Hot on the heels of the Antiques Are Green campaign comes the first ‘National Antiques Week’ in Britain! To be held from 23rd-30th November, the week aims to encourage more people to visit their local antiques shops, auction house or fair and buy and enjoy antiques, collectables and 20thC design. A high profile team of […]
I’ve just returned from a visit to the wonderful Bushwood Antiques, and am truly excited. Based in the beautiful countryside near Hemel Hempstead, the drive there is fantastic enough, but not as fantastic as the place itself. Over 7,500 pieces of antique furniture await you, ranging in date from the 16th to early 20th centuries, […]
I don’t ask for much, but I do ask that you support a new website and growing movement promoting the fact that antiques are green. Furnishing your home with antiques and 20thC design not only allows you to express yourself and build a truly individual look, but it also helps save our environment. Consider the […]
People keep saying to me that “everything that’s worth something has been found” and “it’s not worth looking as there are no bargains any more”. Well, it’s just not true. Only last month a superb, and rare example of a Modernist chair found for £25 sold at auction for nearly £3,000! Similar, but not quite […]
I know it’s not everyone’s taste, but taxidermy seems to be seeing a firm return to fashion. Although I’ve been a long-time fan, I first covered this area professionally in the DK Collectables Price Guide 2007, published in 2006. Since then, the small seed of a trend has turned into something much more. Even to […]
My sharp-eyed friends Marc & Maiken at the excellent Utopia2000 in Germany are currently selling an opaque white large Holmegaard or Kastrup ‘Gulvvase’ designed by Otto Brauer in 1962. In another instance of seeing great vintage design on the small screen, they spotted an identical piece in Emma Peel’s fashionable 1960s house in the first […]
It’s always worth doing your homework properly, checking any marks on a piece against your research. A few months ago, I found a rather amusingly mis-described item for sale. The seller knew exactly what it was, and described it accurately as an “Isle of Wight Studio Glass Fish vase designed by Michael Harris”. They also […]
Our first stop was the capital city of Beijing, known as Peking until the Revolution in 1949. After a recouperative night’s sleep following the 9 hour flight from London, I set off mid-morning to enormous Panjiayuan antiques market in the south east of the city. Although many flea markets are overrun with tourists, particularly in […]
Billed as ‘the world’s largest indoor antiques show’, the wonderfully named Atlantique City, held twice a year in Atlantic City, New Jersey has been cancelled by owner F+W Media. I’m sure I’m amongst many thousands of dealers, collectors and auctioneers who are extremely sad to hear this. In compiling the DK Judith Miller Collectables Price […]
Looking at the pictures here, I’m giving you no guesses about where I spent my Summer holidays this year! Carefully saved air miles were cashed in, and at the end of August the banker and I went on a two week trip across China, a place neither of us had been to before. Although I […]
A few months ago, I wrote a quick blog entry on a particular passion of mine – Mordan propelling pencils. You can read it here. You can imagine my delight when BBC Homes & Antiques magazine commissioned me to write an article on the subject. As well as a history of the company and its […]
…is Richard Long. So I was delighted to finally find the time to visit his first major retrospective at the Tate gallery in London this weekend. At last, the right attention is being paid to someone I consider to be one of the great 20th century artists. I won’t go into his art or the […]