Wood Green 5/6th April

A 5am start to the weekend is the stuff nightmares are made of.  At 5am your brain goes on the mode that you are either a child again being put in the car at 5am by your parents to go on holiday to Cornwall ( the days before the roads were as good as they are now and it then took 12 hrs) or you are going to an airport to catch a plane for your holiday, it does NOT tell you, that you are about to descend into organised chaos at an antique fair with several hundred other people.

When we arrived, as usual we had to wait outside for the security guards to come and open up (I am sure these people take great pleasure in taking their time, sniggering at the fact there are several hundred frustrated dealers out in the dawn cold, while they sip their hot tea in comfort). The waiting is where you get to know each other.  We were entertained this time by a lady from Norfolk, who gave us her latest story.  Apparently driving from Norfolk to West Midlands a couple of months ago at 3am in the morning in her transit van to a show, she was stopped by the police, after checking she wasn't a burglar or a terrorist they let her continue.  15 miles down the road she was stopped again by another police car...getting slightly impatient she explained that she had just been stopped earlier by their colleague they gave the van a once over and let her go.  30 miles later, lo and behold blue lights again.  This time being rather cross she gave the policeman a piece of her mind.  However this policeman wasn't a 'nice one' he asked her when the last time was she had had an alcoholic drink, to which she replied "Christmas". The policeman was NOT amused and told her to try again, by then the poor woman was getting fed up as she is one of the rare breed of people who doesn't really like alcohol ! Finally they let her go and she got to her destination an hour and half late.  Seems our police force are barking up the wrong trees these days.

Finally we saw the security guards through the window and a cheer goes up, however the security guards deliberately avoid looking at the windows and go scuttling  past, 10 mins later the doors are finally thrown open and the dealers descend into a huge empty arena to start the setting up.

This is the most amazing sight, because suddenly this empty space becomes a hive of activity and building!!! Sometimes when I stop my "building" to catch my breath or rest a while I watch the place transforming into one mass of pop up "shops" it's quite beautiful really with all the lights, decorations, stalls, cloths, shelves, props and antiques.

Day one...a busy day we did well.  At 4.50 we were getting ready to close for 5pm when a couple came past and saw a pile of "homemaker" pottery we were just about to cover up.  After what seemed forever they decided to buy it ( by then we seem to have become surrounded by a group of security personnel who were tapping their feet and looking at us in a way that suggested they wanted us out fast) the customer decided to pay by credit card....ohhhhhh so excited as I get to use my new credit card machine for the first time yippee.  You guessed it, after two attempts it wouldn't work ( we were starting by then to feel as if we were surrounded by a ring of hungry wolves in fluoresce jackets) so we all beat a hasty retreat outside as the huge doors slammed shut, and the customer paid by cheque.

Day 2 (feeling smug as we at least got our own back by making security wait for US for a change) the day went well.  Pack up time started (another amazing scene as everything vanishes in the space of an hour back to a cold huge deserted arena) lo and behold a customer comes over as we pack to buy ALL of my Art Nouveau candlesticks.  It's one of those moments when you are both happy and annoyed, happy because its a sale, annoyed because you have to unpack the  b****y things and you wonder why, when she saw them earlier, she didn't buy them then !!!!!

Finally cars loaded off we go to the A14, home exhausted.  Tony very meeved because he has missed the start of F1 on Sky, we however catch the end and Hamilton winning cheered him up no end, he even agrees to going to get a take away (there is a god!!!)

Bottle(s) of wine later we crawl off to bed....all done and dusted, but only till next weekend (arghhhh)

Peterborough 20 - 22 march

After a week of bubble wrapping, sorting and pricing up for the big spring event at Peterborough, the day finally arrived.  Last year was horrific, it snowed and snowed...after a month of praying to the gods of weather, the dreaded TV forecast showed a cold spell on the way.  Fortunately no snow, but cold nights, meaning thermal underwear, coats, socks and boots...all this after the previous t shirt weekend when we sat on the patio in the sun !
Arrived noon, to meet the dreaded queues of traders waiting to descend -a new town within a City was springing up.  Cars lorries campers caravans of all shapes and sizes, old new foreign and British. After a 2hr wait (which is so typical of the organisers who couldn't  organise a piss up in a brewery ) we all finally got in, only for more chaos as they forgot to make it a one way system, meaning traffic moving from 5 different directions came to a gridlock in the middle.  Resulting in several thousand traders cursing and swearing, even mild natured Tony went out to give the traffic control security a piece of his mind. Four hours later, stall finally set up we crawled back to a freezing cold camper van no hook up to electricity , drank copious amounts of wine and fell asleep.  Next morning 6am boiled eggs and toast, back to the stalls.  8am the traders come in, in their thousands to buy....we had a great day, the sun shone and suddenly the frustration of Thursday vanished. Following day Saturday when the public came in...it was cram packed, but we like most of the other traders had a dreadful day, no one wanted to part with their money and haggled on everything, even if it was £1...shows us that the recession is nowhere near over :-( and too many of them actually believe they are going to get the discounts that they miraculously do on Bargain Hunt and Antiques road Trip
Of course bargain hunt appeared, so did Eric Knowles (who upset our friends next door to us by saying aloud on camera their posters were reproductions when walking past, he never even stopped to look at them...well as they were original, and had cost them a lot of money, they rounded on the film crew and gave them a piece of their minds.  The film crew smelling a potential riot of like minded traders ganging up on them, beat a hasty retreat :-)
The man who wears funny bow ties and leads bargain hunt, came to our stall...I made excuses to tony and bolted to the van to make tea.  When I got back I asked tony if he noticed, and of course  Tony had been walking around with his eyes shut and never even saw him :-)
Well it's been and gone, and over till October....was it worth it..yes because I learn very time I go, I see lots of people who have now become friends, and learn from them.  However I have total respect and praise for those who trade in any 'pop up' situation, be them market traders, craft traders, antique traders or any trade that has to build up and dismantle a shop front to sell. Because my god, it is such hard work, it leaves me totally mentally and physically exhausted for about 24 hrs afterwards :-(

Back to Market Harborough 9th March

Had a two week break from selling, today was back to the antique market in Market Harborough.  You might remember me saying previously the original market moved from the town centre to a school, for temporary reasons due to refurbishment of the market hall.  I don't think it's worked out very well due to people not being aware and bad signage, however it moves back soon so will be a relief, we have booked up our new stall so will be interesting to see how things go now.
Transporting a load of antiques, not to mention all the stands and display cabinets is pretty much a nightmare, it takes about an hour just to set up which leaves me pretty much in a ratty mood and poor Tony regularly gets his head bitten off!
This Sunday footfall wasn't brilliant, but because I had a cabinet full of oriental curiosities and pretty rare stuff, quite a few dealers descended on me like a swarm of locust.  Now dealers..being those who are IN the trade, are a pretty difficult lot to deal with.  There are the the godmother and godfather dealers, who you can't piss off unless you want to find a horses head in your bed! There are the "woe is me" dealers who come along try to knock you down to the bear minimum with tales of woe and the   "Devious dealers" who try to tell you something you have (which they really want) is nowhere near as valuable as you thought it might be.
Unfortunately I got all three categories on Sunday, the big mama of All godmothers turns up first, sweetly smiles and pretends to be our bestest friend, we haggle...now haggling with a godmother is pretty hard..but we haggle throw along a few very snide insults at each other..and finally we shake..she buys several items and knocks an eye watering £150 off my profits....now while u might think I am stark staring raving bonkers...I am..BUT she has offloaded me of several items of stock very quickly, still at a comfortable amount MORE than I paid for them, so I get a quick turnover.  Next up is one of the "woe is me" brigade, trying to tell me my lockets are too expensive for him to buy, and how much he likes them...I stand my ground and he comes back three times in 2 hrs with different stories, his speciality being how hard he is finding it to cope with inflexible dealers like me. Finally he coughs up and hobbles off.
Last of all is Mr Devious....he tries to convince me that my gold chain is not gold..and gives me a lecture on how I am charging too much......Tony to the rescue tells him in a very polite way to.piss off, I sold the chain later to a delighted member of the public..so had a great deal of satisfaction telling Mr Devious when he crawled back that I had sold it ( tee hee)
It can be quite intimidating and I am still learning ( after a lot of mistakes) how to deal with these traders, but its dog eat dog in the antique business, if you think Eastenders and Coronation Street are a bunch of gossiping miserable man eating, devious creeps, then they are nothing compared to the antiques business.  Forget Bargain Hunt, they should start up a soap about Antiques!!  Some of them are quite bad..one was showing me how they had "tarted up" an old box with matchsticks in gravy browning to make it match a missing piece..now while they did a very good job, the box was selling for £150 (!) so please look very carefully at anything you are looking to buy at an antique fair or market because you can't return it.  In shops, antique emporiums etc, you usually can, and even better develop a good relationship with a trader you can trust (I have a couple I regularly buy from I can trust) and you will be more protected.  Also remember paying online by credit card and PayPal gives you even more protection, so if you use eBay try to pay by PayPal or credit card.
Anyway my next stint at antique selling is PETERBOROUGH  at the east of England show ground on Fri and Sat 21/22 March.  http://www.bobevansfairs.co.uk/east-of-england-showground.htm
This is HUGE and sells just about everything (it's where many Bargain hunt and Put your money 
where your mouth is programmes are filmed) well worth a day out :-)

Being an antiques dealer

I never really 'set out' to become a dealer..it's something that happened after I found myself redundant.  I have always been passionate about antiques, my mother was as well and I was already collecting in my 20's.  Why did I become one..well it came in passing with different people, and finally my other half gave me the push I needed, he was already a successful Railwayanna dealer..so it kind of 'happened'.
What's it like being a dealer?  Difficult one that! While I am already passionate about antiques, being a dealer takes a bit of the shine off it, because you are buying to SELL not buying for YOUSELF as a collector.  This means the excitement of going to antique fairs to buy, becomes the absolute nightmare of going to SELL.  Why a nightmare you may ask..well here goes
1) getting up at the crack of dawn is not something for those who love their beds like me
2) being organised...I am the worlds worse organiser
3) packing the car the night before when all you want is to curl up in front of the TV with a glass of Merlot
4) offloading all the stuff when you get there and setting up ( inevitably leads to some really bad arguments)
5) waiting for someone to buy with baited breath, 5 hrs later you are still waiting!
6) toilet break, tea break, lunch break WHAT BREAK?
7) packing up afterwards is even worse than unloading
Then you have to do it ALL OVER AGAIN
Oh my days !!!
But then the good points are
1) you generate an income albeit a small one
2) you are your own boss
3) you don't have to worry about Monday's
4) you can watch TV when you want
5) you get to obtain some absolutely fabulous pieces ( ok you have to sell them but just for a short while they are YOURS)
6) you can slouch around in your onesie and no-one sees you (well except the poor traumatised postman)
Being a DEAF antiques dealer is slightly even worse, because you get dear old gentlemen wanting to buy something mumbling at you to ask the price, and look like a deer in the headlights when you mention you are deaf! Mind you, I usually get a lecture about how they have lost their hearing or their wife's mothers auntie has a deaf dog.
Bidding at auction (hysterical laughter) is...well...educating.  The auctioneer goes so fast and their language is so weird you need a crash course in auction language before you set foot through the door.  I have since learnt anything with the dreaded letters AF (as found) is a pottery equivalence of a car crash (cups with no handles, jars with no bottoms, clocks that don't and never will work again)
(After buying several AF lots myself ) I usually bid online ( oh the wonders of the Internet) although they slap you with a charge for doing so...discrimination you yell...actually in the world of antiques I doubt anyone knows what discrimination means !
However...in the journey I have made many great friends, met many weird wonderful people (like me) gone to many places I never would have, woken up to the fact the antique world is another 'community' with bitchiness, rivalry and backstabbing (which I find so very funny because when in the deaf community I thought we were the only ones who did that). I have experienced  all weather ( and sleeping in the snow) I have sat outside basking in the sun and cursing in the rain, I have learnt how to manipulate, flutter eyelashes and play the little old lady when necessary and of course I have learnt about many antiques I never even knew existed, their background, their collectors and of course their prices!
I have got myself easily identified as "that nice little deaf lady" so I stick out like a sore thumb in spite of hardly knowing anyone's names everyone knows ME! I get the usual thumbs up sign, the usual kiss, hug and of course the goldfish mouthing of 'hello' or 'how are you my dearie' so I have become the antique dealers pet...the only deafie in the village
Would I change it? Well sometimes it's lonely, sometimes I miss the excitement of Fridays, and the team effect, Christmas holidays, bank holidays and so on, but hey I can go in the garden and drink wine in the sun whenever I want, keep lots of animals to satisfy my "mother earth" part of my personality.

All in all it's a challenge, it's not a nine to five job supporting a money grabbing giant, fighting stupid systems and red tape, it's not something you have to dress up for, follow corporate rules with endless pointless meetings.  It's about using your brain for YOU, using your guts for YOU generating an income for YOU.

Well I am now off to feed my hens, ducks, cats and my dog..then I will visit my granddaughter, have a cup of tea then get back to sorting out my antiques for the next fair.  I will forget about early mornings, horrid weather and unloading cars for the time being :-)

The difference between Art Nouveau and Deco

Well first of all it's all about the style and then the time period.

Art Nouveau can be said to have originated in the 1880's and lasted until the start of the First World War in 1914 (although there was an overlap with items in the art nouveau style continuing to be produced into the 1920s)

. It derived its name from Maison de l'Art Nouveau, an interior design gallery opened in Paris in 1896. The style had many different names throughout Europe being known as Jugendstil in Germany, Sezessionstilin Austria, Modernista in Spain, Stile Liberty and Floreale in Italy. It was a reaction against the historicism which had plagued the 19th century.

Art Nouveau has an almost organic feel to it appearing more to have grown than to have been created by man.

The style was most likely to have been influenced by William Morris, the arts and crafts movement as well as the pre Raphelites

Art Deco (or Art Moderne) was itself then a reaction against the Art Nouveau style and was very popular in the 20's and 30's but wasn't actually termed Art Deco until the 1960's deriving its name from the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs Industriels et Modernes. It was an elegant style of cool sophistication in architecture and the applied arts, which ranged from luxurious objects made from exotic material to mass produced, streamlined items available to a growing middle class. The style was crisper and more geometric then Art Nouveau.  The discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamen November 1922was a major influence on the Art Deco style) and Mayan influences and contemporary art deco styling.

This style spanned the boom of the roaring 1920s and the bust of the Depression-ridden 1930s. Art Deco represented many things for many people. It was the style of the flapper girl and the factory, the luxury ocean liner and the skyscraper, the fantasy world of Hollywood and the real world of the Harlem Renaissance. Art Deco affected all forms of design, from the fine and decorative arts to fashion, film, photography, transport and product design. It was modern and it was everywhere

When we refer to articles made for the home the most obvious (and well known) examples of the Art Nouveau style are the glass of Emile Galléand Tiffany, the furniture of Majorelle and Liberty, the metal wares from the German manufacturer W.M.F. and once again Liberty. The sculptures in bronze and ivory by Chiparus, Preiss and Lorenzl, theexquisite glass of René Lalique, the English Odeon cinema's of the 1930's, and the pottery of Clarice Cliff, typify the various styles and movements that come under the umbrella term of Art Deco.

So to sum up my very brief explanation of these two styles, think fluidity, organic and whiplash motifs for Art Nouveau and streamlined, geometric, shiny and "modern" for Art

Deco. Of course not everything made during these periods can be called Art Nouveau and Art Deco. A vase from the year 1900 isn’t automatically described as being Art Nouveau. A table isn't an example of Art Deco just because it was made in 1930. Why not? Well, as I said at the start, it's all about the style...

Technically speaking, or should I say artistically speaking, we should only identify something 'Art Deco Style' or ‘Art Nouveau Style’ if it was produced during the correct dates since that is when the design stylesoriginated.

Many art historians and purists scoff at the 'new' Art Deco/Nouveau. The common sentiment is that the revival items produced today aresomewhat lacking in character and cheapens the meaning and symbolism of the original movemens. I agree to an extent.

I think that the revival pieces when they are created as an homage to Art Deco/Nouveau, as opposed to trying to completely 'knock-off' an original piece, can be just as beautiful and exude just as much character as the work previously produced

More reading

ART NOUVEAU

http://www.scva.ac.uk/education/resources/pdfs/13.pdf

ART DECO

http://www.art-deco-style.com/k/page/a/art-deco/" http://www.vam.ac.u    

http://www.art-deco-style.com/k/page/a/art-deco/

Market Harborough

Every Sunday there is an antique and collectable fair in Market Harborough.  This used to be held in the Market Hall, but it has now moved to the Assembly Rooms at Welland Park Academy, Welland Park Road, Market Harborough, until April, due to redevelopment work going on at the Market Hall.
Sunday the 19th was the first time we started in the new venue, and were welcomed back with smiles, greetings and hugs from existing traders.The new room looked promising, huge car park, easy access, all facilities inc a cafe.  Hall very well lit and spaced out plenty of room so seemed ideal until we found out we had no power supply for our lamps, but since it was so well lit it didn't really matter.  Surprisingly there was a very good footfall of people and quite a few traders came in early ( I had two fighting over my Mappin&Webb Bridge set) and stuff started to fly!!  Good selection is stuff ranging from books, postcards, pictures, bric a brac, to serious antiques such as jewellery, Moorcroft, Dresden, clocks and silverware.
Being outside the town centre (just) I was slightly worried, but it seemed to be a success, so now it's establishing its new venue hopefully it will continue until the Market Hall is complete.
The market is a good place for bargain hunting as quite a few items are cheaper than the bigger antique fairs as there are fewer overheads and the stalls are cheap to rent.
I go back again on the 2nd and 16th February, 9th and 16th March, a lot is happening beyond March so we will be pacing ourselves in-between other major fairs. 

Pandora charms, beads bracelets and other items

There is a flood of fakes coming into the market from all directions.  A lot of websites have set up purposing to sell pandora beads even using their logo and the quality is very hard to tell the difference. If you have doubts about your item take it to Pandora they can help, sometimes items are damaged over time.  If your bead/charm dies not spin, there are two reasons 1) the inside thread is damaged 2) it is not pandora
Pandora remains very popular and will be an investment in the future, however be warned because they are massed produced they will not be a big investment unless you Aim for the rarer beads/charms

You can find a list of official online retailer below. 

www.acotisdiamonds.co.uk
www.argento.co.uk
www.beadazzle.co.uk
www.emsonhaig.com
www.estore.pandora.net
www.giftandwrap.co.uk
www.houseoffraser.co.uk
www.hughrice.co.uk
www.johngreedjewellery.co.uk
www.joshuajamesjewellery.co.uk
www.mococo.co.uk
www.steffans.co.uk
www.swaguk.co.uk
www.thbaker.co.uk
www.thejewelhut.co.uk
www.whittakersjewellers.co.uk