PBFA Christmas Fair
The Provincial Booksellers Fairs Association (PBFA) holds its annual Christmas Book Fair on Saturday, December 1.
Co-organiser Andrew Saidi said: “This is our second Christmas fair at this venue and again we have the maximum of 62 top-rated antiquarian booksellers catering for all types and subjects. A huge range of beautiful, rare and collectable titles are available at prices to suit every enthusiast.”
Meanwhile, PBFA has a pop-up book fair at IACF’s antiques and collectors fair at Alexandra Palace in north London on Sunday, December 2. Vintage dealer Maxine Stonehill and her Pop Up Vintage Fairs selling fashion, jewellery and homewares are also among the attractions.
Ephemera Society Fair
The Ephemerist magazine.
With stallholders from the US and the UK, the 50-exhibitor Ephemera Society winter fair runs on Sunday, December 2.
Ephemera dealer and fair organiser Val Jackson-Harris, who is also the society’s chair, said: “Members often book late or just turn up but it is always good fun. Prices are from £1-10,000 and you never know what you can find.”
The society has a membership approaching 500 but would like to attract new and younger members. In 2017 Sara Chapman, a graphic designer and teacher of typography at the University of Reading, became the editor of The Ephemerist, the society’s quarterly journal. She set about redesigning a magazine which had not altered for a decade.
“I wanted to change the tone a little, largely to generate the feeling that it was a journal for all the society’s members, whether serious academic, collecting enthusiast, or somewhere in between. I felt, like readers everywhere, that some of our readers would be words-led and some picture-led. I wanted The Ephemerist to inspire both.”
Design changes included a new masthead and revised identity for the society and a larger typographic palette.
Chapman added: “In common with other similar societies, the society is dwindling, and so too is our pool of subscribers — the heartbeat of the journal. If the society is to survive and grow, it is essential that we share our love of ephemera with a new and younger audience.”
Single issues of The Ephemerist, with a spread from the autumn issue pictured above, are available at the upcoming fair or online, priced at £8.50, and membership of the society includes the quarterly journal.
