Regional Fairs

AS Easter approaches life is picking up apace on the provincial fairs scene.

“SWINDERBY goes it alone, a week before Newark,” was the headline in the ATG’s October 23 issue last year. With dmg’s Newark ditching their Monday and Tuesday slot in favour of a Thursday to Saturday event (February 3-5) this put Swallow Fairs’ at RAF Swinderby a full week ahead with their Thursday to Sunday show on January 28-30.

“FAIRS here are not as big by any means as those in the UK. The biggest regular fairs would have between 30 and 45 dealers and even the annual equivalent of a LAPADA fair would only have about 40 dealers or so.”

Whether you are an aficionado of antiques, Contemporary art, photography, antiquarian books or all of the above, Cologne aims to cater for your needs later this month. The Rhineland city mounts a trio of fairs running concurrently at the city’s Rheinhallen from February 23-27.

GOING further afield, The South African Antique Dealers Association hold their national fair in Cape Town on February 19 and 20 with a gala opening on the evening of February 18.

AFTER 50 years at Manhattan’s Seventh Regiment Armory, Park Avenue at 67th Street, it is little wonder that the Winter Antiques Show is the favourite fair of many New Yorkers – and, increasingly, for many others.

CARMARTHEN’S own Towy Antiques Fairs ended the year on a high note with good sales across the board at their Christmas Carmarthen Antiques & Collectors’ Fair, held at the local showground on December 11 and 12.

CONSOLIDATING his comeback, Reg Cooper, who now operates as Caminade Antiques Fairs, encountered a bit of old-fashioned fair wars skulduggery at his second Oxfordshire Antiques Fair, held from December 10 to 12 at Heythrop Park.

UNTIL this Sunday (October 17), the second Art Deco Fair to be organised by Woburn Abbey Antiques Centre runs in the Russell, Howland and Bedford Rooms of the North Court of Woburn Abbey.

DEALER and, more recently, fair organiser, Jan Hicks moves to the grounds of Loseley Park, a 16th century house near Guildford, Surrey, for her third Antiques & Audacity fair from May 12 to 15 next year.

IT looks very much like the end of the road for one of our long-running provincial fixtures, the Surrey Antiques Fair, the 36th annual staging of which was held from October 2 to 5 last year.

VETERAN organiser Fred Hynds of Wakefield Ceramics Fairs holds a ceramics event at Burford School, Burford, Oxfordshire this weekend on October 2 and 3.

ACCORDING to Hertfordshire organiser Paul Bishop, who works as Oxbridge Fairs, the attendance was up at his fourth Cambridge Glass Fair, held at Chilford Hall Vineyard on September 12.

SOMETHING for nothing is seldom attainable but always desirable and David Fletcher of Unicorn Fairs promises just that at his Lancashire fixture on Sunday October 10.

DERBYSHIRE dealer and now organiser, Nicholas Gent started Prestige Ceramics Fairs last June when he took over the London Ceramics Fair at the Lancaster Gate Thistle Hotel from veteran specialist fairs promoter Fred Hynds. He will be back in the capital next January, but, in the meantime, he launches a new event nearer home with the first Derbyshire Ceramics Fair at the Cavendish Hall, Chatsworth on October 9 and 10.

MORE good news for standholders, this time from Ruth Thurman of Field Dog Fairs.

SOME weeks ago, I reported that preparations were going well for Robert Bailey’s 54th annual Northern Antiques Fair which this year leaves Harrogate and moves to, arguably, the most prestigious venue in the county, Harewood House, near Leeds, stately home of Lord and Lady Harewood.

HERTFORDSHIRE organiser Paul Bishop, who founded Oxbridge Fairs to mount specialist glass events, holds his fourth Cambridge Glass Fair at Chilford Hall Vineyard, Linton, Cambridgeshire this Sunday (September 12) and, with 100 tables, it is fully booked.

INNOVATIVE Oxfordshire dealers The Country Seat may be best known as furniture specialists, but they are increasingly turning their focus towards 19th and 20th century design.

ARGUABLY the most popular of the five events a year held by Towy Antiques Fairs at the United Counties Showground, Carmarthen is the September staging. The approaching event on the weekend of September 11 and 12 has been fully booked with its full complement of 180 exhibitors since early in the year.