Former primary school teacher Gemma Redmond turned her passion for collecting high-end vintage costume jewellery into a dealing career following the death of her husband on their honeymoon in 2011 and now deals online and at specialist vintage fashion fairs.
In West Yorkshire, Trish Banyard reopened the Hebden Bridge Antiques Centre in January on higher ground after the town centre’s businesses were engulfed in floodwaters on Boxing Day 2015.
In April, fire raged through Nina Eggens’ business, Nina’s Apartment, selling mid-century and decorative pieces at Lethenty Mill, near Inverurie. More on Eggens and what she is doing now in ATG No 2273.
Muck to brass
In February ATG featured US artist Sue Kreitzman, who has lived in Bow, East London, for 30 years and is a regular buyer at Mike Collins’ Spitalfields Antiques Market. She trawls for broken toys and jewellery and other pieces of what she calls “profound junk” with which to embellish her art.
The Midcentury Modern shows in London are run by Lucy Ryder Richardson and Petra Curtis, who launched a new annual event at The Oval in May, while in October Ryder-Richardson’s book 100 Midcentury Chairs and Their Stories was published.
Jackie Edwards of ACVR Events did something ambitious in May: she launched five antiques and collectables fairs held at various locations on the same day in the Hampshire market town of Romsey.
Keeley Harris of Discover Vintage Home Shows in Manchester and Leeds hit Bristol in May with a new home show at the city’s Paintworks. Post-fair, she reported that the event went well, adding: “Visitors were keen to buy Ercol and Danish furniture as well as lots of mid-century lighting and ceramics. But I need a bigger venue in the south-west so I am currently on the hunt for more exhibition space.” Harris is launching a new Midlands Vintage Home Show in 2017, of which more in our next issue.
In June, Sharon Blagrove of Bentleys Fairs launched her online venture, Salvage for Sale, co-sponsored by ATG. It is currently attracting 1200 hits monthly.
In the same month, Maxine Stonehill of Pop Up Vintage Fairs, who exhibits at IACF’s Alexandra Palace fair, launched two new events in London: at Canary Wharf and a late-night vintage event at Wilton’s Music Hall.
June’s Salvo Fair had a ‘Hats Off to Women’ theme focusing on the many women in the trade, while Joey McKinlay demonstrated her skills as a master of the razor strop, opening a barber’s shop in Bovingdon in Hertfordshire in July, which sells vintage and antique pieces as another line to the business.
