Arthur Swallow launches two new fairs

Arthur Swallow Fairs, organisers of the event at the Lincolnshire Showground, will launch two new fairs this year. They plan a monthly event at Donington Park and a specialist fair for restoration and architectural salvage at the Great Yorkshire Showground, near Harrogate.

Antiques Trade Gazette

Reuse industry comes of age

Raleigh, North Carolina USA

Reuse Alliance is holding a conference on October 18-20, 2010. The event is being organized by the Reuse Alliance, a national nonprofit association working to increase public awareness of reuse and strengthen the sector through networking, support and promotion. The first National Reuse Conference and Expo in Raleigh, North Carolina.

The event will feature experts from the reuse industry, including key note speaker Garth Johnson -- author of 1000 Ideas for Creative Reuse. It will also offer a trade expo, intensive workshops, reuse tours, a reFashion Show, and film screenings.



ReuseConex

We Make London summer spectacular

Chelsea, London UK

Viva la Craft Revolution! The ultimate comeback, its official...Craft is cool.

This summer on Saturday 26th June 2010 from 11am – 5pm We Make Summer Spectacular opens at Chelsea Town Hall, Kings Road, London. If your making the trip down South the Salvo Fair at Knebworth why not drop into We Make London with over 80 hand picked exhibitors to choose from and a wide range of eco-friendly hand-crafted gifts ideas including jewellery, fashion, graphic art, fine art, bath and body, toys, children's clothing.

We Make London was formed by a group of like-minded designer makers with a can do attitude, united by the lack of affordable places to sell their products. A year and half and five successful events later, We Make is now the showcase for the talents and crafts of the most exciting UK designers.

Organiser Mary McDermott says, “It’s time to take a refreshing break from high street monotony into the exceptional world of handmade, with beautiful items made with love by some very gifted makers. Individuals are finally being rewarded for having such talent and creativity”.

We Make London

Large crowds at Antique Garden Furniture Show USA

Above: Village Braider, Plymouth, Mass.

New York USA
The three day Antique Garden Furniture Show sponsored by the New York Botanical Garden drew record crowds. Event organiser Catherine Sweeney Singer believes it is down to the new floor layout which according to her, "eliminated the stale look of rows of booths by bringing together three booths forming a wall of interesting garden objects, wall decorations and countless accessories."


Above: Barbara Israel Garden Antiques, Katonah, N.Y.

Exhibitors included Barbara Israel who's stand represented most parts of the world. Including a wonderful carved stone well head with wrought iron overthrow, English, circa 1930, that measured just over 70 inches high. The well head was 33 inches high, 31 inches wide and 21 inches inside diameter. Germany was represented by a stoneware figure representing the Applied Arts, circa 1900, 65 inches tall, wearing a classical robe with a sculptor's tool in the right hand and a palette in the left. Several benches were shown, including a rare cast iron example with a Moorish-style sunburst in the center flanked by plant motif, American, circa 1880, and measuring 46 inches wide, 39 inches high and 24 inches deep.

Also, this year the New York Botanical Garden is presenting "Emily Dickinson's Garden: The Poetry of Flowers," the annual spring exhibition in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, on view through June 13.


Above: Michael Trapp, West Cornwall, Conn.

Antiques and the arts online

Chelsea Flower Show 2010: Prisoners and homeless people create biggest garden ever

Chelsea, London UK
Prisoners and homeless people have designed and constructed the largest garden ever built at Chelsea Flower Show. The 6,000 square foot garden is constructed from recycled bottles, old washing machines and donated trees. Up to 50 homelessness charities have taken part, with more than 75 people working on the site at a time. All have received vocational training in woodwork, planting and other horticultural skills that they can use to get employment in the future.

Telegraph

New downtown reuse district

New Orleans, USA
ReFest Saturday launches new reuse district downtown in New Orleans. The district is made up of a collective of more than 20 existing businesses and nonprofit organisations in the Bywater/Marigny and St. Claude/St. Roch neighbourhoods. The ReUse District includes salvage depots such as The Green Project, the Habitat For Humanity ReStore and the Preservation Resource Center’s salvage store. Retail and service shops trading in used items, such as Bywater’s Bargain Center, Beth’s Books and Tete’s Tire Repair Shop, and art galleries that feature works made of reused items, such as New Orleans icon Dr. Bob’s Chartres Street studio.

To encourage people to the new district there will be a free one-day festival promoting creative reuse on Saturday 22 May from 10am to 2am, with workshops, music, a film screening and a pub crawl.

Louisiana Festivals

Thomas Woodham-Smith on Masterpiece London

Above: Thomas Woodham-Smith -- from the delivery van to the boardroom [pict. The Art Newspaper]

London, UK
The Art Newspaper interviews Thomas Woodham-Smith about Masterpiece London, which will take place opposite the Royal Hospital Chelsea at the prestigious location of the former Chelsea Barracks, Chelsea Bridge Road.

Thomas Woodham-Smith is the managing director of the London and New York-based antique furniture dealer Mallett and chairman of Masterpiece London, a new fair which aims to re-establish London as a centre for antiques, design and decorative arts. The interdisciplinary fair, which will bring together design, cars, modern and antique jewellery, modern sculpture and antiquities launches this summer 24-29 June, so when you have finished browsing at Masterpiece you can head to Salvo Fair from 25-27 June, only 25miles north of central London.

The Art Newspaper

Masterpiece London

Chair belonging to assassinated Prime Minister

London, UK
A chair in which Britain's only assassinated Prime Minister lay dying is to be sold at a London antiques fair next month. Spenser Perceval collapsed into the carved mahogany Winsor armchair situated in the House of Commons after being shot on 11 May 1812 by John Bellingham, a failed merchant. It followed a dreadful 221 days in power amidst severe economic depression.

The George II chair, made in the 1740s, is being sold for £95,000 by 18th century English furniture specialists Apter-Fredericks. It will be shown at the Masterpiece Fair at the former Chelsea Barracks site in London from 24 to 29 June.

Telegraph

Unica Fine Art Expo

Modena, Italy
Unica Fine Art Expo held the 24th Modenantiquaria, a fine art fair which includes garden statuary and many architectural features. The next fair is 19-27 February 2011.

Unica Fine Art Expo

Swinderby becomes one day Monday fair

Swinderby, UK
This weeks Antique Trade Gazette has reported that IACF (International Antiques and Collectors Fairs) will hold a regular one-day fair at the RAF Swinderby site. Previous dates for a two-day event held in direct competition with a rival fair have been scrapped in favour of a fair in the months when there is no other showground event in the Lincolnshire and Nottingham area.

IACF

Best ever Listed Property Show

Olympia 2 London
The 2010 show closed it’s doors at the end of the two day event (20 – 21 February), with over 35 per cent increase in attendance to 5,743. The number of exhibitors rose by 20 per cent.

Show organiser, Kellymarie Smith, said: “The number of visitors was a pleasant surprise to everyone, but more importantly the quality of the audience was outstanding with visitors travelling from as far afield as Devon and Cornwall, North Wales and Scotland. At the same time we had a number of commercial developers and multi owners looking for advice and suppliers. It is important for the industry to have a high profile annual exhibition to showcase the wide array of products and services on offer, and this year’s show was no exception.”

Listed Property Show

Bath Decorative & Antiques Fair

The Pavilion, North Parade Road, Bath UK
The 21st Bath Decorative & Antiques Fair will be held between the 4th and 6th of March. Items from the 45 exhibitors will include country and painted decorative furniture from the UK and Europe, decorative accessories for the home, lighting, folk art, naïve paintings, needlework and textiles, pottery both decorative and homely Staffordshire pieces, unusual decorative items for the garden and much more.

Trade: Thursday 4 March 12.00 pm - 8.00 pm
Public: Friday 5 March 11 am - 7.00 pm
& Saturday 6 March 10.00 am - 5.00 pm
Charity Preview Evening: Thursday 4 March 6.00 pm - 8.00 pm


Above: Grierson Gower of Relic - Based near Bath by appointment only 01225 833049 dealing in boat models, fairground and shop fittings, marine and decorative items


Above: Image shows part of a conservatory table with shardware top on a painted iron pedestal base, c 1920. Roderic Haugh, based at Core One, The Gas Works, 2 Michael Road, London SW6 2AD

Bath Decorative & Antiques Fair

Chicago Botanic Gardens

Chicago Botanic Gardens, Glencoe USA

Following the absence of the fair in 2009 Chicago Botanical Gardens Antiques and Garden Fair will return in 2010. The preview night is to be held on Thursday 15 April and the fair will run from Friday 16 April until Sunday 18 April.


Chicago Botanical Gardens

Newark, Swinderby, Lincoln gossip

Above: Newark Castle, last Thursday, with early morning sun streaming through the windows.

Newark, Nottinghamshire - Newark's International Antiques and Collectors Fair was held on Thursday 8th and Friday 9th October. Thursday was a beautifully sunny day with a slight chill in the air and the car park was busier than usual at 9.30am as people arrived at the Newark and Nottinghamshire Showground where it is held.

A handful of trade could be spotted mulling around, though architectural antiques seemed a bit thin on the ground. There was slightly more in the way of garden furniture and ornament. Hugh Chudley of Mark Chudley International Shippers was busily packing up a van, and called out 'It's busy, isn't it!?' Mark and Kim from Morris Interiors, Shepton Mallet were visiting for the first time in three years. Adam Hills from Retrouvius, London had found a few bargains. Linda North had a pitch and was merrily buying away. Guy Trench, who also had a pitch was, by midday, off on his bike enjoying the sunshine. And with the only big display of antique brassware, Carol and Terry Sparke were buzzing after a big sale earlier that morning.

Rachel Everett from IACF said today that 'Newark was much busier last week than previous months. A combination of things helped; those who have closed shops down, or left antiques centres are relying solely on antique fairs to sell, and with the end of the recession in sight, there seems to be spurge of buying going on too. We saw it happen around 1996, after the last recession when Newark was really at it's peak'.

All the talk at Newark was of the previous two days which saw Arthur Swallow's Antiques & Home Show move from RAF Swinderby to the Lincolnshire Showground, and IACF, who bought Newark from the DMG Group in June 2009, set up a sister fair to Newark at RAF Swinderby on the same two days as Lincoln.

The Lincolnshire Showground is 10 minutes drive from Lincoln and 25 minutes drive from Newark. At Newark, Joe Sutton said 'Lincoln is a lovely new site with really nice feel. We're all trying to get used to not calling it 'Swinderby'. The two 'Swallow' sons were there and doing a great job.' The Lincolnshire Showground has just had a seven million pound makeover, and now boasts a new state of the art eco-friendly building, complete with marble floors, heating, and baby changing facilities.

There were rumours that IACF's sister antiques fair at Swinderby had been slow. Rachel Everett of IACF said 'It was decided that IACF would keep a fair running at RAF Swinderby in order to keep Newark strong. So the two shows could work in sympathy with each other, as the foreign dealers especially like to visit the two sites one after the other.' The Swinderby exhibitors seem to have split 25/75 between the old and new sites with 650 exhibiting at Swinderby in October and about 2,500 at Lincolnshire. To lure more people out during the winter months IACF are offering free entry to buyers on both days at Swinderby in December, and entry for buyers on Thursday at Newark in December is £10 instead of £20, and on Friday £5 instead of £10.

ICAF, Newark and Swinderby. Tel: 01636 702326

Arthur Swallow Fairs, Lincoln. Tel: 01298 27493

Newark/Swinderby website

Arthur Swallow website

Dorset's building heritage

Dorset UK

HIDDEN treasures will be going on show during a week celebrating some of Dorset’s best buildings. Homes, community facilities and attractions will be opening their doors for the Dorset Architectural Heritage Week from September 12-20. Many of those open during the week are normally closed to the public.

Society president Pru Bollam said: “The week helps make the public aware of the buildings that are part of our heritage.”

The full list of events can also be viewed at edht.org.uk People can also call the booking office on 01202 888992.

Dorset Echo

Hotel owners axe Grosvenor House fair after 75 years

The Grosvenor House, London

It is with great regret that The Grosvenor House Art & Antiques Fair and Grosvenor House announce that The Grosvenor House Art & Antiques Fair will no longer be continued.

For 75 years the hotel and the art and antiques trade have enjoyed a happy and productive relationship, but it has been decided in consultation with the British Antique Dealers’ Association and The Grosvenor House Art & Antiques Fair Executive Committee that the Fair is no longer financially viable. The closure of this much- loved fair, however, presents an opportunity for the trade to mount a new event commensurate with maintaining London as the centre of the art market.

"It has been a privilege for Grosvenor House to host the Art & Antiques Fair for so long and I am delighted we were able to celebrate its 75th anniversary together", said Anthony Stewart-Moore, General Manager of the hotel, "I would like to pay tribute to Simon Phillips and the Executive Committee of the Fair as well as its long- standing Director, Alison Vaissière and her organising team for working so hard for so many years to produce one of the finest art and antiques fairs in the world.”

Simon Phillips, Chairman of the Fair, said that the 2009 event had been a great success and commented: “It is a great disappointment to me that The Grosvenor House Art & Antiques Fair has come to an end. I quite understand that it no longer makes financial sense to continue the Fair. It has been a very long and happy partnership but most great events have a lifespan and a Diamond Anniversary is a fitting point on which to end on a positive note.“

Salvaged canal dredger and antique Oxford Uni stonework regales Ronsons massive Salvo Fair stand

Above: Historic canal workboat blow dredger, Debris, will form the centrepeice of Ronson's stand, the biggest at Salvo Fair 2009

Knebworth, Herts UK - RONSON Reclaim of Gloucestershire is bringing a recently salvaged and restored a historic canal workboat blow dredger as the centrepiece to its 90ft long stand at this year's Salvo Fair. Known as 'Debris', she was orginally registered to British Waterways as No 386, and now has a Perkins 80hp diesel engine and will be fited with a bow-mounted blow dredger on a hydraulic arm. Also for sale on their stand, the largest at this years fair, will be antique stonework from the demolition of the Department of Physiology at Oxford University recently undertaken by Ronsons.

Salvo Fair
Ronson Reclaim

Olympia International Art & Antiques Fair

Olympia London 5-14 June 2009





Now in its 36th year, the Olympia International Art & Antiques Fair is housed in Olympia’s magnificent Grand Hall and has over 260 British and International exhibitors. These exhibitors include Salvo Code Dealer Alex Puddy of Architectural Heritage.


Olympia International Art & Antiques Fair

DMG sell all four of their big antique fairs

DMG Antique Fairs, organisers of four of the biggest antiques and collectors' fairs in the UK, have been sold by their parent company.

Following a deal finalised on May 31, the Newark, Ardingly, Shepton Mallet and Detling fairs are now owned by former Daily Mail Group executive Keith Harris and veteran exhibition organiser Robert Thomas.

They plan to revive the brand IACF (International Antiques and Collectors' Fairs) - the name of the business before it was given its corporate branding.

This year has also seen the sale of both the SOFA (Sculpture Objects & Functional Art) fairs and the 'showground' fair held five times a year in Charlotte, North Carolina. Both were acquired in April by former DMG senior executives Michael Franks and Mark Lyman, who have formed The Art Fair Company to run the events.

The focus will now be on Newark which in term of exhibitor and visitor numbers has wandered markedly with the changing trends that have hit the 'grass roots' antique trade.

Mr Thompson emphasised that the new owners anticipate few major changes to an experienced team, "There is a really dedicated professional team based in Newark an we are looking forward to working closely with them to ensure the fair maintains their pre-eminent position as the UK's biggest and best," he said.

Extracted taken from ATG 6 June 2009

Chelsea flower show

RHS Chelsea flower show, 19 - 23 May 2009

GARDENS with recycle/reclaim themes
Hot topics are of course reclaim/recycling, eco-friendly and some of the gardens have this theme, such as The Overdrawn Artists Garden which is a light-hearted look at a garden designed and built by Sarah Eberle. Sarah has used her imagination with materials sourced from the local scrap yard where the paving is constructed from steel grids over which she has ‘drawn’ an abstract urban rooftop scene, using gravels, sands and crushed CDs - the free ones from newspapers!


The Ace of Spades is another, using old motorbike parts as supports for the stunning, dark planting scheme using old tyres feature as containers. Alien-like tables and chairs have been formed from bike parts with a unusual backdrop, a wall of old spade heads!

The Key garden, created by the Eden Project working with homeless people and those who have been in prison, and symbolises a journey from darkness into light in which old keys are used as mulch on the paths.

Giles Landscapes garden portrays the lifestyle of a Fenland dweller and has been created using reclaimed, recycled and discarded materials whilst promoting native plants in a domestic landscape.


The central idea to the Future Nature garden is water and its preservation in the changing climate. It incorporates storage of excess rainwater via storm water planters where the planting will tolerate also drier conditions, the use of green roofs to act like a sponge in absorbing rainfall and vertical tower to maximum space and provide shelter using reclaimed building items as homes for insects and wildlife.

Finally, the most unusual of all the gardens has to be the Paradise in Plasticine created by James May with help from the likes of a Teletubbies designer and some of the brains behind Wallace and Gromit.

Whilst many of the gardens use minimum colour, this garden operates at the other end of the spectrum! Like it or not, so much work has been put into it - by schoolchildren who made the daffodils, Chelsea pensioners who, of course, made the poppies, some sunflowers and the cake for the picnic by Jane Asher. The overall scene is highly colourful, if not garish, but also intriguing and attracted a huge amount of attention from the public. The garden will feature in the upcoming BBC Two series, James May’s Toy Stories.



Salvo at Chelsea


Salvo code dealers Architectural Heritage’s stand generated much interest and picture-taking with the striking Horse of the Moon contemporary piece by Nic Fiddian-Green, made from beaten lead over a resin carcass and alluding to the facade from the Parthenon which is now in the British Museum. Whilst early days in the show, Alex Puddy reported lively interest.


Triton UK Limited, Salvo code dealers also, again had a striking marker to their space with the one of the striking gryphons from a recent commission for Castle Oliver in Ireland carved out of Portland Stone. Also launched at the show is the new Commemorative Bench reproduced from 1860’s bench ends from a hotel, recovered from a reclaim yard. The seat uses reclaimed oak beams.


Chi-Africa imports from South Africa recycled metal sculptures from steel factory waste remnants and other reclaimed metal. The butterflies originated as oil drums and some even have the code number stamp as part of the design! The small birds were once fuel cans (the spout is the underbelly!) and have you ever wondered what happens to the centre cut-out when making washers?? An owl of course!

RHS and show waste
The RHS has introduced a new waste disposal policy at the show aiming to achieve a recycling rate of over 80% in its first year. Construction/general/co-mingled recyclable/non-recyclable waste will be removed from site and locally processed and sorted. Non-recyclable waste will be chipped and turned into a fuel for waste to energy.

The RHS encourages the gardens to live on after the shows and some gardens are relocated in their entirety - these include ‘The Marshalls Living Street’ which is to be donated to the Living Streets campaigning charity aiming to improve streetscapes across Britain

Ranelagh School ‘Learning to Grow’ garden will be relocated to the grounds of the school, whilst Birmingham City Council’s ‘Credit Munch’ will sell off perishable plants at the end of the show and remaining plants and materials will be rebuilt at the Horticultural Training Centre in Birmingham.

During the run-up to the show, materials not needed for exhibits were placed in the ‘Materials Swap Shop’ for use by other exhibitors if needed.

During the break-down of the show at the end of this week, the RHS is working with the London Community Recycling Network (LCRN) offering a re-use scheme for unwanted materials from the show. One participant of the scheme is to be the Tutu Peace Garden to be built in Chinbrook Meadows Park, Grove Park, Lewisham, London.

A series of designers at the show have agreed to donate parts of their gardens to be used in the Desmond Tutu Peace Garden which is being created by Chris Beardshaw and involves five schools in the local area along with design students from Hadlow College. Suzannah Clarke lives in the house in Lewisham that Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the South African archbishop who played a major role in the end of apartheid. lived in in the 70s. She has secured funding to commemorate Tutu with a peace garden with plants from the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Funding has been received from The National Lottery towards its creation in time for the Nobel Peace Prize winner’s return to the area in July.

Show statistics
- It takes 800 people just over 3 weeks to build the show
- It takes 3 weeks to build a show garden
- 10 days to build a small garden - but both come apart in 5 days!
- the Great Pavilion is 12000m sq - the size of two football pitches
In 2008:
- 5564 bottles of champagne were drunk (mmm..)
- 53,680 glasses/1,160 jugs of Pimms were served (lovely!!)
The show recycled
- 12.8 tonnes of glass,
- 17.4 tonnes of plastic bottles/cardboard


Chelsea flower show

Full details of the show gardens and awards

Architectural Heritage

Triton

Where the gardens go after the show

Desmond Tutu garden