South-east England

WELL-known at the quality fairs, Oriental specialists Glade Antiques hold their first selling exhibition at their Buckinghamshire galleries from May 4 to 18.

FOUNDED in 1990 by Devonshire-based Madeline Marchand, who operates as Fair Antiques, the next twice-yearly East Berkshire Antiques Fair will be held at the Berkshire College of Agriculture, near Maidenhead, over the Bank Holiday weekend of May 3 to 5.

HOLLOWAYS of Banbury are set to re-open their doors after a £100,000 refurbishment. The project, which started in January and was due for completion as the Antiques Trade Gazette went to press, focused on improving facilities for both viewings and the sales themselves.

FOR the fourth year the Oxfordshire specialist in sporting antiques Manfred Schotten and the London picture dealer Nick Potter have got together for a selling exhibition of golfing art and memorabilia, but for the first time this year the show, which runs until April 17, will be held at Mr Schotten’s shop in Burford.

HOTELIER Sarah Barrington, who owns the venue, still owns the fair, but David Smith of E.W. Services now organises the popular Thame Easter Antiques Fair, which will run at the Spread Eagle Hotel in the picturesque Oxfordshire town over the Easter weekend of April 18 to 20.

IF THERE is one objet d’art that best characterises the antiques market at present it is the curate’s egg – good in parts, but bad overall. The flawed ovum’s brighter regions encompass most low-value collectables – ceramics included.

PEOPLE are always coming up with new fairs, very few of them exciting, but last week I heard of one to be launched this spring, which does seem to have more than just a bit of flair. Boldly called Antiques & Audacity at Arundel Castle, it is organised by an outfit called Zygo.

The Red House, the former home of designer William Morris acquired last month by the National Trust, is due to open to the public in Bexleyheath later this summer. But aficionados of the Arts and Crafts movement who cannot bear to wait that long should take a look at the Clarke Gammon sale in Guildford on February 25, where the residual contents of the Victorian house are being dispersed.

UK: Hamptons’ sale of Antiquarian & Modern Books and Maps at 11am on Thursday, February 13 will be a sad occasion both for the auctioneers and local book buyers. For years Thorpe’s of Guildford, under the late Charles Traylen, have been a familiar face at Hamptons auctions, and for much longer local bibliophiles have spent many a happy hour in the first floor barn of a room at the shop.

MEDIA star and Deco expert Eric Knowles officially cut the ribbon when popular Oxfordshire antiques centre The Swan at Tetsworth unveiled its new Art Deco Showroom on January 13.

A £5600 National Art Collections Fund grant has enabled the Bate Collection of Musical Instruments at Oxford University to keep a handsome Baroque trumpet with a legend attached.

THE Society of Fine Art Auctioneers have agreed to accredit the Southampton Institute’s BA (Hons) Fine Arts Valuation degree as an approved entry route to professional qualification within the Society.

Full militarisation of a collapsing German economy towards the end of the First World War resulted in the country’s famous toy makers struggling for raw materials. Richard Steiff, director of the eponymous bear factory, was forced to find an alternative fabric to mohair, an unobtainable luxury, so that production could continue in 1919.

CHESHIRE auctioneers Peter Wilson, (15% buyer’s premium) found it hard going at their November 27-28 sale at Nantwich with only 60 per cent of the 720 lots getting away – but where obvious quality was on offer, bidders were keen enough.

LARS Tharp officially declared Rupert Toovey’s huge new Sussex saleroom open at last week’s public viewing. Mr Tharp, who is a consultant expert to the auctioneers, echoed Mr Toovey’s own sentiments that his firm’s commitment to such a large undertaking showed how much confidence they had in the future of provincial auctioneering.

Coming up on December 11, 12 and 13 is Rupert Toovey & Co’s Sale of Antiques, Fine Art & Collectors’ Items, which will be the inaugural sale at their new Spring Gardens salerooms in Washington, West Sussex.

Antique dealers, interior designers or those with an eye to stylish decor in their own homes all need recourse to supplies of antique style furnishing fabrics whether it is to recover that Edwardian settee, recreate a 17th century tapestry-lined interior or give a period feel to those worn-out seats on a set of Regency chairs.

RUPERT Toovey launches his huge new saleroom in Sussex in a week, Dreweatt Neate have just completed a major revamp of their Donnington Priory rooms near Newbury and a host of other salerooms around the country have announced new facilities, upgrades and launches. Here we detail some of these changes, which indicate that however concerned many may be about the state of the UK antiques business, there is confidence out there and the determination to prosper through improved service.

THE sale at Amersham Auction Rooms (15 per cent buyer’s premium) on October 3 had a number of items with collector appeal – none more so than this Wemyss cat, right, a speciality within a speciality. The vendors had no knowledge of the value of the 123/4in (32cm) black and grey cat but bidders at Buckinghamshire didn’t need the Wemyss Ware Made in England painted mark to the base to recognise it for what it was and the cat sold to a local dealer at £4000.

THAT the Berkshire auctioneers Law Fine Art could garner more than 1000 lots, sell more than 70 per cent of them and reach a total of £160,0000 for this latest of their thrice-yearly ceramics and glass sales says as much about Mark Law’s and Nicholas Lyne’s operation as it does for the general strength of ceramics in these generally difficult times.