With a cover date of September 18 1971, Antiques Trade Gazette was greeted with delight – and a smattering of concern.
At last, dealers could easily find in one place all the sales coming up; no longer would they have to trawl through local newspaper listings or use press cuttings services.
On the other hand, ATG also brought a new level of transparency to a previously opaque market. Why was all this information being made so widely available?
As our longest-standing subscribers explain on pages 20-28, it soon became clear that the advantages outweighed any lingering worries. ATG brought the trade together as a community like never before.
Half a century later, this edition – also with a cover date of September 18, following our time-honoured tradition of using the Saturday after an issue comes out as our front page date – celebrates 50 years of not just ATG but the antiques trade as a whole.
Thank you to all our readers and advertisers. Here’s to the next half century.
Anniversary section: The story so far... 50 years of headlines
