News

Meetings

Meetings in 2010: The Spring meeting will be on Thursday 13 May 2010 at the Savile Club, 69 Brook Street, London W1. The Autumn meeting and AGM will be held on Saturday 23 October 2010.

Circle Goods

The Circle is able to offer a number of items for sale at attractive prices, including the books "Wine Labels 1730-2003" and "Sauce Labels", booklets, supplements and 'Last Drop' wine labels. The list and prices appear on the Membership page.

Journal

The last Journal to be published was the Autumn 2009 issue, posted to members on 17 September 2009.

News From Dealers and Auction Houses

Mary Cooke Antiques show a substantial number of fine wine and sauce labels to their website. Steppes Hill Farm continues to add labels to their display, most recently in mid January and Schredds regularly updates their website each month with labels. Blinking Star Antiques has a redesigned website. We have a link to the website of  J H Bourdon-Smith, where John Bourdon-Smith is a member; we expect to see labels on their site in due course. Nicholas Shaw has now moved from being a dealer to heading the silver department at Bonhams auctioneers, where we wish him every success and hope we shall see more labels at their auctions. His predecessor at Bonhams, Rupert Slingsby, is now head of the silver department at Woolley & Wallis, where labels are usually included in their quarterly silver sales; and Rupert Slingsby's predecessor at Woolley and Wallis, Alexis Butcher, is now at Lawrence of Crewkerne running the silver department there. All three auctioneers are knowledgeable about labels and we look forward to seeing labels in their sales. These and other sites can accessed from our LINKS page.

Antique Fairs

The number of antique fairs increases as spring approaches, headed by the British Antique Dealers Fair (BADA) in London and the Maastricht fair in Holland. Major antiques fairs noted in MARCH include fairs at the following places:

 North: 5-7 Tatton Park, Knutsford, Cheshire; 6-7 The Pavilion Gardens, Buxton; 6-7 Wetherby Racecourse, Wetherby; 12-14 Linden Hall, Morpeth.  Midlands: 12-14 Staffordshire County Showground, Weston Road, Stafford; 20-21 Trentham Gardens, Trentham on Trent, Staffs.  East: 5-7 Tattersalls, Newmarket; 26-27 East of England Showground, Peterborough.  South: 2-3 South of England Showground, Ardingly; 8-9 Little Chelsea Fair, The Chelsea Old Town Hall, London; 17-21 BADA Fair, The Duke Of York Square, Off Sloane Square, London; 17-21 Chelsea Fair, The Chelsea Old Town Hall, London.  West & Wales: 4-6 The Pavilion, North Parade Road, Bath; 5-7 Wilton House, Salisbury; 6-7 United Counties Showround, Carmarthen; 19-21 Royal Bath & West Showground, Shepton Mallet; 26-28 Westonbirt School, Tetbury, Gloucs.  and Overseas: 12 - 21 TEFAF - Maastricht Exhibition and Congress Centre, Netherlands; 27-28 Dunquerque Antiques Fair,  Kursaal, Dunkerque, France

There are fuller listings and more details of fairs on two websites Antiques Trade Gazette and Antiques News and other fairs will be advertised in the local press; and it's always wise to check dates and times before travelling as these can change. There will also be many smaller, local fairs during the month which can often prove interesting.