74 19th June 2010 fairs & markets The revival continues
Joan Porter reports
LIKE many other small businesses, reclamation yards have been affected by the ongoing decline in the building industry. Casualties have included one of the best-known yards, Walcot Reclamation in Bath. It went into administration last year, selling its entire stock early this year, but now there is some good news: it has been bought by MASCo, the Stroud-based architectural salvage firm.
The Salvo Fair, from Friday to Sunday, June 25 to 27, will see 500 tons of yesterday’s building materials, architectural salvage and garden antiques being offloaded at Knebworth Park in anticipation of 6000 visitors. Here we talk to some of the dealers at the fair for whom the mood is buoyant.
Opening a new – or rather a reclaimed – door
PETER Watson of Cox’s Architectural Salvage Yard in Moreton-in-Marsh echoed the views of most reclamation dealers that while private building is in the doldrums and there is less demolition work, there are far more renovation projects. And renovation is what Peter will be doing at the fair.
Last year it was gravestones, this year he has something lighter: reclaimed doors
Left: carved Portland stone keystones of two famous nurses and humanitarians, Florence Nightingale and Edith Cavell (Florence Nightingale shown), which were removed from the facade of St Thomas’s Hospital, London, in 2004. V&V Reclamation of Hertfordshire are offering them for sale at the Salvo Fair at £1200 each. There are four other keystones from the hospital at the same price from V&V and these have coats of arms carved on them. Florence Nightingale had a long involvement with St Thomas’s, setting up her famous nursing school there in 1859.
Below left: last year’s Salvo Fair.
Owner Justin Miles-Booy told ATG: “The tightening of the housing market has had an impact, with many projects on hold. A good part of the market now is the ‘golden oldies’, people in their 50s and 60s who are downsizing and want something a bit more special for their homes.
“What we are seeing, too, is the trade specialising in one product, the Google effect, targeting the web market.” Among other pieces, Justin will be taking some of his stained glass doors and, for lovers of Gothic Revivalism, a pair of gothic oak panels from a Victorian church on the Isle of Wight which have been converted to mirrors and are priced at £995.
– lots of them, from £25 to £3500. Peter is also taking part of his workshop plus 20 English doors, from Tudor period plank to Victorian four- panel, and will be renovating them on site to sell at £75 to £500. “It’s about showing a bit more of what goes into the trade other than buying and selling,” he explained. “Salvois a good fair. Visitors get to see a far bigger variety of dealers than in their local area, the trade move stock around between
them and, of course, it’s a very social occasion.”
It’s a generation thing today
FROM their yard in Petersfield, Arc Reclamation also reclaim and restore with a particular emphasis on stained glass doors, a speciality of the business.
And £300,000 takings in one day to boot…
QUEUING up for signed copies of Sir Peter Blake’s new print, visitors to the Vauxhall Art Car Boot Fairquickly snapped up each and every one of the Chiswick-based artist’s new edition on offer.
The sixth outing of this annual event organised by Karen
Ashton and held at the Old Truman Brewery in Brick Lane, East London, on June 6, saw works by Gavin Turk and Billy Childish being sold alongside a diverse range of pictures, badges, T-shirts and a host of other artistic objects. The entertainment this year included jazz and live wrestling. Overall, the 4000 visitors spent around £300,000 – not bad for a single day at any art fair.
Ecclesiastical recycling
CHURCH demoliton is rather a dead market currently, but Lawrence Skilling, who with Steve Williams started Antique Church Furnishings in Walton- on-Thames 14 years ago, says that they are very busy with what Lawrence calls the bread and butter of church furniture. “It’s a smaller market now and harder
to buy really OTT pieces and, as ever, really good stuff is hard to get,” he says. To Salvowill go the ever-popular pews and chapel chairs, possibly their ornate Victorian harmonium (£850), maybe an eagle lectern, an unusual Chinese altar (£650), plus some religious statues, many of which are bought back from the business by other churches, a good example of ecclesiastical recycling.
Trade day at Salvo Fair at Knebworth Park is on Friday, June 25. Public days are Saturday and Sunday, June 26 and 27, from 11am to 4pm. Tel: 01225 422300
www.salvo-fair.com
send information on fairs and markets to Joan Porter at fairs@antiquestr adegazette .com
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