I’ve just got back from Grand Designs Live at the Excel centre, where I was signing Cracking Antiques books with Kathryn this afternoon. Kathryn had given a seminar on incorporating retro furniture in interior design, together with eco-designer Oliver Heath and Wayne Hemingway, the design connoisseur and founder of ‘Red Or Dead’. We were also […]
After my visit to the DDR Museum, I tailed off my taste of Communist Germany by driving an original Trabant across the city with Trabi Safari. All I can say is – brilliant! Such fun, and such a ‘unique‘ car! Once you’ve got over the smell the special oil and petrol mix creates, and the […]
I’m spending this weekend in Berlin, a city I always find inspiring and fascinating to visit. There’s an edgy, progressive feel to the place, nowhere more so than within the contemporary art scene, which is truly ‘world class’. I’m also incredibly fond of design produced under the Communist regime, and love staying in parts of […]
Although I’m usually associated with 20thC design and collectables, I’m an enormous fan of prints, from engravings to etchings and aquatints. I’ve collected them since I was at school, when I used to spend money earnt from my paper round at local antiques fairs and shops. Naturally, at that level, I couldn’t afford anything valuable […]
Kathryn and I hope you all tuned in and enjoyed last night’s episode of Cracking Antiques, where we helped Jodie & Adrian from Stockport find Victorian and Edwardian antiques for their living room with their limited budget. So, if previous weeks are anything to go by, you’ll all be wondering where we went! Well, here […]
Leafing through this morning’s Metro newspaper, I spotted this advertisement for HSBC mortgages. I smiled as the quirky and appealing arrangement of antique pieces, including frames, mirrors, furniture, and glass decanters, is exactly the sort of look that we love on Cracking Antiques. It’s interesting to see how the look is really moving into the […]
With the sun shining and temperatures nearing 20 degrees, this weekend was perfect for a country jaunt and some antiquing. Although the streets of Brighton have been well-trodden lately, I hadn’t been to neighbouring Sussex town Lewes for some years. Which is strangely remiss of me, as I remembered it as being very good indeed. […]
I’ve just got back from attending the four day Antiques For Everyone fair at the NEC in Birmingham with Judith Miller. And what a wonderful – and incredibly busy – four days we had! Hundreds of people stopped by to say hello and chat to Judith and I – and queue for signed books. We […]
Amidst the many reviews of ‘Cracking Antiques’ last week, two made me giggle. The first was courtesy of The Guardian TV Guide, whose reviewer thought I was ‘possibly part Vulcan‘, and the second was in the Leicester Mercury, whose reviewer thought I was ‘like a grown up Thunderbird in a suit‘. I have to say […]
The Guardian newspaper had an interesting article on antiques becoming fashionable and desirable last Thursday. Also covering price rises in silver, click here to read it. I was particularly happy to read this part: “Auction houses suffered a tough recession, with the RICS (Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors) survey revealing price drops across virtually every […]
Last week, I was delighted to be interviewed by Paul Fraser of Paul Fraser Collectibles. The main focus was the new BBC2 TV series I’m co-hosting with interior designer Kathryn Rayward, but as I’m a man of (too?) many words, we soon moved onto many other subjects such as buying online, the recession, and the […]
Cracking Antiques is on a myth-busting mission to prove that people can add style and glamour to any type of home by investing in second-hand, vintage and antique furnishings – without breaking the bank. The prime-time series, which aired on BBC Two from 7th April to 12th May 2010, is presented by interior designer Kathryn Rayward […]