Christmas Nearly Here And Another Year Almost Over...

Monday 20th December 2021 at 12:38

Well Christmas is nearly here and another year has almost gone....I started doing fairs again in July with Ardingly which I wrote about in my last blog...since then it is almost business as usual with Shepton in November which was very busy with good footfall and I bought a super small Welsh dresser in the outside tents (see picture of the NEC stand) it was very pretty with shaped hearts in the carved frieze below the drawers...I also bought a pair of 18thc Delft Wall Pockets shaped as Cornucopia, provenance of a Somerset Manor House...lovely condition....the sales were many, including a 17thc Chestnut Coffer, a small 17thc Oak Gateleg Table , 17thc Brass Low Countries Candlestick and even sold a Windsor Chair on my way home while doing a delivery...!...it was so nice to see all my west country customers again.....much merriment was had..!

It was then onto the long awaited NEC Fair at the end of November / beginning of December...the fair looked very good from the start, being spacious, although there were over 140 dealers present.....with very good quality dealers attending and good to see returning dealers like Rowles Fine Art and Haynes Fine Art....I think most dealers were very happy with sales achieved...the first day was very busy with a good healthy queue outside and I sold my dresser which got me off to a flying start as well as several items of treen and metalware, one to a special customer who had travelled all the way from Wimbledon just to see me......it was so nice to see so many customers who I had not seen at a fair since lockdown....on a very sad note it was upsetting not to have the well known pottery specialist Roger de Ville in attendance, who sadly passed away a few weeks before...I know he was greatly missed at the fair by me and the many customers he leaves behind....the Saturday and Sunday were hit by the very bad storms and the new variant of the virus....despite all this the sales kept coming and all the dealers I spoke to were very happy with some having their best fair....also many visiting dealers were so impressed by the look of the fair, that they signed up to do the April NEC including an Irish dealer in furniture....so hopefully all looks promising..!

Overall the last six months have been very busy, as I believe customers are keen to buy nice items and just so glad to get back to some sort of normality....it has thrilled me to see how the antiques trade has gone from strength to strength through adversity and changed to face the many challenging situations as they arise...

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all my very special customers for your continued support, it means so much to me and it gives me such a thrill when we meet and spend quality time together having a lot of laughs and leg pulls...so may I wish you all a very Happy "Safe" Christmas & New Year....and I cannot wait to see you all soon at a fair near you in 2022.

Mark.