Fairs and Markets

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.

AFTER two and a half years of exile from organising (following the sale of Cooper Antiques Fairs to Sue Ede) Reg Cooper, is delighted to be back on the scene.

OVERLAPPING with the start of the Biennale (September 15-19) will be the third annual Parcours des Mondes, a Left Bank gallery trail featuring 50 tribal art dealers.

CHELSEA antiques centre Antiquarius has been looking a bit tired of late but its new manager Neil Jackson is determined to put the pep back into the enterprise, which was launched at 131-141 King’s Road, SW3 in 1970 by antiques market pioneer Bennie Gray and is now owned by Atlantic Antiques Centres.

ANTIQUES never have a low profile in Harrogate, but over the next few weeks they will dominate the North Yorkshire town with three fairs in the vicinity and the numerous antiques shops and galleries making a special effort to impress the autumn visitors, traditionally many of them antiques tourists.

A DEALER from Melbourne, Australia was one of the first through the doors, and certainly the most welcome visitor at Caroline Penman’s first Bury St. Edmunds Antiques Fair, held at the Athenaeum in the Suffolk market town from September 3 to 5.

OMENS could not be better for the 20/21 British Art Fair, which, from September 15 to 19, returns to its roots at the Royal College of Art, Kensington Gore, London SW7 after a couple of years down the road at The Commonwealth Institute.

JUST a taster for one of the greatest antiques shows on earth, the XX11 Paris Biennale Des Antiquaires, which will run at the Carrousel du Louvre in the heart of the French capital from September 15 to 28, with the vernissage on September 14.

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.

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.

AS usual, the London Photograph Fair is fully booked for the event this Sunday (September 12) at the Bonnington Hotel in London’s Bloomsbury, WC2.

FOUNDED in 1950, and still one of the capital’s most familiar antiques events, The Chelsea Antiques Fair has marked the beginning of the autumn anti-ques season for decades, as it will again when from September 17 to 26 it runs at its usual venue, Chelsea Old Town Hall in the King’s Road, London SW3.

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.

TIMES may be tough at fairs, but that does not stop organisers launching new ones, nor dealers giving them a go.

BUSINESS proved agonisingly slow for many of the exhibitors at Antiques For Everyone - Earls Court Two, held in West London from August 19 to 22. Apparently, there were sales on the opening day but by the third afternoon there was much talk in the hall that this event would not be held next year.

HIGH-profile dealers Reindeer Antiques, who have a shop in Kensington Church Street, London W8 and a large complex in Northamptonshire, are to convert part of the latter into the Reindeer Antiques Centre.

LAPADA have abandoned Claridge’s as the venue for their London fair but plans for the launch of their LAPADA Autumn Antiques & Fine Art Fair are well advanced and well received by members of our largest trade association.

AFTER four years of organising fairs at the Bournemouth Pavilion, the Hampshire-based organisers Valerie and Ken Sleeney, believe the wealthy town and hinterland has more to offer.

ANDREW Morris is to be the new chief executive of Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre Group, taking over from Barry Cleverdon who retires next year.

SHAME on veteran organiser Cindy Mainwaring for mentioning the ‘C’ word when the summer is barely out.