Peterborough - Festival of Antiques

wow!
I bought a bowl with £100 of profit left in it so the Thursday stuff must have been incredible

The Thursday is dealer to dealer trading so stuff just tends to move about between stalls. It might go up in price but I don't think much is lost to the market.

I agree with Dan, it was a really good fair this time. Best since about 2007 for me.

Hi all

Attending Peterborough Festival of Antiques again in October. This is the third time for me and it has always been kind. But in two minds on what to take. I have some very good late Victorian art pottery from some very good names that I planned on taking but undecided on what else to bring?

The car can only take 8 tubs, 4/5 of those are going to be taken up with the art pottery I had planned. My options are:

(1) More art pottery and a selection of studio pottery that I have shown locally twice before.

Or

(2) A large selection of recently picked up studio that I have not sorted and not been seen at any fair?

The trouble is I have to get a certain return to cover costs and just selling a bunch of unknown £10 studio items won't cover it. But I know the unsorted studio will sell very well. The art pottery does have higher retails but bringing more of the same thing as the other tubs? Not sure that is wise.

Thoughts and ideas welcome people. Do I flood the market with studio I don't know who made and turn it over quickly. Or wait, spend weeks sorting and bring more of the same?

it's always good to take some £10.00 items just to cover your expences

how about a roof - rack or trailer?

Taking extra is not really an option I am afraid. Only got a single stall in the new building and they are really strict about footage. I manage to squeeze in a couple of tables and stands but it is a shooting offence to even get a single chair leg over the white lines. Think I am going to need to go over everything with a fine tooth comb. Only taking the best and most saleable.

I think Peterborough is manly about recognised brands so you may struggle to sell obscure stuff & in my experience, dealers tend to sell vintage rather than antique or whacky / novelty items

There is never a great deal of studio at Peterborough.So as you say,it might sell well. But Studio is a funny old market,and as Naomi says,if you have not researched your new studio buys,you might miss that sleeper that costs you dear.

Think I am going to have to take some chances and mix it up a bit. Look out for the guy with Studio pottery marks book in one hand and a smart phone in the other pricing like crazy lol

why not post them here? at least we could identify a few before you sell them

Naomi's right but with much studio pottery knowing who made it isn't going to make it any more valuable. However, I might well come along and, if I do, I will check in case you've missed something.

Thanks Studio  

My problem as always is time. Been a lazy arse and not got what I already have ready for Ardingly next week and I expect I will have the same issue in a month for Peterborough.

My issue is scale. You guys here have always been a joy and I try to be balanced with the advice I am able to give. Compared with the request for information I send out. I don't see it as fair to flood the please ID this sections of this forum with my posts. So when I bought just over a hundred studio items 6 weeks ago you didn't see that many here. The same will be true with the mountain I am planning to bubble wrap to infinity and beyond this week.  So yeah some will slip through, I will price based on cost and quality/skill if I am unable to attribute a name. But that is why I like to think so many of my treasures pop up on eBay and I have some very smiley faces say hello when I display.


Oh and if any of you do see a guy buried under a stall of pottery from Martin brothers to class A from Skegness in your travels , be kind and If I have something you want then mates rates apply to the members of this forum. Just let me know your a poster here.

well let's try and id the interesting ones then
We get so many requests to id poor quality stuff you would be balancing it out by asking for id requests on some better pottery

Post them slowly or they will OD on pots!

Mordeep wrote:

My problem as always is time. Been a lazy arse and not got what I already have ready for Ardingly next week and I expect I will have the same issue in a month for Peterborough.

Hadn't realised it is Ardingly next week. I might pop down but it'll be on the Wednesday, if I do.

I stall out in the Jubilee hall, sandwiched between a sea of shiny Doulton figures and tea sets my friends display for the masses. Fingers crossed I will have managed to get a nice display for everyone set up.

I have posted more pictures on the car boot thread but to give you an idea of the mountain I collected today and taken to my Dad/s here it is. This lot will all need to be sorted.

Well its is 7 days until the next Peterborough festival of antiques.

http://www.festivalofantiques.co.uk/

Looks like the weather could be ok for the outside stalls. For late 19th century art pottery I have yet to find a better event. It brings down dealers from the north as well as those from the south so the mix and selection is very good. I have so far (touch wood) always bought and sold well.

My selection this time will probably be 60% art pottery / 30% studio pottery / 10% interesting cabinet bits. Think that's the safest way to be sure to cover costs. Hope some of you attend, as a fan of pottery I always get excited to see what's about and I think many of you people would be too.

It will be my first time doing P'boro, sharing a double pitch in the Main Arena with a friend. Look out for the stall with the large one-off Alan Clarke tile panel (Poole era ). Bringing along a good mix, mainly Poole but also D.C.W, various glass ( w.m.f. to Midsummer ), Van Briggle, Alan Clarke ...Hope it is as good as people say -I always like to be confident so I'm sure it will be.

Done it 3 times in the past, so this will be my fourth time. Also in the new main hall. It takes a while for people to get to you as that hall is the furthest away from the entrance. I am pretty confident though, people save up for it as it's twice a year and if you have good things they buy.

Its worth mentioning to newer people though that the set up on Thursday is also a selling day. You get a fair few who spend the afternoon looking around buying before putting there own stuff out later in the day or the Fri morning. We aim to get to get to the site earlier than later as a result but of course people still turn up late afternoon. They just miss those customers. Oh and they are very firm about your stand and the space it takes up. If your over your pitch size even a hands width they will make you move it no matter the effort.

Good luck

what will you be selling Mordeep?

Space in our car kind of limits the amount of larger items we can bring. Although I would love to bring more show stoppers, huge art pottery items with real skill displayed. I think realistically it will be heavily slanted towards smaller good art pottery from the late 19th century complimented with studio pottery vases, bowls and chargers. It sounds a funny combination on paper but they work really well together. If you think about it much of the studio pottery is a continuation of the themes artists at the major companies of the 1880's 1890's produced.

My father and I are in the lucky position of having many times more items we could bring than we do. What I always aim to bring though is stuff that has not been flogged to death on the internet or shown around multiple fairs. Its a recipe for a disaster showing old stock. I always revolve or remove, rest items or get rid of things at auction that I have had a while. For this Peterborough compared to the same event 6 months ago, 10% will be the same stuff I have not sold, 40% will be stuff that has been shown a couple of times in the last 6 months. But 50% will have never been shown anyplace, never been on the internet and added to the stall from private sales. It's that last element that I hope will get people visiting and buying. Will have a bit of Martin brothers, some very sought after Blanche Vulliarmy, a fair sized selection of Barnstable potteries, some great studio and a mountain of other stuff hopefully to catch peoples eye.

Apart from the cabinet of curios it will be wall to wall pottery and ceramics, no glass, no wood, no metal. Just pottery

Wish me luck

I aim to be setting up by 12 on thursday and then 'in my perfect parallel universe' sell loads of big pieces the same afternoon ! I am going to bring some large pieces along - those that have hardly ever seen the light of day because they take up too much display space - e.g. a v nice shape 59 poole studio bowl, at 16"dia it is a large bowl.

As it wasn't a million miles to travel and we did not have to stay over night we did a version of your parallel universe display at the last Alexander Palace fair. Put out several large CH Brannam vases, think the biggest was closing in on 30 inches tall with dragon handles (could be yours for less than a holiday in Skegness ). Got some great feedback and plenty of pleasant mumblings but nothing approaching even a sniff of an offer.

Trying to be smart about this Peterborough and edit what we take to make sure we have the widest selection at the widest possible price range. To me that is probably going to mean when faced with the choice taking four smaller vases instead of one larger. Taking what I call display studio (vases, bowls, yunomi, boxes) instead of domestic studio (tea pots, jugs, cups/saucers). Also trying to not take things that have low demand like unsigned studio or items with flaws. It should be a very good display if a little packed in LOL

what's your pitch number?