A History of LAPADA
Autumn 2014
FORTY YEARS ON: A HISTORY OF LAPADA
Mark Bridge surveys the rise of the UK’s largest Association of Art & Antiques Dealers
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974 was a turbulent year. The power cuts and three-day week which saw in the New Year came to an end with the return of a Labour Govern-
ment, but by August there was new consternation. The threatened introduction of a wealth tax on art buyers, coming on top of the introduction of VAT on second- hand goods the previous year, persuaded some of Brit- ain’s antique dealers that it was time for a national as- sociation to represent their interests. Trade was generally good but the proliferation of red tape posed an ominous threat to the free-and- easy life dealers had traditionally enjoyed. Since 1918,
the British Antique Dealers’ Association had offered prestige to the antique dealing elite, but it was felt that the BADA had done little for the great majority of the trade who were nevertheless contributing substan- tially to the country’s economy without recognition or representation. So LAPADA grew out of the hurly-burly of London’s Bermondsey market, the hub of the booming export trade. Legend has it that ten founder subscribers put their money in a beer mug and the fledgling London and Provincial Antique Dealers’ Association was on the wing.
Above Three of the founding fathers at LAPADA’s launch party in 1974. Geoffrey Yeo, left, was a Stockport dealer who became the association’s authority on VAT, having fought a lone campaign against its introduction in 1973. Ian Whitfield, centre, was the entrepreneur and visionary who gave LAPADA its original impetus and funding. Philip Broadbridge, right, was the quiet pragmatist and diplomat who pulled everything together and actually made LAPADA work. For the next 20 years he championed the antiques trade and his campaigning letters to the national press became legendary.
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