Ardingly Antique Fair

Ardingly Market

By William George


Ardingly antiques fair also known as Ardingly market is one of the most established antiques fairs in the world. The fair was started in 1972 and has been a must do fair for antique dealers from all over the UK for decades. Ardingly holds the title of being the largest antiques fair in the South of England with up to 1800 stalls. Only smaller than its big brother Newark fair in Nottinghamshire which can have up to 4000 stalls in the summer months.


With its close proximity to both London and Gatwick Airport, Ardingly fair attracts trade buyers from the USA, Canada, South Korea, Japan, China, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and indeed all over the world. The international buyers who make the journey to the fair/market are usually trade buyers. This means they are purchasing large numbers of items to sell in a retail environment abroad. 


However many private collectors also make the journey for Ardingly antiques fair and Newark fair which to me proves that the UK is still the international home of the antiques industry.
Ardingly antiques fair is also popular with residents of London looking for a high quality Antiques and collectibles at a fraction of the price of some of the Antique stores in the area.


The event takes place 6 times per year at the South of England Showground, West Sussex and has everything from fine antique furniture, stunning vintage fabrics, home ware, unique antique garden ornaments and much much more.


There was a huge increase in the number of visitors to 
the fair in 2010. This may be down to the national campaign "Antiques Are Green" which pushes the message that antique furniture is good for the environment. Or maybe the whole industry is on the up! Either way let's all hope the fair continues to thrive under its new owners IACF Ltd.


If you would like to visit Ardingly antiques fair also known as ardingly market. please visit: iacf.co.uk

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• we did Ardingly antique fair this week…had some great news…sold to ... - we did Ardingly antique fair this week…had some great news…sold to a big London store..yippeee http://fb.me/VKQHOtvh. we did Ardingly antique fair this week…had some great news…sold to a big London store..yippeee http://fb.me/VKQHOtvh ...
• Ardingly Antique Fair « JoytoLondon.com - Ardingly Antique Fair. By Joy, on March 1st, 2011. Despite being the coldest day ever, I had a great time today at the Ardingly Antique Fair. I went with a chartered bus put together by the Kensington and Chelsea Womens Club, ...
• Details – Hessian and uniform // JAA - Details – Hessian and uniform. Ardingly antique fair, JAA DESIGN ARCHIVE>. Share. Posted on 12 August 2011 at 17:02 By andrea. | Category: COLOR, FASHION, INTERIORS, JAA ARCHIVES, JUNK & RUBBISH, JUNK COLLECTORS, MEN, TEXTILES, ...
• Forks & Spades — Theo - Today we went on our annual visit to the Ardingly Antique Fair to search for some Spades & Forks. We always feel a little sad though when we have to cut off the handles as those are the only bit we really want. ...

Panjiayuan, Beijing's Largest Antiques Fair

Panjiayuan, Beijing's Largest Antiques Fair
By Tom Carter

Perhaps not by coincidence, the Greek word Pangaea, meaning "all lands," is the name historians have given to planet Earth before its continental drift 200 millions years ago, when the world was one.

Similarly named Panjiayuan, Beijing's largest antiques fair, can likewise be described as a place where every province in the People's Republic have come together to form their own supercontinent-like market place. Indeed, one might spend years journeying across China to uncover the same treasures that can be had in a day at Panjiayuan.

Here, spanning landscapes of antiquated wares, art, precious stones and revolutionary memorabilia meet precipitous mountains of books, furniture, ceremonial dress and sundry jewelry. One must finally traverse vast seas of dynastic china, heirlooms, national regalia and old coins before emerging dusty, exhausted and burdened with your finds.

Along the way you'll have encountered traditional Han, the Uyghurs of Xinjiang and the nomadic Drokpas of Tibet, all selling their goods side by side with about fifty other ethnic minorities; the splendors of West China contrasting nicely with vestiges of Beijing.

Scores of international visitors from the Orient to the Americas to Europe peruse the eclectic bazaar to purchase relics that truly cannot be found anywhere else in the world. But the market is also teaming with spectators. Beijing elders who, not unlike moons orbiting a planet, crowd around every negotiation taking place, finding much amusement in watching waiguoren paying forty times more for a faux antique then what a local might pay for the real deal.

Such is life on planet Panjiayuan.

[Panjiayuan is located in Chongwen District off of Dongsanhuan Nanlu. Open Monday-Friday 8:30am - 6pm, and Saturday-Sunday 4:30am - 6:30pm.]

###

Tom Carter of San Francisco is an internationally published freelance photographer and travel writer specializing in the People's Republic of China. Tom has traveled extensively throughout all 33 Chinese provinces and autonomous regions and currently resides in Beijing.

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Are Antique Fairs Making a Come Back?

Are Antique Fairs Making a Come Back?
By William George

Over the years our shopping habits have changed from local shops to super markets and from high streets to internet shopping. In this tough economic time many retailers are reporting heavy losses but one form of shopping seems to be making a comeback. Antique fairs have been with us for years and years but the large antique fairs which take place on county showground's around the UK are a lot younger. Newark Antiques Fair is the largest in the world but only 25 years old. These fairs exploded onto the scene in the 80's before the days of huge malls and internet shopping. At this time they offered visitors something very different! The chance to see thousands of stalls from all over Europe in one day something which would not have been possible before then. As a result of this new innovation which was the brain child of a man called Geoffrey Whittaker attendances boomed! Thousands of people came from all over the globe to visit Newark's antiques fairs. As a result of the business's success the Daily Mail Group purchased the 2 largest fairs in the UK (Newark and Ardingly) amongst others from Mr Whittaker. The fairs continued to do well under their new owners until the mid 90's when attendances started to fall. With the dawn of the internet and eBay brought bargain seekers who would rather stay at home and click their mice than take a walk around an antique market. But has time finally been called on couch potato shoppers?

Fair organisers all over the UK have announced massive increases in visitor numbers over the past year. This comes at a time when retail giants are posting huge drops in profits largely due to the global credit crisis. So if we are seeing the attendances raising so much on these fairs in a recession thing must be looking up in the industry. Many UK TV shows are now based on interior design and making your home unique from your neighbours rather than the mass produced high street options.

Personally when I shop for furniture and clothing I always like to see and touch what I am buying as you can never get a true sense of an item from a picture. It somehow loses its soul but most of all I enjoy spending the day out hunting for an item, whether it be in a shop or at an antique fair. I feel I am not alone in this train of thought and this is why I think the antique fair industry is booming!

For information on Newark, antique fairs or any other IACF event please visit the website: iacf.co.uk

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Little Masterpieces at Olympia International Art & Antiques Fair

Little Masterpieces at Olympia International Art & Antiques Fair
By Sam Scribbler

The International Art and Antiques Fair opened last week at the Olympia Exhibition Hall, Kensington, west London and continues until 15th June. I attended, as I do every year, excited, hoping to find some small treasure. My interest is Chinese art and antiques, which I have bought and sold, and collected for more than thirty years. I try to visit most of the Art and Antiques fairs in the UK and some in Europe and the US each year.

From a Chinese art point of view Olympia was a disappointment for me. Although I saw a few interesting pieces, the objects I would have liked to buy were too expensive or restored. I was resigned to leaving empty-handed. Not only empty-handed, disappointed, because I had not been really excited by anything I had seen and I had walked miles. Exhausted I headed for a coffee stand.

Unable to find a seat in the coffee shop, I sat on a long bench opposite a stand selling silver. Although I occasionally buy Chinese silver to sell, I have never been interested in collecting silver, always seeing it as too bright and needing too much attention to keep it that way. I rarely look at silver dealers stands, but as I sipped my coffee I looked at the objects this dealer was selling and quickly realised that many of them were much more than just silver. Gilded, silver beakers, tankards and large covered cups that looked like pineapples mingled with religious objects: a gilded monstrance, a rock crystal cross and various reliquaries. None of these objects were ordinary and they were all eighteenth century or earlier.

The man selling these items lifted various pieces out of the cabinets, cheerfully, giving information in excellent English with an accent I did not recognise. I looked at the name above the stand: Peter Szuhay - B59.

Somebody asked the price of a beautiful rhino-horn cup with a gilded, silver foot. I know nothing about European rhino-horn works of art, so when the potential buyer left and I had finished my coffee, I asked Mr Szuhay if he would show it to me.

We chatted about the cup, now standing between us on top of a glass showcase filled with jewellery and I discover that Mr Szuhay is Hungarian, has lived in London for over thirty years and has a permanent stand in Grays Antique Market, Davies Street, in London's West End, near Bond Street underground station. He is a leading expert on Continental silver and works of art. He showed me various beautiful pieces early silver, mentioning the famous towns of Augsburg and Nuremberg, of which, even a Chinese art dealer has heard. He also has an interest in later silver and he showed me some 19th century Russian silver and a magnificent 20th century silver fish-server by the Scandinavian master silversmith, Georg Jensen.

I noticed that, what I had initially dismissed as jewellery, in the showcase beneath the cup, was in fact an array of beautifully carved stone cameos and intaglios. I am used to seeing shells carved into portraits, mounted in brooches, usually from Italy and dating from the mid-nineteenth century until quite recently, but these pieces were something quite different and very exciting.

By now we were on first name terms and Peter showed me a selection of these carved stones, dating from the late nineteenth century back to Rome in the third century AD. Exquisite, tiny works of art, some signed by sixteenth century master carvers. We were interrupted and while Peter sold a Chinese silver box, which I had not even noticed was there and I walked to the other side of the stand, where he had a second jewelery showcase.

Here he was displaying, what appeared to be, a group of much more ordinary gold signet rings. But, when he returned to talk to me again, Peter put me straight. They were actually English Medieval rings of gold and silver. Some were signet rings others were guild rings or iconography rings, worn by pilgrims and etched with icons of Saint Christopher etc. There were sixteenth and seventeenth century Posy rings: mostly plain gold bands bearing sentiments etched around the inside of the ring, in Olde English. This was an area of collecting I had never considered. I have never had much interest in jewelery as adornment, but Peter's jewelery was a lot more than that - it was sculpture, design and graphic art and everything had a story and a history attached. These small masterpieces were a revelation to me.

I did not buy anything from Peter Szuhay at Olympia, although he did make my day and gave me something to write about. I did however promise to visit his shop in Grays Antique Market and I will, and I'm sure I will buy something from him soon. Peter also offers a selection of his stock at: http://peterszuhay.co.uk

Sam Scribbler http://cathaytrader.com

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How to Value My Antiques?

How to Value My Antiques?
By William George

Many of us have collected all sorts of things for years without ever thinking of their value. Or been left items by family members in a last will and testament. Many of the things are too good or precious to throw away but still end up gathering dust in our attic space. Most people would be happy to sell their antiques and collectables if they knew they were getting a fair price for them, but how does the untrained eye value antiques. Well there are a few ways to get your antiques valued, some cost money and some are free. The first way is to take your antiques to an auction house. The in-house experts will view your items and research where needs be and give you a price that they would be happy to put the item into their auction for. This can cost a fair bit, but if you put your items in their auction then they might offer the service for free. Remember the more popular the auction house the higher the fee but there is a good reason for this as they tend to have much more advertising and attract many more buyers to their auctions.

The second way is a lot cheaper but takes a bit more time, you can take your items to antique fairs and speak to the antique dealers on their stand. I would recommend you go to one of the larger antique fairs such as the Newark antique fair so you can get more than one opinion. But remember the stall holders are trade so will be looking to make a small profit on your item, however they will usually offer you quick cash no hassle sale for your item. If you have lots of items it is always a good idea to buy a pitch at a fair that way you can reach lots of buyers for very little money.

The third way brings us right into the 21st century. You can now take a picture of your antique or collectable upload it to your computer and send it to a website. The website will then come back within 48 hours with a valuation. This service is great but they don't have to sell the items so don't get the blame for prices not reaching the estimated figures. And it can get expensive if you have a number of things to value.

I hope this has helped those of you wondering how to value granny's china and that stamp collection in the attic. For a list of UK antique fairs dates visit the IACF website organisers of Newark antiques fair.

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