Harrogate

MAKING it even more of an antiquesfest than usual in Harrogate, running at the same time as Louise Walker’s fair (but closing one day earlier on May 2) is local organiser Galloway Antiques Fairs’ The Old Swan Hotel Antiques Fair in Swan Road. The hotel is just a short stroll from The International Centre.

ESSEX organiser Robert Bailey travelled North at the end of December and saw the new year in at Harrogate where from January 2 to 4 he held his Harrogate Pavilions Antiques and Fine Art Fair.

WITH an exhibitor list well down on last year, Essex organiser Robert Bailey’s 53rd Northern Antiques Fair at Harrogate from September 17 to 21 did not enjoy a vintage staging, with a number of exhibitors expressing disappointment at the attendance and general level of business.

Bailey, BADA and local firm all in action making September a month the town will remember: Well-used to antiques as they are, the citizens of Harrogate will be spoilt for choice this month with two major fairs in different parts of town, mercifully with a five-day gap between them.

IF his 34th Cheshire Autumn Antiques and Fine Art Fair at Tatton Park over the weekend of September 4 to 7 was an indicator then Robert Bailey’s Harrogate fair should turn over nicely.

MURMURS around the trade indicate that business at fairs is easier out of London than in the capital, which bodes well for one of our top provincial events, The Harrogate Antique and Fine Art Fair held from May 1 to 5 at the Harrogate International Centre, bang in the centre of town.

THE country’s most famous antiques dealer David Dickinson, now a television superstar, did not work his magic on George Taylor, organiser of the Great Northern International Antiques and Collectors’ Fair at Harrogate’s Great Yorkshire Showground.

ENERGETIC Essex organiser Robert Bailey has been increasingly active on the marketing front and received praise for the gate at his recent Tatton Park fair, following the targeted mailing of nearly 4000 home-owners.

From the time commission bids began to come in, it was plain one item would tower above everything else at the 558-lot Harrogate sale held by Morphets (15/10% buyer’s premium) on March 7 – the Archibald Knox silver wine flagon shown right.

FOR 20 of its 27 years the annual Harrogate Antique and Fine Art Fair has been organised by West Country-based Louise Walker but with 80 exhibitors this year’s staging from May 3 to 6 is the biggest so far.

The wind has always been blowing strongly in one direction in the market for American weather vanes, and this 1930s example, left, offered at the Harrogate rooms of Morphet’s (10 per cent buyer’s premium) on March 15 was always expected to sell for a high price.

UK: HARROGATE, in terms of preserved 18th century elegance, may be the North’s equivalent of Bath, but even here 21st century pressures apply.

UK: FOLLOWING the liquidation of Bailey Fairs Ltd, its principal Robert Bailey has announced that he can continue organising his full roster of events as Robert Bailey Fairs Ltd.

…but Harrogate event will go ahead this month UK: LAST week Bailey Fairs Ltd went into voluntary liquidation but its principal, Robert Bailey, intends to continue organising in a limited capacity.

UK: A DOG had bitten one of the legs... and possibly worse, and two parts were knocked off by individuals at the viewing, but neither of these detractions put off Smith the Rink of Harrogate from bidding £13,400 plus 12 per cent buyer’s premium for this George III tea-table at Patrick Cheyne of Altrincham on May 8. Why?