UK

LAST month at Hemswell Antiques Centres in Gainsborough, north of Lincoln, whose website proclaims it to be the largest antiques centre in Europe with 300 dealers in three buildings and 1000 antiques available online, ten of the centres’ customers were offered the opportunity to learn about antique furniture from an experienced dealer.

EVER since the recognition in 1855 of the potential of a 93-acre site close to the Devon town of Newton Abbot, there’s been a fine tradition of competitive horseracing.

JAY Fairs’ Joy O’Meara is holding her Winter Antiques and Collectors’ Fleamarket at Didcot Civic Hall, Didcot, Oxfordshire on Sunday October 8.

FINCHCOCKS, a Georgian mansion near Goudhurst in Kent, now the Finchcocks Music Museum, is home to owner and pianist Richard Burnett’s collection of more than 100 historic keyboard instruments, many in full playing condition.

A LONGSTANDING tradition going back over 30 years has resulted in an annual antiques fair in Cranleigh, Surrey supporting Leonard Cheshire, the UK’s largest charity for the disabled, which takes place this year on Saturday October 14 at Cranleigh Village Hall.

RECOMMENDED by Fiona Knapp, who has recently designed a range of jewellery for the Biba label, as one of the best places to buy gemstones in London, the quarterly Rock and Gem Show is held at Kempton Park Racecourse with the next scheduled for October 21 and 22.

On September 26 Baldwin’s Auctions obtained £210,000 (plus 15% buyer’s premium) for this unique gold medallic triple unite of Charles I – proof that the rarities in the English coin market are now attaining trophy status.

“I leave to my dear friend Taffy my Compass so that he may occasionally know where he is going/ My Watch which almost cost me my life so that he may occasionally arrive at an appointed time / With Regards from his erstwhile passenger Lawrence.”

This early George III kingwood parquetry and marquetry commode attributed to Pierre Langlois proved the highlight of the £812,413 Bolney Lodge collection sold by West Sussex auctioneers Toovey’s on September 20.

MICK Jagger and Keith Richards may be doing well for 60-somethings, but they’ve got nothing on this old rocker. Dated to 1610, it is thought to be the oldest known rocking horse in the UK and was quite likely made for Charles I.

In conjunction with the Nottingham-based sporting memorabilia specialists Trevor Vennett-Smith, Dreweatt Neate sold the Keith Crump Collection of Cricket Memorabilia at Donnington Priory on September 26.

Leading country auctioneers Woolley & Wallis will no longer hold general sales of estate merchandise after October.

Bonhams to stage private exhibition of unique hoard.

On September 18 the Dreweatt Neate team decamped to Boarsney House, a 16th century property near Robertsbridge in East Sussex to sell the property of Judith Hamilton, a collector of oak and country furniture and effects for 45 years.

IN Nottinghamshire from Saturday October 7 to Saturday October 14 , it’s one hectic week for antiques and collectors’ fairs. Buyers can spend the week rushing around nine venues on a mighty buying spree, including the Newark and Swinderby Fairs.

BEAD-collecting tends to fall between jewellery and tribal art and is often overlooked as a collecting area in its own right.

THE new owners of Atlantic Antiques have set out to reassure dealers at Antiquarius, The Mall in Islington and Rogers Antiques Gallery in Portobello about plans for the future. Following last week’s ATG report, they say that there will be no significant changes or rent rises, that the centres have enjoyed a recent revival and that they will concentrate on letting several unoccupied properties acquired with the portfolio.

THE TILES and Architectural Ceramics Society (TACS) is holding its annual antique tile fair at St Jude’s Church Hall, Mapperley, Nottingham on Saturday September 30.

THE Bloomsbury Postcard and Collectors Fair is now in its 22nd year and is, say organisers IPM Promotions, the largest monthly postcard fair in the world with more than 120 tables selling all types of paper collectables.

THROUGHOUT the 19th century, Burnley was one of the world’s largest producers of cotton, with many mills built alongside the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. Just north of the town, Harle Syke became the most important weaving village in Lancashire.