This weekend, I flew to New York — for lunch! I was lucky enough to be flying out to the Big Apple to meet my old business colleague and good friend Julian Ellison, founder and CEO of LiveAuctioneers. Julian founded the company after leaving our alma mater icollector, which we both ended up effectively running […]
It may have been the 13th Cambridge Glass Fair, but the only people who were unlucky were those who didn’t visit! But there can’t have been many of them, as this fair was amongst the very busiest I have attended – and I’ve been going since the first. The queue began to build an hour […]
With things a little tighter for most of us this year, it’s great to find a place where we can still feed our addictions without breaking the bank. That place is certainly Alfie’s Antiques Market in north west London, where I have just spent an extremely enjoyable and fruitful two days. Whatever it is that […]
It’s true – one of the greatest antique and collectables events in the South of England has returned. Early last year, long-standing event organiser Pig & Whistle held the last of their immensely popular fairs at historic Alexandra Palace in London. With the venue looking set to become a casino, it was curtains for this […]
…buy vintage! The market for vintage clothing has boomed over the past few years, even entering the ‘mainstream’ with high street stores such as TopShop and TopMan even stocking vintage lines. We’ve certainly become a lot more ‘individual’ in our tastes for interior decoration and the way we dress. One of the best sources I […]
It’s always nice to find out that friends are doing well, especially those that you have sadly lost touch with. Reading the ‘Style’ section of the Sunday Times over breakfast this morning, I spotted a large article on my old colleague and friend Sara Covelli. Sara, and her friend Janie Tennant, have founded Covelli Tennant […]
I’ve just got back from a fruitful day’s worth of photography for the next edition of the Miller’s Collectables Price Guide. Today I travelled to West London to visit the lovely Lesley of Retropolitan. We spent a fun and interesting day together chatting about favourite items and recent trends in the market. Of course, it […]
The next day began with a gentle walk around historic Gastown, and down to the harbour. Watching seaplanes take off and land made us curious and, before we knew it, the banker and I had booked ourselves in for a 20 minute airborn tour of the city and nearby mountains with Harbour Air Seaplanes. I’m […]
After the excitement of the wedding, we drove and flew on to Vancouver to see in the new year…and do a bit of shopping. After hitting the chain stores along Robson St, some time was found for purchases of a more vintage nature. Searches on the internet had shown Main Street, between 6th St and […]
In search of the elusive ‘White Christmas’, this year the banker and I travelled to the Canadian Rockies, where snow is pretty much guaranteed. So is icy cold, and with temperatures as low as -27 degrees, it’s certainly the coldest I have ever been. Still that didn’t stop us getting around, driving through the beautiful […]
I’ve just spent one of the most enjoyable days of the year in Reading, Berkshire, at Mid20C, owned by my friend and long-time antique and 20thC design dealer Al Baynham. Those who have bought the Fat Lava DVD will have seen him being interviewed at the original Fat Lava exhibition in 2006. It was unsurprising, […]
This weekend saw a series of special events at Isle of Wight Studio Glass, nestled under the cliffs near Ventnor. I had been invited down to sign copies of my book, and to chat to collectors about pieces from their collections. And collectors and glass fans certainly turned up, creating a buzzy atmosphere that was […]