Fairs and Markets

RECOMMENDED by Fiona Knapp, who has recently designed a range of jewellery for the Biba label, as one of the best places to buy gemstones in London, the quarterly Rock and Gem Show is held at Kempton Park Racecourse with the next scheduled for October 21 and 22.

JAY Fairs’ Joy O’Meara is holding her Winter Antiques and Collectors’ Fleamarket at Didcot Civic Hall, Didcot, Oxfordshire on Sunday October 8.

A LONGSTANDING tradition going back over 30 years has resulted in an annual antiques fair in Cranleigh, Surrey supporting Leonard Cheshire, the UK’s largest charity for the disabled, which takes place this year on Saturday October 14 at Cranleigh Village Hall.

EVER since the recognition in 1855 of the potential of a 93-acre site close to the Devon town of Newton Abbot, there’s been a fine tradition of competitive horseracing.

FINCHCOCKS, a Georgian mansion near Goudhurst in Kent, now the Finchcocks Music Museum, is home to owner and pianist Richard Burnett’s collection of more than 100 historic keyboard instruments, many in full playing condition.

THE new owners of Atlantic Antiques have set out to reassure dealers at Antiquarius, The Mall in Islington and Rogers Antiques Gallery in Portobello about plans for the future. Following last week’s ATG report, they say that there will be no significant changes or rent rises, that the centres have enjoyed a recent revival and that they will concentrate on letting several unoccupied properties acquired with the portfolio.

BEAD-collecting tends to fall between jewellery and tribal art and is often overlooked as a collecting area in its own right.

THE TILES and Architectural Ceramics Society (TACS) is holding its annual antique tile fair at St Jude’s Church Hall, Mapperley, Nottingham on Saturday September 30.

IN Nottinghamshire from Saturday October 7 to Saturday October 14 , it’s one hectic week for antiques and collectors’ fairs. Buyers can spend the week rushing around nine venues on a mighty buying spree, including the Newark and Swinderby Fairs.

THE Bloomsbury Postcard and Collectors Fair is now in its 22nd year and is, say organisers IPM Promotions, the largest monthly postcard fair in the world with more than 120 tables selling all types of paper collectables.

THROUGHOUT the 19th century, Burnley was one of the world’s largest producers of cotton, with many mills built alongside the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. Just north of the town, Harle Syke became the most important weaving village in Lancashire.

OPENED on August 26 by Tim Wonnacott is the new £1.2m Peterfield Antique Village in Gosfield, Essex where £20,000 of trade was done on the day by the 236 dealers working at the centre’s 12 shops and from the cabinets.

THREE of London’s longest established antiques centres have changed hands following the acquisition of Atlantic Properties Ltd by London & Associated Properties PLC.

THE Whitewebbs Museum of Transport is holding its annual antique and collectors’ fair at the museum in Whitewebbs Road, Enfield on Sunday October 22.

DESCRIBED on their website as a place to find “Designer Secondhand Goods of the 20th Century”, Les Puces du Design is a popular street event held biannually in Paris for the last 15 years.

BEYOND France is the name of Maud Lombard’s linen company, but it is actually Hungary where Maud sources her homespun, handspun vintage linens in and around the village of Nagynyarad in the south west of the country, near the city of Pecs.

LAST week's fire at the Royal Academy building at 6 Burlington Gardens is unlikely to affect the fairs scheduled to be held at the premises next year.

THIEVES have raided a fair in Belgium and stolen antique jewellery from one of Europe's leading dealers in period jewellery.

CLARION Arts, the owners and organisers of the three annual Olympia fairs in West London, have reaffirmed their commitment to the Spring Olympia and appointed a dedicated show manager for that troubled event.

Atlantique City, the self-styled World’s Largest Indoor Antiques and Collectibles Show, has introduced a VIP ticket package for collectors wishing to enter the fair a day early.