Fairs and Markets

Diane Evans-Taylor is a vintage dealer and runs an upholstery business in the Cumbrian town of Ulverston.

The month-long Open House Festival held throughout August in the seaside town of Bangor in Co Down, kicks off earlier this year on Saturday, July 6, with a big vintage event held by the festival organisers.

The story of a woman who bound her chest with sacking and cotton, cut her hair and dyed her skin using furniture polish to get to the Western Front is one of the highlights at Norwich Book Fair.

A set of three George II silver tea caddies by the famed English silversmith Paul de Lamerie (1688-1751) was one of the stand-out sales in the opening days of 'Masterpiece London'.

As ACVR Events, Jackie Edwards has added another town to her ever-growing list of venues where she holds antiques and vintage markets.

A silver casserole tureen was among the highlight sales during the early hours of The Art & Antiques Fair Olympia.

A group of pictures by self-taught Mendip artist John Caple is offered at Albemarle Street’s John Martin Gallery during this year’s Mayfair Art Weekend (MAW), the three-day festival event dedicated to the galleries in the heart of London.

Urban Art is London’s largest annual open-air contemporary arts fair, pictured above. It runs every year in July showing 1000-plus pieces of work along the walls and railings on both sides of the tree-lined Josephine Avenue and neighbouring streets in Brixton.

Organiser says expectations are high for new showground fair starting at end of the month.

This c.1800 flintlock pistol below by James Wilkinson, London, was used on packet ships to protect the General Post Office mail.

An artwork painted with oil and sand is among the offerings at the inaugural Fair for Saatchi.

A festival of rugs and textiles organised by HALI magazine joins the busy line-up of London events this summer.

Among stand-out exhibitions in the well-represented area of works on paper at this year’s London Art Week (LAW) is a collection of drawings by the German artist Adolph Menzel (1815-1905).

For close to three centuries buyers of art and antiques have been spoilt for choice in London. A city synonymous with archives, galleries, museums, conservators and curators, it continues to support long-standing streets of antiques dealers, centres and a plethora of regular fairs and markets. As this guide to the hotspots suggests, most of them are complementary rather than in competition, and all budgets are catered for.

With a longer run and back to being branded as an independent event, the venerable Art & Antiques Fair Olympia remains a stalwart for both the collector’s market and the decorative trade.

For the British art and antiques trade, the summer ‘season’ still carries plenty of resonance, particularly in London. The days of rowing club colours at Henley and Georgian walnut at the Grosvenor House Hotel have given way to the plethora of June and July showpiece auctions and a clutch of fairs and dealer-led events – London Art Week, Olympia, Masterpiece London, and new kid on the block Fair For Saatchi.

Britain still has many ‘antiques’ towns and streets – those picturesque corners of the island populated by shops, galleries and centres that together act as a magnet for antiques tourists. Two of the largest communities of dealers close to London are Petworth and Hungerford, while a busy schedule of regular fairs and markets takes place to the south-west of London.