Fairs and Markets

Among the works selling at the recent Art & Antiques for Everyone fair in Birmingham was a watercolour by John Roddam Spencer Stanhope (1829-1908).

A trip to France before Christmas to buy unusual gifts is always a good plan. Here are three antiques and vintage brocantes to visit: two well-known weeklies in Paris and a biannual event in Bordeaux.

Cary Whitley has been running her biannual Love Vintage brocantes in June and December in Wanstead, east London, for eight years, with the next on Saturday, December 8.

Events at Ludlow Castle, St Stephen's Church and Hodson Hall

A number of dealers and auctioneers have reacted to TEFAF’s new policy on vetting which will prevent all commercial specialists from being members of its vetting panels.

Sally Knott has been running the biannual two-day Dorset Brocante for three years at two venues: in August at Deans Court, Wimborne, and in the autumn at Larmer Tree Gardens, near Salisbury.

The TEFAF decision to remove dealers from vetting at their shows has caused debate (ATG Nos 2367 & 2368). Here, silver dealer Alastair Dickenson writes to ATG giving his view, while we canvass opinion from four more experts.

IACF is expecting a buoyant antique and collectors’ fair at Alexandra Palace on Sunday, December 2, including items sourced from shipwrecks.

For its fourth year, Art Fair East comes to Norwich.

News from Antiques on High, the antiques centre saved for the city of Oxford when it was bought by antique furniture dealer Vincent Page last year, alerted via a tweet about a story in ATG.

Dealer association BADA has introduced changes to the vetting committee of its fairs to “ensure independence”. While dealers can still hold vetting positions, the chairs of 16 specialist sub-committees must now be non-exhibitors.

Mirrors in a variety of styles and types found new homes at the recent Decorative Antiques & Textiles Fair (October 2-7) in Battersea, reinforcing the event as a destination for private buyers and decorators on the hunt for interesting and unusual home furnishings.

Two years ago we featured ex-paramedic Allun Davies and his business selling vintage luggage in the Gwent town of Pontypool.

A unique, high-quality specimen table fitted with Rockingham porcelain plaques is on offer at the next Galloway Fair, which runs from November 23-25 at Wentworth Woodhouse in South Yorkshire.

The range of choice in antique and vintage jewellery makes for ideal one-off special presents – try the dedicated 30-dealer jewellery fair pictured below, with baubles from the Georgian period onwards.

Antiquarian and out-of-print book and ephemera collectors will be in heaven on the weekend of December 1-2 with two fairs at the Holiday Inn London Bloomsbury in Coram Street.