East Midlands

COMPETING against the likes of Carlton Ware and Crown Ducal for market share, cheerful mass-produced ceramics were what the prolific Fieldings Crown Devon factory did best. The best of the second best, if you like.

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

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.

WHAT should the art world do when the going gets tough? Many in the trade sit back and whine. Others go into battle. Those who do get up from their derrières and practise a little innovation and lots of enthusiasm often do well in the most difficult of periods.

PEAK District dealers Peter and Sonia Allerston also provide an interior design service from their premises at Elmton, Derbyshire. Now they have combined the two areas to take their own show on the road to drum up business.

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.

NEWARK antiques centre Trade Space have announced that they have ceased trading and have no assets to pay off debts.

LINCOLNSHIRE organiser Ruth Thurman, who operates as Field Dog Fairs, holds her tenth annual antiques and collectors fair at Grimsthorpe Castle, near Bourne from July 30 to August 1.

INTERNET enquiries do not always translate into bids but Golding Young (15% buyer's premium) received enquiries from as far afield as India, America and Australia for pieces among the 1100 lots illustrated on their website for their May 5 sale.

TRADE Space, the antiques trade warehouse, have promised to set up shop in smaller premises after closing their Newark premises suddenly.

LEADING the sale conducted by John Taylors (12% buyer’s premium) in Louth on June 1 was a marine barometer by Rodgerson & Co.

THE received wisdom of the art market tells us that heavily restored paintings attract little demand from the trade at auction. But sometimes a subject is just too commercial for dealers to pass by, such as this Arthur Wardle (1864-1947) canvas, right, of four terrier puppies, Mischief in Quadruplet, which came up for sale at the Nottingham rooms of Mellors & Kirk (15% buyer’s premium) back on April 23.

LONG before Heineken, Allsopp & Sons’ Burton ale had a claim to be the beer which reached the parts other beers could not reach – bottles of it accompanied Sir George Strong Nares’ expedition attempting to reach the South Pole in 1875.

THE organisers of the Newark International Antiques and Collectors’ Fair say more than 100 dealers have taken them up on an offer of a 50 per cent price break for those who do not currently stand at the giant fair.

AS USUAL at the March 18-19 sale held by Neales (15% buyer's premium), the spring event was led in price terms by furniture – but in terms of selling rates and the degree of competition in the room, the Nottingham event was more notable for the smalls and collectables.

WHEN a small, unattributed Old Master painting sells at £30,000 in the provinces the S-word usually gets plenty of use.

ONE of the country’s oldest and most respected annual fixtures, the strictly vetted and datelined Buxton Antiques Fair, celebrates its 40th anniversary at the Pavilion Gardens of the Derbyshire spa town from May 12 to 16.

As in other markets, that of samplers has its peculiarities. While condition and craftsmanship – or rather craftsgirlship – are important they are not always paramount.

THE organisers of the Newark International Antiques and Collectors’ Fair are to give a 50 per cent price break to dealers who do not currently stand at the giant fair.

ONE can always rely upon Lincolnshire auctioneer Chris Richardson of Richardsons, Bourne (15% buyer's premium) for a straight up-and-down opinion of business in his area.