Northumbrian Antiques & Collectors Fair

We have just returned from the Northumbrian Antiques & Collectors Fair organised by Malcolm Eglin and his family which was held from Friday 17th to Sunday 19th. The event took place in Corbridge on the Tyne in Northumberland and was attended by approximately 80 different dealers exhibiting a wide variety of antiques and objets d'art
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The fair is a first and a bit of a leap of faith to establish whether the good people of Newcastle and Northumberland would attend in sufficient numbers to make the fair a success. Overwhelmingly, the leap of faith proved to be justified -  it quite obviously ticked all the right boxes for both exhibitors and those who attended.A great time was had by all!

Graham Smith Antiques marquee

The large marquee housing many different dealers

              The Fair started at 9.00 on the Friday morning and people started arriving immediately and the sales followed all through the day and so it continued for many of the dealers. Overall the weather was better than predicted by the forecasters but the forecast was certainly spot on for the Saturday when we had heavy rain throughout the early hours of the morning and all through the day.

The flooding outside the large marquees

                                                                                                                  
        Despite the marquees and outside pitches suffering badly throughout Saturday due to the rain, Malcolm and his team worked ceaselessly to help make the best out of a difficult situation. The weather didn't put off the hardy customers who kept coming all day long although in lower numbers than if the weather had been better.
Sunday started cloudy but no rain and as the weather improved so did the attendance so it ended up being a very busy day - I lost count of the number of people I talked to, measured items for, gave advertising flyers to - but it was certainly none stop! In fact, we made more sales on Sunday than the other two days put together.  One customer purchased three pieces of furniture and, as they lived locally, we were able to deliver the items as the fair came to a close - very convenient for all concerned!

To sum up I would say that Malcolm has hit on a great idea and now has a big success on his hands that I can see growing steadily in the years to come.

Graham 

Graham Smith Antiques has been established for 14 years but Graham has been in the antiques business for 40 years. We trade on line and from showrooms on the edge of the city of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK and all the items shown on the website are available to view at the showrooms where they are displayed in four room settings - for ease of viewing. As long time members of LAPADA [the Association of Art and Antiques Dealers], the UK's largest trade association for professional art and antiques dealers, we want all our customers to be confident to buy from us on line or in person and make every effort to make each sale a pleasure. Please take some time to read our Testimonials page which can be found on the home page of our website.
                                       

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