooms.
Classic comment from the visitor "I have only just come in".
I couldn''t help it . My immediate response "You came in the back door then"
Another classic: "I have no more room" - when showing a Netsuke (two inches tall). "I would like to buy it but I don''t have the room"
My response "you live in a rabbit hutch then"
I have often thought of compiling a book on customers reasons not to buy. It would certainly make entertaining reading.
Best Wishes and Keep safe, Amelie Caswell
From LAPADA
LAPADA is producing a free webinar series on social media for art & antiques businesses. The live webinars are open for LAPADA members only, but recordings of the webinars are available to the wider trade in an effort to support dealers and help them find new opportunities online. If any dealers or arts businesses would like to receive links to watch the webinars online, they just need to enter their email address at www.lapada.org/webinars.
Please consider sending in a contribution for next week.... Keep safe
Caroline P
Advice on how to avoid injury if surprised by a Vetting Committee intent on downgrading your attributions or shredding your supporting provenances.
From Gay Hutson, former co-organiser of World of Watercolours then 20/21 British Art Fair
info@britishartfair.co.uk
Your entry from Derek Newman last week prompted me to get in touch with him and share memory lane.
The World of Watercolours, founded as you know, by Ivan Winstone, Heather McConnell and myself was really special. No-one gives Ivan the credit for it – but it was his idea which he got from Ken Fry on the Antique Collector as their watercolour supplement was so successful! Most ideas are not original!
I am looking forward to visiting Petworth this weekend as it will be good to go to an event at last!
Reports from Ardingly: From Foraidh Tremaine | Membership Officer of LAPADA - ftremaine@lapada.org
We have been reading the views and experiences of dealers expressed in this newsletter with interest in these challenging times for the trade and beyond. We''ve been hugely impressed by both the energy and creativity shown by dealers in effort to reach new markets and ''keep calm and carry on'' , so in what would have been the immediate run up to our annual LAPADA Art & Antiques Fair, we''d like to share some of the things we''ve been working on over the past several months for LAPADA members and the wider trade!
We are excited to announce the introduction of our latest development to LAPADA.org: a ‘Buy it Now’ button, powered by Stripe, available to use for items under £5,000. As always, we take no commission and there is no fee for the use of this feature. This new e-commerce feature comes as a part of our continued hard work to improve our online offering including, as you may have noticed, a new look for the website, improvements to our mobile site and an ongoing SEO update.
September also heralds the return of our LAPADA Leaders webinars, a series of conversations between our CEO Freya Simms and leading cultural lights on the future of the art, culture and design worlds post Covid.
The next talk, on Thursday 24th at 11:00 BST, coincides with what would have been the LAPADA Fair. The webinar will feature founder of the Inchbald School of Design, Jacqueline Duncan OBE, Country Life Editor Giles Kime and co-founders of Tollgard Design Group, Staffan and Monique Tollgard in a special conversation celebrating 60 years of the Inchbald. The panellists will discuss the evolution of the interior design profession globally over the past half century as well as their predictions for the future. Registration can be found at https://lapada.org/lapadaleaders/
I am educated enough to know that I could be asymptomatic and still give you the virus. No, I don’t “live in fear” of the virus; I just want to be part of the solution, not the problem. I don’t feel like the “government is controlling me” any more than when I wear a seat belt, don''t drive drunk, obey the speed limit mostly lol, or stop at a red light. The world doesn’t revolve around me. It’s not all about me and my comfort. If we all could follow these simple steps, the virus could be under control, and businesses back open. Wearing a mask doesn’t make me weak, scared, stupid, or even “controlled.” It makes me considerate. When you think about how you look, how uncomfortable it is, or what others think of you, just imagine someone close to you - a child, a father, a mother, aunt, uncle, or grandparent - choking on a respirator, alone without you or any family member allowed at bedside.36th Dealers Digest, 28th Nov
Firstly, apologies to many of you for missed Digests - my 18-year-old website and mass emailer developed progressive dementia about a month ago, and apparently many of you have been without these Digests!
If you would like a catch-up, I can forward the 31st-35th issues - just reply & ask.
NB this is experimentally being sent from my new gmail address, so you may be getting duplicates, if so please reply asking for one to be removed from my lists.
?I am gradually changing to this new address - tho both will run for some while.? Please note and use cepenman44@gmail.com in future, thank you.
From Lennox Cato - part 2 of the story at the first LAPADA Fair at Royal College of Art:
So, carrying on from last week, having had a very enjoyable evening at the fair, I left to load my car up with my purchases and proceed on my way home to Lewes where I lived at that time. Whilst driving on one of the many dual carriageways out of London the call of nature became very apparent. My foot pushed the accelerator a little more, anxious to get home or find a quiet spot! Out of the corner of my eye I thought I noticed a police car in hiding. To err on the side of caution I quickly braked and this obviously caused suspicion as I was now being followed by said police car with the blue lights flashing! I literally stopped on a sixpence and jumped out of the car. I walked towards the two officers and as they approached me one asked 'have you been drinking sir?' to which I replied sheepishly 'yes sir'. I then realised my cut off tie was now east and west from the knot and things were not looking too hopeful. I came out in a cold sweat with my life flashing before me as I questioned myself, how am I going to get home, and what about the valuable antiques in my car?
The police officers promptly produced a breathalyser, I had never seen or used one of these before and nervously, in fact now shaking with fear, I breathed into it.
I would describe the two officers as one 'good cop' and one 'bad cop'. The bad cop aggressively told me along with many expletives to 'BLOW INTO IT PROPERLY' which I did on a second attempt. While he kept an eye on his watch counting the seconds as the lights flickered from red to amber, ?my heart was literally in my mouth. The good cop then said 'yes sir, you have been drinking, you admitted you had been drinking as it shows on this device, amber, so drive home carefully'!
Which I did completely forgetting my initial call of nature! I have never driven so slow in my life, I could have been stopped again for driving so slow! But what a lucky escape I had!
..
I,? Caroline P,? also have alarming memories of this 1995 fair!
It all began 2 days before the fair opened, when overseeing the standfitting. Not simple, as we had a mix of normal standfitting and enormous movable panels that wedged between the floor and the (high) ceiling. Once these were in place, we found their leading edges were very unsightly tongue and grooved aluminium with daubs of white paint across them. So I bought great lengths of ribbon to stick over the edges. But they had to be stuck from the top - 12 or 14 ft up by the ceiling. The standfitters and everyone had gone home, it was just Barbara my stalwart assistant and me, and the tallest step ladder I've ever seen indoors!? It was a supreme effort for what seemed a lifetime to make the ribbon stay up.? So high up, all the day's heat had risen so atop the ladder it was unbearably hot, and I couldn't make the ribbon stick. So stressful
Eventually we finished about 11pm.? As the RCA nightguard would be anywhere in the building, we were given the key to the front door. Exhausted and famished we tried in vain to lock the glass doors - locks both at ground level and way u p high. To no avail. We sat on the steps and cried our eyes out, trying to raise the night guard to lock u s out. Eventually he turned u p and we could leave. We were staying in my flat in Chelsea, so went to a caf? in Kings Rd to get a drink and some food..only to discover the purse and flat keys were still in the RCA!? So back we went, again raised the guard to let us in for keys and money. By this time every caf? and pub had shut, so we returned to the flat to share 2 slices of bread and a bottle of lager!
Next day we had to greet keen exhibitors and their carriers at 8am. Moving in went OK, then the following day was vetting, the lovely vetters' lunch, the tie incident, then final preps for the Preview which was, I think 3pm, (to get buyers in before the wine dinking crowd). About 2pm the heavens opened. Cats and dogs continued to crash down from the heavens for hours. There was no entrance marquee outside (as used more recently), just indoors, the front desk and opposite the smallest, tallest coats cloakroom you can imagine.??
Everyone in the 200 long queue had a dripping umbrella & soaking raincoat, and was anxiously pushing to get in, dry and see this wondrous new fair. We did employ and RCA student as a cloakroom lady. You can imagine she was swiftly overwhelmed, soaked and crying.
Barbara and I went in to help. Now, as most of you know, neither Barbara nor I are exactly slim.? The cloakroom felt as though it was 14ft high and 4ft deep. Double racks of coatrails, one higher behind the other - almost unreachable.? Well, it was chaos. How we only lost about 10 umbrellas I shall never know. This went on from 3pm to 8pm. Not a good day!??
Now I think about it, we should have dragged in Heather Collingwood, LAPDA director and employee and exactly the required height and thinness! Where was she.?
..
From Jill Perry, Norfolk Decorative Antiques? -? enquiries@norfolkdecorativeantiques.co.uk
In 2003 we were rookie lighting dealers with very little stock and high hopes , after a successful Antiques and Audacity at Arundel run by Dec fair breakaway Jan Hicks we finally plucked up courage to ask Patricia Harvey if we could be allowed to do take a stand at The April Decorative Fair at Battersea in 2004 . Little did we know she wasn't best pleased about the Arundel event and we were treated to the full force of her magnificent 'humbling' ?before finally ?agreeing we could give it a go .? God we were grateful.?
?
We took up residence in the holiday inn at Colliers Wood, ?promptly had our van broken into and half the stock trailed across Colliers Wood recreation ground. ?That fair was the start of Norfolk Decorative Antiques' climb up the ladder. We didn't miss a fair until 2018, ? by then 70 and a bit knackered.?
?
?Fairs are the life blood of our industry and we shall always be grateful to the Decfair and all the fair organisers we have been in contact with - ?other fairs equally good and equally exciting , a few duds but ?who hasn't. ?Stories from the Dec fair are legion, ?many ?unrepeatable !! ?A world away from the corporate treadmill. ? It's been a truly wonderful 15 years.? Hoping ?for another 15.?
..
Last week I mentioned Annie Marchant (who died in the Spring), and her Wenderton Antiques' kitchenalia. - Carolyn Stoddart Scott has supplied some facts:
Her stock is going to a Museum in North Yorkshire & will be shown temporarily from February until a permanent space is ready which she has left funds for!? ? Can't remember the name of the Museum but it was in the ATG.
But I'm sure I was contacted by someone who said a whole lot was going to auction this December.?
---------
From Roger Garlick? -? garlickvictoria@gmail.com
It's a small world.
Back in the day when we were able to travel freely around the world, my oldest friend, who had emigrated to Australia, said whilst visiting us here "when are you coming to visit us in Aussie?". On th spur of the moment I said that we would make the trip in the following January.
Following a good Christmas period,? off we set, Victoria and I, staying in Kuala Lumper for three days on the way out, more of that at a later date. We arrived in Australia at the beginning of a heat wave but being Poms we did not let that stop us. Our friends took us to many places, too many wineries methinks, and on a particularly hot day, touching 48% in the shade, our friends took us to a one horse town, meaning just one small street and nothing else, to an antique shop that they had heard was there. Being rather mean I would have to say that I had been to better bring and buy sales BUT at the front of the premises was a rather muddled display cabinet and right in the middle was what we were sure was a Russian silver and gilt enamel belt and the price was unbelievably low. We couldn't believe our eyes. Roger as usual did his rather hard bargaining and the belt was wrapped and handed over.
Fast forward and we are back in a very cold UK at the Shepton Mallet antiques fair. We did notice quite a few Aussies around but thought nothing more about it until one young man stopped at out stand and asked where we had purchased the belt which we had proudly displayed. When we told him that we had purchased it at a small Antiques shop in the town, the name of which sadly escapes me..? it turned out that he had been the auctioneer who had sold it to the dealer who sold it to us!!
More stories please for next week!
Keep safe
Caroline
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Or if you have duplicates, please reply with the duplicated address in the subject line. Thank you.?
We have, rather, to focus on the mood of the nation and how we can reassure our customers when the time comes for us to be back selling. The current confusion over social distancing will only worsen in future, so I strongly feel that whatever arrangements are to be implemented at fairs, we need to detail these for customers to reassure them in advance, so that they can make their own risk assessment before venturing into the fair.
Schredds of London - www.schredds.com - Good collectable silver
Manor Farm Barn, Sandra Evans - www.mfbantiques.com - country furniture, treen & metalware
Chester''s Farm Antiques, Tom Parry - www.cfantiques.co.uk - Decorative Arts, esp ceramics
J. A. Yarwood Antiques and Fine Art - www.yarwood-antiques.com – Objets vertu
Derek Newman, Newman Fine Art - www.newmanfineart.co.uk - watercolours (only moderate success)
Ashleigh House Fine Art - via Ebay & Etsy.
but I know more are selling reasonably well - please let me know - you could be missing a trick, some Digest readers are hunting for fresh stock!
Take care
Caroline P
From David and Frances, Saltwood Antiques - saltwoodantiques@btinternet.com
Before the virus, we were selling around twenty percent on-line and all smaller items, the likes of flintlock pistols or carvings.
As soon as the fairs stopped, we went for a major push, including going onto the Loveantiques website. It was a little slow at first, but we have sold an amazing variety of items and been introduced to a new set of customers.
There is no substitute for face to face selling, if you love and know about the object, then you can put that over to the customer, but we have learned to do that via the telephone and internet.
The downside is the packing, a large seventeenth Century alter Crucifix or sixty antique chemists bottles can be a challenge with bubble wrap and a cardboard box the size of an American aircraft carrier, but so far, all have arrived on time and in one piece.
Internet sales are going to become a larger part of the way we sell, but it’s still nice to see and talk to the buyer.
Anyone requiring help with setting up is welcome to give us a ring. 01303 238851 / 07530 224928
From Jill Perry, Norfolk Decorative Antiques - enquiries@norfolkdecorativeantiques.co.ukFrom Ian Rodgers, Drove House Antiques - Ian@DHA
We created a web site for our Chinese porcelain around 16 years ago, which we developed ourselves. A few years ago we made the decision to change from developing the web site ourselves to using a commercial web site provider. We were aware that our web site was increasingly looking old fashioned compared with the current generation of web sites. It was also taking more time than I was willing to devote to just maintaining the web site software (time wasted not selling antiques!).
After a review, we went with ph9 ( https://www.antiqueswebdesign.com ) and are very happy with them, but I’m sure that other providers are available. We retain control of the web site content: the look and feel of the web site, the words and the pictures are input by us, but the ‘behind-the-scenes’ software gubbins is done for us to ensure that the web site continues to work well and look good across desktop computers, laptops, tablets and phones and the plethora of web browsers. ph9 also do work to try to ensure the best possible rankings in search engines. The cost is less than a cup of coffee per day.
We now have two web sites, one for our Chinese porcelain and Chinese textiles ( www.drovehouseantiques.com ) and another for our Parian figures and busts ( www.antiqueparian.com ). We looked at one or two of the on-line portals but the costs didn’t make sense for us compared to the costs and advantages of having our own web sites.
Nearly the end of Summer, and still no indoor fairs to speak of!
From Saltwood Antiques - saltwoodantiques@btinternet.com
When March began to fall off the edge of the cliff and we went over to a 100% internet sales, we were in an uncharted land.
Well here we are coming to the end of August and we feel that the time spent pushing our items onto the web has been a huge success.
We have been doing Kempton and Ardingly, this business needs face to face, but you can have a good chat on the phone, sell via picture and description and offer return if not happy.
The stranger items we have, sell within hours on the net, but I would say that the big problem is shipping.
The delivery companies are not interested in antiques and if it comes to swords or antique pistols, then it’s hard to send.
I will not ship flintlock’s or any other antique pistols outside of the UK. Swords are the same.
Some of our American customers can not understand why we can not send these items to them, to give you an example, we shipped a flintlock pistol to Canada, the customs over there held it and wanted paperwork from the maker? Since he died a long time ago, we could not do it, so they sent it back?
Apart from that, as long as you are willing to use the normal delivery companies and pack well, then no problem.
It has been interesting that the last major fair had to be one day only and just trade.
When things get back to “more normal”, there is a case to look at more one day fairs and for the entrance costs to be lower, why try to get too much out of the trade, when you could have more coming through at a lower fee.
The other destructive side to our trade is television.
When , O when will we stop having a love in with these dreadful shows, a so called “expert”, comes into the shop, offers 50% off the ticket price and then puts it in a general sale and bombs on it.
The public watching it thinks, these items are overpriced, why should I bother!
Every time a BBC or ITV producer comes near our stand, they get told to move on, come back Arthur Negus, all is forgiven.
Anyway, besides all that, it’s still fun, otherwise I’d be an estate agent………lol
From Derek Newman, Newman Fine Art - derek@newmanfineart.co.uk
My first fair was the inaugural ‘World of Watercolours’ held at the Park Lane Hotel in 1986. That year was also when I went into partnership with my late mother, Heather Newman, who established her business in 1968 at her home in Gloucestershire.
Previously, apart from holding regular bi-annual exhibitions, she had only shown at a couple of local antique fairs in Cheltenham in the 1970’s, so this was the first major event either of us had participated in.
Chaired by Jeremy Maas, exhibitors were selected by invitation only, so although this was a considerable accolade it was daunting to come up to London and show one’s wares alongside many superior peers of long standing. Up to that point and particularly being based in the country, our client base had been built up largely in the general locality and although there was cross over with other dealers, I remember we agonised over who to invite (and not!) to the fair, fearing our carefully cultivated and jealously guarded clients would suddenly have their eyes opened to the wonders on the stands of the ‘opposition’ completely forgetting that the reverse would also apply, which was largely to our benefit as we sold many watercolours to Londoners who would otherwise never have been aware of us! It was truly the catalyst that opened up the market and the realisation that a speciality fair which would draw many visitors because of the numbers of dealers participating was of major benefit, not detriment.
The wonderful Art Deco ballroom of the Park Lane Hotel descends from street level to two levels below. Our small stand was on the balcony, opposite that of the distinguished authority and dealer Christopher Wood, who exhibited Victorian watercolours of both a quality and price that we could only marvel at.
It took us hours to hang and furnish our stand, something I can complete in a fraction of the time today, with many more pictures stacked behind it than were on show. The task completed and exhausted, we staggered up into the hotel lobby to check into the twin room we had booked as part of the package deal that was on offer to exhibitors. A porter kindly accompanied us up to the room and showed us in, only to be confronted by a double bed! Now I was close to my mother, but not that close! Acute embarrassment all round, so much so that the hotel upgraded us to a palatial suite overlooking Green Park complete with large sitting room, two enormous bedrooms with accompanying bathrooms and shower heads the size of dustbin lids!
It proved an auspicious start to what turned out to be a highly successful event. The first day queues stretched down Piccadilly, people were clamouring to buy pictures and I spent most of my time scrabbling around behind the stand to retrieve replacements for those that we had sold. No sooner had I returned from the packing station than my mother had sold another one; unfortunately it is difficult to work up such a sweat at a fair these days!
It is of personal achievement that I was the only dealer that went on to exhibit consecutively for 32 years through the entire evolution of the fair until its demise as ‘The Works on Paper’ in 2018, being Chairman of the Advisory Committee myself for 13 of those years. Through that time many strong personal relationships have formed and endured with both clients and fellow dealers, many of whom are sadly no longer with us. The Fair Opener back in 1986 was Joanna Lumley, who wrote in the catalogue: “Water colours are almost always cheaper than oils. It can only be because the paints are cheaper, for it seems to me that mastery of pen and wash and water colour is mastery of painting itself”
From Ken Jacobsen, Old as Time - oldastime@hotmail.co.uk
I have never been reluctant to share my experience in antique clocks, or seek information about a piece that I have not handled before and cannot get data on from reference books and the internet. One such instant occurred at a regular visit to the Olympia Arts & Antiques Fair. I had acquired a twin faced Carriage Clock for which I could not find any reference information on and there was an exhibitor that always had a good collection of Carriage Clocks and Timepieces. I approached him with mobile phone in hand and enquired whether he had seen one of these before. His response was yes and I have a five faced Carriage Clock which he was repairing. There we were comparing images and he freely gave me the info required, that piece is now in the possession of one of my long-standing collectors.
We often see each other on my visit to this fair and exchange comments. This is an element of the live fair which Virtual Fairs cannot emulate and which most dealers thrive on.
Looking forward to 2021 when we can return to these fairs.
From Caroline Penman - cpenman@penman-fairs.co.uk
As we gradually and falteringly lift ourselves from the first Covid lockdown (and dread the 2nd coming), proper Antiques Fairs in the old format are very rare, problematic, and frankly, risky for all concerned!
As an inveterate fair organiser for over 50 years, embracing all levels, from Ardingly to Chelsea, I cannot contemplate leaving the antiques trade or the fairs world. I have since March been struggling to see my way forward, and have, at last, found a satisfying niche that will fit both the new world and my old bones….
I had hoped for a 3-pronged attack, but realised just in time that one prong was over-ambitious…
As of old:
Penman Antiques Fairs: (live events) will almost certainly be limited to the traditional Petersfield Antiques Fair (Feb & Sept); plus the Chelsea Antiques Fair which I will run in association with a company in 2021, and this company will take over running Chelsea from 2022 onwards. (negotiations are underway – details to follow soon). Proposed 2021 dates: Petersfield: Feb 5-7, & Sept 3-5 (plus possibly a June Petrsfield, in case February is not allowed). Chelsea probably 17-21 March
The project I have decided against:
Penman Virtual Fairs: I seriously considered starting a new website offering online monthly fresh selections of quality antiques & fine art. However, after due investigation, I realise that it would be an enormous and stressful task, doing work I would not necessarily enjoy. I would never be able to compete with the very sophisticated antiques portals currently available. So, sadly, I have abandoned this idea, though in a small way I can send virtual fair info to my clients – (you may have noticed my recent mailshot re September Petersfield). I do most sincerely thank those who helped me with this project, and all those excellent suggestions for titles for the new website - much appreciated!
My New Project:
Fair Friends - a loose association of current and former fair dealers who want to keep up their friendships. So many of us have been doing the fairs as much for the conviviality and camaraderie as for the profit. We are dispersed far and wide - so without fairs it''s hard to get to see eachother. Therefore I intend to establish various area groups of Fair Friends, each enjoying local get-togethers which would also be open to dealers from other areas who would travel perhaps long distances for social and dealing gratification.
These meetings could vary from lunches, swap-shop meets, talks, dinners etc to Roadshows or Fairs with some retailing involved. (perhaps in Thame’s Spread Eagle Hotel) where the social side is as important as the buying and selling, at an affordable price.
This is therefore to invite replies from anyone who might become a Fair Friend.
Please reply with your home town (so we can establish areas) and any suggestions. Then, we will see what areas will work and the numbers involved. This would embrace every level of dealer, from fleamarkets to top flight fine art fairs. Plus those in ancillary services. We are all in the same boat!
Covid permitting, we could perhaps start with a nation-wide opening meeting - perhaps at the NEC during Antiques For Everyone in November?
I am compiling more details and ideas which I will send to those who reply to confirm interest in becoming a Fair Friend (and giving home town please).
This “Dealers’ Digest” can incorporate the newsletter for Fair Friends, while continuing to give dealers a weekly platform on which to air their views, ideas and stories. Please keep them coming!
Kind regards
Caroline P
From Jane Alexander- Dovehouse Fine Antiques Fairs. dovehouseantiquesfairs@gmail.com
I’m sure my fellow organisers would agree, whilst putting together and managing events we deal with all sorts of ‘curveballs’ that come our way. In March the world closedown and for the next 3 months, globally, we experienced one of the most troubling periods in a great many years. However, it is incredibly uplifting to once again see the re-opening of daily life albeit under the ‘new normal’.
Our 2day fair, the ‘Little Chelsea Decorative Arts & Antiques Fair’, was some time ahead at the end of October 2020 & we continue to hold these dates managing the developments as they come along. Our scheduled monthly 2020 dates for the Dorking Halls Antiques Fair would normally exclude mid-summer. Ever the optimist, I decided to contact my stand holders in April with the idea to hold a mid-summer fair at Dorking in July/ August. Even by month 2 of ‘Lockdown’, the response was met with great enthusiasm & was touched by how appreciated the fairs are & the comradery valued among my stand holders. For several dealers’ social media has been a great lifeline but they definitely missed the buzz & enjoyment of the event, meeting customers & the friendships made.
Greatly encouraged, I planned as much as I could according to how the guidelines developed. ‘Curveball’ No. 2 however, centred on the venue & when they would be able to open again. Dorking Halls have just reopened with limited use and so pleased we have agreed on Sunday 16th August for the mid-summer fair. However, curveball No.3, as this is an indoor event, the venue still await permission from local Government, and I await with bated breath!
No time is wasted and whether it is August or not, social distancing will be with us for a long while yet. Health & safety is paramount, and compliances are adhered to giving all attendance the confidence it is ‘safe’ places to visit.
So, while we source amongst other things, gloves, screens & sanitizers, a new website is also under way & grateful to everyone for the encouragement & continued support for what is going to be a ‘new normal’ at the fairs for all of us.
Everything is crossed for Sunday 16th August for the mid-summer fair at the Dorking Halls & keep everyone posted via our website / social media etc. www.dovehousefineantiquesfairs.com
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From Dan Leyland, MAD Events, Antiques for Everyone
Next week I hope to post some specific and positive news about the autumn Art & Antiques for Everyone
----
Apparently there will shortly be a new set of Guidelines published specifically for Fairs and Exhibitions! Dan is obviously waiting for this before sending out his info.
I will go through the guidelines and include a report next week.
However I note that this coming week he is running the Virtual Art & Antiques For Everyone, when the live fair would have been held, from 16th July... www.antiquesforeveryone.co.uk
In an attempt to assess the likelihood of customers visiting imminent fairs, I plan in early August to email my visitor database for Petersfield (1700) and ask:
"What would your attitude be to attending my proposed Petersfield Antiques Fair on September 4-6? (It will have every conceivable measure in place for a covid-safe environment.) If you are likely to visit, or if you think its too early to attend fairs, please reply. (No need to reply if you will wait and see how things progress)."
I will publish the results for everyone to draw their own conclusions (bearing in mind the visitor profile for Petersfield is quite senior and cautious).
Lastly and very sadly I have to report the death of Jonathan Hearne, who for 30 years (along with David Asher) ran the Antiques advertising department of Country Life. A lovely man who will be sorely missed.
Please write something for me to publish next week - your views on how we can make the most of the current situation, opinions, memories or plans... Thank you.
Caroline P
From Gisela James - gisela@brutus.co.uk
I do not think that you should reproach yourself for having published Adam Lippitt’s letter. After all, we live in a democracy and all opinions should be heard, even if they are completely at variance with mainstream opinion. I would have thought that the antique dealer community is a broad minded church who can shrug off such unusual opinions. Usually the stories are hugely entertaining and keep my spirits up.
I''m sorry to hear that publishing one of my emails has caused you difficulty.
All of the views I expressed can be found in published in articles in any serious newspaper, for example the Telegraph. They were not particularly radical, simply contrary to the current fashionable orthodoxy. Many leading scientists, economists, consultants and GPs agree with my views. I think you were right to publish and please don''t let any objections undermine your belief in democracy.
The Covid crisis has split opinion across the country in the way that Brexit did. However everyone should respect the right of anyone to disagree with their point of view and express that disagreement without complaint. Disagreement and debate are central to our democratic process and freedom. All that said I do hope none of this has caused any damage to your client relationships.
---
Putting politics aside, here are other contributions:
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Please send your contributions, including pics (not of stock please!) in reply to this Digest.
Keep safe, and plan wisely for the future
Caroline
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Welcome to the 40th Dealers Digest, the last of 2020
I hope you all had a safe and traditional Christmas with nearest and dearest only.
This from John Howard:
I have just received my desk diary for 2021 (from the ATG?) which prompted me to look back at my entries for this year. So many plans cancelled, who would have thought at the beginning of this year the events which would unfold? My 2021 diary sitsin pristine state on my desk and at present I am resisting the temptation to enter any planned dates. Thankfully there is some dawning light denoting a better time ahead. I was sent a quote from a poem of Alfred Lord Tennyson's which seems appropriate: "Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come whispering it will be happier!"
..
From Janet Pruce, pruce.janet@gmail.com
In reply to Deco Dave, about the success or
otherwise of fairs:
When studying for my Certificate in Retail
Management Principals way back in the late 1960s the mantra for a successful
business was drummed into us.
Have the right goods In
the right place At the right time At the
right price
Add to this have a sound knowledge of your stock
and an enthusiasm for it's unique selling points. I am sure you
will all agree that this is still the case.
Fairs organisers can only contribute to success
by encouraging the right people, ensuring the event has a convivial atmosphere,
lots of friendly and helpful staff and the occasional glass of wine. In other
words, it is quality not quantity that counts.
Let's hope that in 2021 we can put all this into
practice.
Keep smiling and keep safe
...
From Alf Flemming
Re`..Christmas stories... and although not entirely Christmas`ey it certainly happened as I remember it when we, A.Fleming (Southsea)Ltd, were exhibiting at one of the early Bob Soper Goodwood House Christmas Fairs in the early 90`s , always a major Christmas Fair and well in the West Sussex social calendar , a very popular time and venue and amongst all the memories of Fairs past it is one I always remember with a chuckle....
.Opening day, morning ... in the splendid setting inside Goodwood House, ..Christmas decorations up , Fair very full and heaving,... (just like a Penman/ Petersfield !!) when we heard an announcement from the organiser... "Will Mr and Mrs Smith (cannot remember their real name !) please come to the front desk at the entrance".. we carried on serving .. then again.. the same announcement " Will Mr and Mrs Smith please come to the front desk as soon as possible" .. again we carry on serving .. then again finally we hear Bob`s voice .. this time with some pleading " for the third time will Mr and Mrs Smith PLEASE report to the front desk urgently..( longish pause)... YOUR HELECOPTER IS WAITING "..!! ... a big groan went up and then some cheering..!!!... aah ..those were the days !!! and don't remember being able to top that for an announcement !!
So sorry to hear about Petersfield/ February and lets hope things get back to normal sometime in 2021 ? .. cant believe we did our last fair in Petrfield in September 2009... where has the time gone ?.. happy memories ....
..
Looking to the New Year's early events:
Ingrid Nilson invites us all to view her Virtual Mayfair Antiques & Fie Art Fair
The ninth edition of The Mayfair Antiques & Fine Art Fair that usually takes place annually, at the London Marriott Hotel Grosvenor Square in London, will be in a new guise and can be found online at www.mayfairfair.com and on various social media channels - Facebook @AntiquesDealersFairLtd, Twitter and Instagram @ADFLfairs).
https://www.antiquesnews.co.uk/news.php?/The_Virtual_Mayfair_Antiques_&_Fine_Art_Fair_-_7_-_10_January_2021/&article=1274
Still supported by influential market leader for Mayfair property, Wetherell, The Virtual Mayfair Antiques & Fine Art Fair is keeping in line with the usual physical event and exhibitors.
Ingrid said, "Usually the first fine art and antiques fair held in London each year, our fair attracts collectors, interior designer and discerning individuals from around the world. We successfully staged our Petworth Park fair in September, but that was outdoors, albeit in a marquee. This fair, usually being in a 5-star hotel in Mayfair, won't work that way, so we have decided to safely hold an online version.
"This virtual event opens up our annual London fair to an even wider audience without them even having to leave home, let alone jump on a plane, train or boat or book into a hotel. We will miss interacting with visitors at this event, but hope to be able to meet everyone again in better times. At least as people aren't spending their time and money visiting London, they may feel inclined to buy something to enjoy or enhance their homes."
...
From Amanda Palmer, Antiques@ The George (Burford) - dr.amanda.palmer@icloud.com
I am one of the people enjoying Caroline''s regular newsletter and although I''m no longer a regular exhibitor at fairs these days, thought I could maybe share some reminiscences of a time when they were my mainstay, and in doing so help Caroline out with copy for the newsletter.
My recollections go back to the 1970s when I traded mostly in English porcelain as Amanda Macfarlane Antiques. My then partner and I kept ourselves afloat by doing 3 and 4-day dateline Fairs while first he, and then I, studied for a degree as mature students. We had a little boy and we shared manning the fairs between us. I could not tell you how many of these fairs were run by Caroline but suffice it to say that when I decided to do Burford Fair as a one-off in 2018, to promote the existence of my Antiques Centre in the town, I recognised her immediately.
Mostly, the big fairs I did were in the southern half of Britain; for example Malvern, Brighton, Landrindod Wells and Cheltenham, the exception being Buxton, plus multiple one-day fairs in Winchester, Ampfield, Ascot, Abingdon, the New Forest and Newbury. It was the hey day for fairs as anyone older than 60 with a passion for buying or selling will remember. Long queues of eager collectors waiting at opening time and a rush of sales activity for the first few hours of day one that meant the later days of a 4-day fair did not have to yield anything to make it a good fair.
It was a great time to be dealing in antiques and with selling being brisk it meant I was always out and about buying. This was tricky though because there was always a little boy in tow. Whilst we shared manning the fairs between us with one of us staying overnight in our camper van, the buying was left mostly to me. And this little boy was not a passive child that could be taken into shops, not with any chance of concentrating anyway. On one occasion at an open market he got bored in his buggy waiting beside me whilst I browsed a stall and started bouncing up and down, toppling the buggy and himself down a grassy embankment. I got a lot of disapproving looks for that! So, determined to buy, I spent many hours rattling round southern England in my A30 viewing auctions.
The only way I could achieve that was to park in the auction grounds within sight of the door (quite easy to do in those days), give him a Tommy Tippee juice drink in one hand and a Bickiepeg in the other, which would keep him occupied long enough for me to dash in and view things already marked off on my catalogue as of interest. I knew I had 15 minutes before both the drink and the biscuit would be gone. I''m sure I''d be prosecuted if I did that these days!. I would then drive home, work out what I wanted to buy and phone to leave bids with the porter. Come the auction, I''d be on the phone again and setting off to collect what I''d won.
Later on, as he became older he sometimes stayed with my parents for one-day fairs and we could enjoy working at them together but the longer ones were always done by just one of us. Inevitably, being a 'fairs regular' at that time, I would often be at the same fair as another porcelain dealer whose main venues were usually further north than mine. On the last day we would open our VAT Special Scheme stock books and swap tea bowls, cups and saucers and saucer dishes, price for price, that were sticking in our area in order to give them an airing in a different part of the country. Sure enough, next time we met up we invariably found that something we''d had for months has sold pretty much immediately in a new region.
Of course there were both highlights and spills along the way. Once I did ?100-worth of damage to a parked car at a fair by turning too quickly in the van. On another occasion, it was very near the end of a 3-day fair when the back of a foldover card table, tastefully propped open against the pegboard wall to provide a dark backdrop for three richly gilded mid19c comports, was nudged by mistake and came crashing down, sending the three comports flying across the floor with a sound never to be forgotten! The whole room fell completely silent followed by plenty of curious eyes and many commiserations.
I miss those days when it was pretty much guaranteed that you would sell a clock garniture, domed birds, moon flasks or a pair of incised Doulton vases if you''d taken them. I miss the ease with which things of quality could be bought at auction. But I don''t miss the lifting, setting up and breaking down of the stall and that is why, after a career in academia that followed the degree I read for, I returned to buying and selling twenty years ago, but from fixed premises.
I''m very glad many of you still do fairs though! For me the pleasure is still there, attending amid the bustle, buying stock for the shop. Arriving with the same excitement as fifty years ago, cash in hand that I''m hoping to spend, weighing up my market and deciding what I should buy. There''s no greater pleasure than doing the buying! It''s the thrill of the chase, using accumulated knowledge and experience, relying on personal judgment. That is common ground for all dealers. Long may the public support us!
...
The Vetters in last week's 1980s photo in the Corn Exchange in Brighton: Left to right:
Ivor Ingall, Christopher Bangs, John Bird, Lennox Cato, David Gibson, David Pullen - all looking so young! And hidden at the back it might be Bob Harris??
...
Now to the QUIZ:
It is attached, as a pdf and in Word, so you can either print and write or download it and type.
BUT YOU ARE ON YOUR HONOUR TO ANSWER FROM YOUR BRAIN,
not from the Internet!
Answers next week.
In the meanwhile, Happy New Year!
Caroline
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