Despite fears that the £100 per head cost of dinner and drinks would discourage many of the shortlisted candidates from attending the black tie event, the ballroom was filled almost to capacity with 250 guests – about half of them dealers or auctioneers, the rest of them drawn from the corporate fields of publishing, accountancy, e-commerce and law which have grown up around the art and antiques community in recent years.
Michael Grade, the non-executive chairman of Octopus publishing (parent company of the organisers Miller’s) was the first to take the rostrum and spoke for all present when he said that such an opportunity for the art and antiques trade to congratulate themselves was long overdue. Chairman of the judging panel Eric Knowles continued the theme by saying that personally he had been waiting 25 years for this moment, and then presented the 22 awards, many of which had been sponsored by the companies whose logos beamed down on the assembled from the walls of the ballroom – Invaluable, Miller’s Club, Antiquesweb, QXL and BBC Homes and Antiques Magazine.
Unlike other awards, there were no petulant refuseniks, no cash prizes, no longwinded speeches of thanks or even controversial winners. The criteria by which Eric Knowles and the 11 judges selected the winners were far from arbitrary – consistent quality of stock and excellence of service – but most of the candidates were happy simply to have made the shortlist, while the winners would not necessarily have considered themselves better dealers or auctioneers than their respected rivals of many years.
The climax of proceedings was the award of Antiques Personality of the Year which, in the absence of any shortlist, should have been the most difficult to predict, but in fact came as no surprise at all. “I was never interested in antiques until I met my wife,” quipped Henry Sandon in his acceptance speech.
The organisers admitted that not all categories of antique dealing had been considered, and they hope to include pictures and antiquarian books in next year’s awards.
General Antique Dealers
London
Patricia Harvey
Church Street
England
Witney Antiques
Witney
Wales
Country Antiques
Kidwelly
Carmarthenshire
Scotland
Georgian Antiques
Edinburgh
Northern Ireland
Ballinderry Antiques
Ballinderry Upper
Nr Lisburn
Specialist
Antique Dealers
Furniture
Avon Antiques
Bradford on Avon
Ceramics
Jonathan Horne
Kensington Church St
London
Clocks, Watches & Barometers
Derek Roberts
Tonbridge
Kent
Decorative Arts
New Century
Kensington Church St
London
Silver & Plate
Marks Antiques
Curzon Street
London
Glass
Jeanette Hayhurst
Kensington Church Street
London
Collectables
Cobwebs
Southampton
Oriental
S. Marchant & Sons
Kensington Church Street
London
Jewellery
Wartski
Grafton Street
London
Auction Houses
London
Christie’s South Kensington
London
England
Dreweatt Neate
Donnington Priory
Newbury,
Berkshire
Wales
Wingetts
Wrexham
Scotland
Lyon & Turnbull
Edinburgh
Northern Ireland
Temple Auctions
Lisburn
ASSOCIATED
AWARDS
Fair of the Year
British Antique Dealers Association
Antiques Personality
of the Year
Henry Sandon
Best Antiques Town/Village
Brighton
