Fairs and Markets

With Biblio as partner and a rebrand of its annual fair, the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association is expecting a spike in visitors and exhibitors at its flagship event.

The antiques-rich town of Honiton in Devon is famed for its bobbin lacemaking since the 16th century.

As parliamentary debates on future trade relations with the EU raged in London, cross-border business carried on regardless in West Sussex at IACF’s Ardingly International Antiques and Collectors Fair on January 15-16.

Buyers are spoilt for choice during May and early June when three decorative and salvage fairs will be running in the UK, all in interesting outdoor settings. Here is a short focus on them.

Fairs to visit this weekend in Didcot and Dorset.

A rare pair of 19th century silver fish servers are on offer from Schredds at next month’s Petersfield Antiques Fair.

The National Botanic Gardens of Wales spreads out into 500-plus acres at Llanarthne in the Carmarthenshire countryside and boasts a spectacular structure designed by Norman Foster: the largest single-span glasshouse in the world.

With so many tribal art galleries concentrated in Brussels it is no surprise to find 10 specialists in the field showing at BRAFA, six of them from the Belgian capital.

Former courthouse in West Yorkshire opens as antiques centre and community hub.

Another returning BRAFA exhibitor is the Paris dealer Xavier Eckhout, who specialises in animalier sculpture from 1880- 1950.

BRAFA is a big draw for the visitor in late January but as well as enjoying all that Brussels has to offer in general cultural terms there are other art and antiques-related events on at the same time.

Among the numerous dealers at BRAFA showing early works of art is Brussels’ Gallery Desmet, which specialises in sculpture and objects ranging from Antiquity to the Grand Tour.

Whitford Fine Art from London is a long-standing BRAFA stalwart (understandably given that the gallery’s core stock is work by 20th century Belgian and international artists).

Finch & Co from London has been showing at BRAFA for 12 years. “We regard it as one of the most successful and well-organised art and antique events in Europe,” notes the firm’s Jan Finch.

Back by popular demand, says Caroline Brown of Rose & Brown Vintage, is her biannual Vintage Furniture and Home Fair held in the Old Woollen Room at the atmospheric Sunny Bank Mills, a former textiles mill in Farsley near Leeds.

One of the attractions of BRAFA, the Brussels art and antiques fair which is traditionally a new-year opener in continental Europe, is its breadth. This is not a specialist event: it concentrates on quality across a range of disciplines.