Antique hunting

We sell our antique furniture where we are based in Oxfordshire – so not far from London where people will hunt for antiques, as well as only 35 minutes from the historic town of Oxford. London Heathrow is also only half an hour away so we are well served to invite antiques buyers by appointment here just outside Henley-on-Thames. We also have a permanent stand down near Tetbury which is a mecca for both antiques and for interior designers coming to source antiques and decorative antique items for their clients.

Our own hunt for antiques to sell takes us across the country at various antique fairs, some small, some just for the antiques’ trade, while others also welcome the general public. Early starts to the day are the norm, and often traipsing around at dawn in the dark or semi-light is what it’s all about, to find the best pieces and strike a deal as soon as you can. A torch and a tape measure are things we all have stashed away in a pocket for these occasions and a strong coffee is often well earned by 8am.

Even some of the fairs in sunny Provence can be cold and wet affairs.  One particular antiques’ fair that takes place most Saturday mornings in some form or another starts at 5am…at least, that’s when some of the French antiques dealers are putting up their stands and tables and emptying their vans, so again, the early bird catches the worm….but with a torch – it’s still dark in February down there in the early hours and the birds haven’t even got up when we have.  Espressos by 6.30am in this case! 

The start of some of the trade fairs down in France are frenetic, with selling antiques dealers as well as buyers all waiting behind locked gates until 8am on the dot when they open to a massive rush and almost a stampede. A lot of people know exactly where they are going and I now tend to have a route with some of them but I have also learnt that whilst you need to make a decision there and then about buying an antique piece before another antique dealer buys it, just walk slowly and calmly – you still get there and you can’t be in more than one place at a time anyway, so you have to accept the fact that as much as you will find some lovely antique pieces, you will miss some too as others have got there first.  I need a runner – anyone out there???