And later this month from August 24 to 26, for the second year Mrs Foster hosts Antiques For Everyone – Glasgow at the city’s Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre.
Last summer’s launch proved a triumph for Mrs Foster who got it right in one and finally proved that a large quality fair could be held in Scotland. Her event was warmly embraced by the Scottish trade and attracted more than 10,000 visitors. She could well do even better this year with an exhibitor tally of more than 170 compared to 110 at the launch.
Among some familiar names joining this year are London specialists in Russian and French precious objects Shapiro, Chester rug dealer Uri Jacobi, Haynes Fine Art from Worcestershire and Anne Campbell Macinnes from France with fine old engravings.
Not surprisingly many exhibitors will focus on items of Scottish interest, none more so than Mrs Campbell Macinnes, who will offer a comprehensive collection of 17th to early 20th century prints of Glasgow, varying in style from small intimate engravings to a superb Clarke aquatint view of 1824 and the grandiose woodblock panorama published as a supplement to the Illustrated London News of March 26, 1864.
London picture dealers Campbell Wilson will highlight two examples of Pre-Raphaelite art by Phoebe Anna Traquair (1852-1936), one of the leading Scottish artists of the genre. Both depict angels and were painted in 1885; they cost around £50,000 for the two.
Becca Gauldie from Abernyte has set aside a range of Mauchline ware, and many of the very strong Scottish contingent of exhibitors will stock that perennial local favourite, work in the Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts style.
For example, specialists in Scottish Arts and Crafts Decorative Arts at Doune will take to Glasgow a silver teapot made by Hukin and Heath and designed by Dr Christopher Dresser; a series of 1903 nursery postcards by Jesse Marion King and a Glasgow brass wall sconce of c.1900 by Marion Henderson Wilson.
However, it is not just the home dealers who realise the potential of Nouveau and Arts and Crafts north of the border. Afford Decorative Arts, a North Warwickshire specialist in the field, was a late signing to Section 1 and will bring work by among others Gallé, Loetz, Knox and Liberty.
In keeping with the Antiques For Everyone tradition, the Glasgow fair will be divided into Section 1 and the slightly less smart Section 2; all stock is vetted and with just a few exceptions everything pre-dates 1940. Admission is £5.
Any time, any place…
NOWADAYS Antiques For Everyone seems to be antiques for everywhere, which proves that a successful formula will travel. At the beginning of July Fran Foster of Birmingham’s Centre Exhibitions, the organiser who pioneered that formula, for the first time took her fair to Manchester; then from August 2 to 5 she was back at her Birmingham base for the summer version of the thrice-yearly Antiques For Everyone at the NEC.
