Wednesday, July 23, 2008

 

23rd July Ardingly Antiques Fair

We arrived at the showground at Ardingly just after 8 o'clock. It was still quite quiet and we began to browse the stalls to see what interested us and to learn things and just to have a good time.
We did enjoy ourselves - but it is exhausting, walking around the vast area. Our legs ache this evening.

I think the most valuable thing we learned was that generally we are pricing things about right.

We have good quality items at reasonable prices - you can't say that of all the things on view today.
I suppose we have seen everything from the sublime to the ridiculous.

If I had a plan in my head it was to seek out something very 1950s and also something juvenile. I also planned not to buy more art glass today, because I have a reasonable amount - but I could have been so tempted by wonderful 50s and 60s glass in a range of colours and shapes.



I have admired this stall on previous visits to the fair - the dealers display so well. Most of this glass is earlier than that which I would specialise in.


Here are some juvenile items that we didn't get tempted by. Japanese tin robots from the 1950s can sell for hundreds of pounds - but these were not them.
They were caked in dust - so thick was it that we wondered if it had been sprayed on to give an illusion of age.


Well of course I am not into furniture buying.
I just liked the line up of old chairs on the grass. There were in fact 6 chairs, but one was standing on a blue tarpaulin and was not photogenic enough to be included!
You can see that we spent most of our time wandering round the outside stalls, deluding ourselves that these stalls would be cheaper than those inside.
We had the pleasure of chatting to a number of the dealers - but saw nobody who we knew.
Friends might have been there - but the chances of bumping into anybody in that size of fair are pretty slim.


I said we saw ridiculous items - now I wonder who is the person who might be tempted by the dummies.
And by the look of the wording of the van, the seller may well have brought them down from Bradford in hope of finding a buyer.
But then there are people from all over the world at a big antiques fair - many French and Dutch come over to sell.
So, we refused plastic robots and dummies and couldn't afford fine glass - so did we buy anything?
Bill did not.
But I found my juvenile items and a 1950s vase.


I hope I can at least double my money on these nursery rhyme items.

The 1950s vase is by Beswick, one of the most collectable 20th century makes and is everything a 1950s vase should be. I love it.
I had to pay £20 for it - and maybe will only make a fiver on it, so I shall just enjoy it and feel proud of it on my shelf in the shop.
These days I don't think we should be buying very much for us - the house is full of our collections of things and we realise that we should be reducing the amount, rather than adding to it all.
BUT...... I just couldn't resist.
I have a good collection of Olympic Games items and one stall had many tins of all kinds which I also love.
So we bought a tin in almost perfect condition for the 1956 Games in Melbourne.


This will join the display in the bedroom this evening.
Interestingly it was bought at just about the same spot that a photograph of cousin David and one of his Ayrshires were photographed at the beginning of June at the agricultural show.
Yes - the tin was bought from one of the inside dealers.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By half past twelve you can imagine that we had had enough. Our legs felt weary and so did our brains. It was impossible to take any more in.
We could have gone straight home, but decided to treat ourselves instead. We went to The Red Lion at Turners Hill. It must be 10 years or so since we have been there; back to the time when we were with Pat and Jo at the antiques shop in Turners Hill.
The pub has changed hands since then, prices have risen but the basic village pub has not changed a bit.
I had Thai fish cakes, rice and a sweet chilli sauce. Bill had haddock and prawns in a cheese sauce with huge chunks of brown bread and salad.
This evening we have needed very little to eat - just lots of drink. The riders in the Tour de France in the Alps today must have needed lots of drink too.
The ability to race up steep 15 kilometre climbs is just amazing.
Well, time for another cuppa very soon and we can catch up with Emmerdale.
I think we will have a day at home tomorrow - apart from my trip to the dentist in the morning.
Goodnight.


23rd July Ardingly Antiques Fair
posted by Grandma P on Wednesday, July 23, 2008