However, the important thing is that the quality you can expect from the nigh-on 70 exhibitors, many of them Snape veterans, remains the same and this quality is matched by the setting. Snape Maltings, Suffolk must be among the most idyllic backdrops for any fair anywhere.
Sue Ede of Somerset-based Cooper Antiques Fairs, who took over the fair last year, is stamping her own identity on the fixture, but she says the new name also reflects the growing national trend of the move towards a more open policy of allowing pieces of later date if the quality is right.
“This adds depth and excitement to our fair, but what remains supreme is quality and our fair at Snape firmly remains a strictly vetted event,” she says.
The official dateline is pre-1903, with the exception of silver, porcelain and paintings which are allowed to 1935, and jewellery, carpets and textiles to 1950.
Much is always made of how convivial and relaxing is the atmosphere at Snape, and it is true that both visitors and exhibitors thoroughly enjoy their stay in the Suffolk countryside. Snape may be a great day out but first and foremost it is a serious provincial antiques fair and it has proved its mettle over the years.
Business might not always seem spectacular at Snape, but its sleepy ambience belies consistently steady sales.
The fair itself takes place in a large tented pavilion beside the Maltings and this year it will link with the adjacent dining marquee.
Snape attracts dealers from all over the country but it has a strong quota of local exhibitors. Suffolk House Antiques are well known for their early oak and country furniture and fellow BADA members S.J. Webster Speakman, with 18th and early 19th century furniture, return after a break.
Barrington Causer Fine Art and Interiors from Norfolk make their Snape debut with French furniture, while other East Anglian standholders include Brightwell Antiques with Chinese Export porcelain, Xanthus Gallery from Norwich with Old Master drawings and one of the area’s best known specialists in 18th century furniture, BADA Council member David Gibbins.
Admission is £4.50.
Prepared to pack a Suffolk punch
FOR 35 years known simply as The Snape Antiques Fair, for its 36th annual staging, from July 17 to 20, East Anglia’s premier antiques event will be re-labelled the Snape Maltings Antiques and Fine Art Fair.
