Sailing Misadventures & Selling Antiques at the Beach

Here's a thunderstorm rolling in over the
last of the sunset colours.  It's always
amazing to see these storms from the
vantage point of the Mountain Stronghold.


 

In the last week we’ve been enjoying the enormous electrical storms that have developed on many evenings, giving spectacular lightening displays from horizon to horizon.  My favourite type of lightening is the one that crackles seemingly for miles long the bottom of the clouds.  We most often see that type at night, with the air very still and absolute silence on the mountain (non-stop crickets and cicadas aside).  It’s a beautiful sight.

We’ve also had a few big thunderstorms, and even 10 minutes of hailstones for the second time ever.  I saw on the television news that there had been significant damage around the area from the thunderstorms and hail, but nothing ever happens up at the Mountain Stronghold.  You’d think we would get our fair share of bad weather up here, but the mountain’s escarpment offers a great deal of protection. 

Doug says it's very beautiful at Airlie Beach,
but hot, hot, hot.

Doug has headed north to Airlie Beach in the Whitsundays, to go sailing with a friend for a week, and I’ve taken the opportunity to hunker down with the moggies and have some alone time.  Occasional alone time is a good thing – it gives you an opportunity to miss each other.  We used to own a racing yacht and I did enjoy sleeping on it sometimes, collapsing onto a bunk after a hard day’s racing, all tired, wet and windblown, and more than a little salt-encrusted.  But these days I’m more of a day-trip sailor - I want sunshine and dolphins, a little bit of champagne (because we don’t drink and sail, nosiree), perhaps a pleasant picnic lunch, and no rogue waves.  So although Airlie Beach is very beautiful it’s also an 11 hour drive from Eumundi, so you really have to commit to sleeping on your boat or forking out for a hideously expensive resort. 

We've had Caleb to the vet because something
- not a tick - bit him on the back and the wound
became inflamed.  The vet shaved his back, and
you can see that his swirls and rosettes and
stripes are in his skin and not just his fur.

Rogue waves, by-the-way, aren’t so uncommon as the term ‘rogue’ implies.  A sudden, hard, unexpected impact from a wave going against the general swell isn’t something you can really prepare for, but it can really hurt.  We were once in a race in a twilight series on Port Philip Bay in Melbourne, and doing pretty well.  It was a bone-chilling evening, with deep grey clouds hanging low over the bay, dumping freezing rain.  We were moving at a fair clip, heeling over in the wind, and outpacing most of the fleet.  Suddenly a rope jammed in a pulley and, even worse, it was a rope I was meant to be pulling on.

As an aside, yes I know “rope” is not a correct nautical term, but what is this – a Sailing Blog?  No it is not.  If I said I was hauling on a sheet would you know what I was on about?  No you would not.  Unless you’re a sailor.  Or just clever.

This French girl with her knickers
showing is so far one of the
most popular reproduction
images we've offered.

So anyway, we needed to tack pretty urgently to keep our competitive edge, and my rope had jammed.  Doug was at the helm, and curtly ordered me to change places with him – he was a regular Captain Bligh when we were racing and he was feeling all competitive.  But we were moving along pretty fast, heeling over at a fair angle, and it was wet.  So it took me a while to get into position.  Meanwhile, much to Doug’s chagrin, our rivals were now hot on our heels.  But guess what?  It wasn’t that I was just some weakling Nancy Girl, the rope really had jammed pretty firmly.

Doug braced his feet and hauled on the sheet, and Doug is really quite strong so the rope unjammed.  But just as he was braced against it, and at the very second that it unjammed, that was the moment that we were hit hard by a rogue wave.  There were three of us crewing, and two of us made a wild grab for Doug as he went sprawling towards the side of the boat.  Doug later told people that when he turned around he saw my hand in his back, but I was saving him, people!

This is another of our most popular
reproduction images.  It's called
Gossips.  I have the original of this
image in my personal collection,
and the copy is so good that
you can't tell them apart when
they're held up together.

Not that I needed to, because his flight across the deck was nicely halted by the boom, which he hit head first.  Do you know how much head wounds bleed?  A lot.  A real lot.  So then the rope was freed, but the boom was loose and we were wallowing and being overtaken.  Crews on passing yachts were all saucer-eyed and slack jawed at the sight of Doug, resplendent in his white wet-weather gear but with his entire face covered in blood.  The other crew member and I were equally saucer-eyed and declared that we had to abandon the race and get to a hospital asap.

But no, Doug was having none of that.  He pulled a scungy old hankie out of his pocket, dunked it in the ocean, smeared the blood further around his face, and announced that he was fine and if his fat, lazy crew would stop gawping and get their act together we still had a chance to Place in the race.

Calypso is so cute.  No matter how tired she is, if
the TV is on she insists on watching it.  Even if she
has to prop her head up against it to stay awake,
she's not going to bed until everyone else does.

We were near enough to the end of the race that it was better to just finish it than argue with him, so we jumped to it, took off like a bat out of hell, and overtook most of the yachts that had passed us while we wallowed – with their crews still saucer-eyed at our mad, bloodied helmsman.  In the end we came Third, so hurrah for that, and finally we were able to berth and Doug went below to look at himself for the first time since the accident.  You’ve got to be joking! he bellowed from below.  Look at me! Why haven’t you taken me to hospital??? 

Helping to unpack the shopping is also exhausting.

So his long-suffering crew carted him off to hospital, where it turned out that his wounds were only minor – a couple of stitches in one, and a flap of skin taped up on the other.  But by golly they did bleed a lot and with the bruising it looked quite impressive.

The next day at work everyone asked Doug what had happened to him. He told them all that I had hit him with a vase.  And everyone believed him and went all quiet and changed the subject!  Please.  As if I would waste a perfectly good vase.  Though it was good to add a bit to my don’t-mess-with-me reputation.

Caleb and Calypso are not the only snoozy ones
in the household.  Klaatu and Artemis are also
pretty good at knocking out zeds.

We only ever had two sailing incidents that required a trip to the hospital, this one and an infamous case involving Robyn the Bimbo Nurse.  To this day I go all squinty-eyed and pursed-lipped and hands-on-hips when I recall Robyn the Bimbo Nurse.  But she is a Blog entry in herself, so remind me and I shall recount her antics one day.

But I expect no such adventures for Doug and his mate up at Airlie Beach.  It does look like a beautiful place, and I might make the hike up there one day.  But meanwhile, it hasn’t been all sleeping-in and slackness for me at home.  Well it has, a bit.  But I have also worked on getting yet more of my best images reproduced to a standard I am happy with, got some land care done, and have started work on the description and price tags for our new shipment, arriving soon. 

At least one of the gang is able to stay awake.
Here's Mischka, watching some Willy Wagtails. 
We hate Willy Wagtails.  And Crows.  And
Kookaburras.

I have also sorted out what stock that I think will be best for the Peregian Beach Market, because the good news is that we have already been allocated a stand there and our first attendance will be on Sunday 1 December.  We’re very pleased at this development, because as you know we really like this Market, so we’ll see how it goes.  If you’re going to sell nice antiques, doing it at a beautiful beachside location for half a day a fortnight sounds like a good plan. 

A better plan would be for all the stock to magically sell itself, but it appears that some input by us is required.  So to that end we might also apply to take a stand on alternate Sundays at the Caloundra Market.  That would double our workload to every Sunday morning, but we’ll force ourselves.  But let’s start gently, with the beach market.  I’ll report on it soon.

 

I might make it to Airlie Beach one day but it's 11 hours away, versus Noosa, which is 20 minutes away.  So far Noosa is winning.

 

 

 

Shorts and Long Socks - Gah!

Who told you this looks
good, fellas?  No-one,
that's the answer.

So yes, the weather has been decidedly hot lately.  And yes, it’s good to feel comfortable when you’re out and about in hot weather.  But men wearing shorts and long socks is just wrong.  Unless you’re going for the I’m-an-old-fuddy look, that is. 

I have informed Doug that if he ever gets knocked on the head and wakes up insanely deciding that he’s going to appear in public wearing shorts and long socks, he’s going to get knocked on the head again and dragged back inside.  It’s the same with hairy-old-man-ears and hairy-old-man-nose – it’s not going to happen on my watch.

This is one of the Lea Stein brooches I brought
back from our buying trip.  It's a beautiful pale
mandarin colour, which is really rare.  I'm
particularly looking out for the more unusual
colours, these days.  This one is $120.

But maybe I’m getting it all wrong.  Maybe this is actually a devilishly clever way of making women look at you.  Because, you know, when confronted with a man who is wearing shorts and long socks, coupled with hairy-old-man-ears and nose, you really can’t help but look.  It can be fascinating, in a compelling but alarming is-that-a-small-animal-emerging-from-his-nose-or-what? kind of way.  The shorts and long socks make you look, and then you're trapped by the ear and nose accoutrements and can't turn away, frozen in place by the sight of the petting zoo surfacing on some guy's face. 

This is one of the reproduction travel
advertisements I'm now offering. 
Dang but we used to produce really
good travel adverts.  All the
reproduction images are $14.

And at this point let me send a big, cheery hello to Anton-the-former-Landlord, who I saw this week and who was the inspiration behind this rumination.  My, but he is a fine figure of a man.  Okay that’s a lie – shorts and long socks really, truly don’t work on anyone, even in beige.  Especially in beige.  I must get a photo soon – such sartorial elegance should not go unappreciated.

So ha! now I’ve put that image in your brain and I’m not sorry.  If I had to look at this sight, you have to share.  Mind you, as much as it made my eyes spasm, Anton-the-former-Landlord just made a fuddy style choice that he wasn’t embarrassed to be seen wearing in public.  The most spectacular gee-please-no fashion choice I’ve ever seen was the time Doug and I were strolling along Noosa main beach and saw an older man, tanned all-over to a deep mahogany colour, with a big fat belly and wearing a Borat-style mankini.  Now that really was a Gah! My eyes! moment. 

Now this is rare.  It's from French Vogue,
June 1930.  It's good enough to have
made it into my reproduction catalogue,
but the original is still available.  The
original is $120, but the reproduction
is only $14.  You can see why the
repros are proving to be so popular.
 

A ripple like a Mexican Wave passed through the crowd on the beach as everyone reacted when he walked by on his way down to the water.  We kept looking around, convinced that there must be hidden cameras somewhere, but apparently not.  It was just a dude in a mankini, entirely comfortable in his own skin, going for a swim.

But on to more attractive images to put in your brain.  Collectorama was held the Saturday before last, and it was another success.  It wasn’t as good as the September Fair, which was really very good, but good enough that we’ve booked a double space again for the next Fair.  But the next Fair isn’t until next March, more’s the pity.

I'm showing you the
particularly unusual
pieces this week.  This
is another of the Lea
Stein brooches, again
in a really rare colour.
$120.

This time around we sold heaps of reproduction French images and advertisements.  Maybe I should have given in to the inevitable and offered reproductions in the shop, but I was too much of the purist back then.  But I am now reformed and have decided to move with the times.  Mostly I still offer genuine images, but I am gradually selecting the best ones to reproduce.  I have them copied to A3 size (much larger than normal reproductions) and then offer them for $14 each.  So of course they’re popular.

The big bookshop in Eumundi, Berkelouw’s, expressed an interest in carrying a range of our reproduction travel advertisements, which we recently picked up in Paris and which are seriously good.  The manager of Berkelouw's said she had never seen reproductions with such clarity and good colour resolution, and I must say I agree with her – which of course is why I bought them.  So I dropped off a good selection of them, and we’ll see how they go. 

Back in the day the French favoured
naked women to advertise their
bicycles.  I expect they still do.
This is one of two naked-gel-on-
bike advertisements that I found
on our latest jaunt to Paris.

Meanwhile, I have a different selection of vintage French advertisements and magazine covers and images, some genuine and some reproduction, in Oople, the little shop in Eumundi a few doors down from our old shop.  And now I’m preparing yet another batch of completely different ones for what I hope will be our market stall at the Peregian Beach Market. 

 

The manager of that market told me that she really loves this type of thing, and hopefully so will everyone else.  My plan is to eventually have a selection of my vintage and reproduction pictures in every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse within a 6 mile radius**.

 

Another image we found in
Paris, but this one's Italian.

But back to Collectorama.  We also sold quite a few pieces of jewellery, a beautiful big French walnut over-mantle mirror with good patination that had been languishing in our garage for the last 15 years, three of those lovely glass birds that came back in my hand luggage from our most recent trip, vintage kimono fabric and vintage French ticking, and various other bits and pieces of glass and ceramics.  It was a long and tiring day, but good fun and worth it.  And this time we had purchased a couple of marquees to protect us from the afternoon sun, so we were sheltered and comfortable.

 

Early the next morning we headed off for another look at the Peregian Beach Market.  It’s in a lovely location next to the surf lifesavers club on the sand dunes immediately behind Peregian Beach.  I really like the shopping precinct there, I like the beach and the facilities there, and I like the Sunday market there.  So it will be nice if we can get a space, and we’ve submitted the paperwork to get that ball rolling.  So again, we’ll see what happens next.  More on that soon.

 

These boys really are aspiring
supermodels, but even they look
naff in shorts and long socks.

But in the meantime, fellas, I don’t care how hot it is - you can do better than shorts and long socks.  Put some effort into it!  Ask your partner whether this is a look that is really working for you.  Love might be blind, but it’s not tasteless so she - or he - knows the truth.  And the truth is, shorts and long socks only work on ridiculously skinny, ridiculously attractive (female!) supermodels.  Anton-the-former-Landlord is many things, but he’s no supermodel.  Neither are his style-guru brothers-in-arms. 

 

** With apologies to Tommy Lee Jones.

 

Meanwhile, back at the house ... here's a couple of the boys working on the floor of the breezeway.  There's not a builder's bum in sight.  Pity.

All the verandah and room floors should be down in the next week or so.  Lock up won't come before Christmas, but that's okay because we've come back from the buying trip super broke and need to regroup for a little while.

 

From Newark to Nambour, the Shopping is Great

Aw, inne cute?  This little piggy is wee-wee-
weeing all the way to Australia.

Well the travel computer carked it while we were away, so I’ve been incommunicado for a while.  But we’re back now, safe and sound, and this is a catch-up blog. 

 But before I go on, let me mention that we’ve gotten back just in time for the next Collectorama Antiques Fair, the biggest in south-east Queensland.  It is only a tiny fraction of the size of the Newark International Antiques Fair in the north of England (more on that below), but it’s the biggest we’ve got and it has a good variety of dealers who come from all over to attend.  We took a double stand at the September Fair, and that went really well so we’re taking another double stand.  It’s on this coming Saturday, 2 November, so if you’re able to come be sure to visit us to say hello.
 

These pieces of copper came back in our hand
luggage but are all sold already.  More great
pieces are on the way, though.

Even though the shipment from the buying trip is currently on the high seas somewhere between the UK and Singapore, we did manage to put a few things in our hand luggage and they’ll be coming out at Collectorama.  I knew I had done a lot of shopping, but the shippers tell me that it came to a little over 600kg!  Yep, I surely know how to shop. 

 

Among the things we crammed into our hand luggage was the collection of lovely copper moulds I had amassed, and they are all sold already.  But I also have a small selection of really charming small glass birds, a seriously good pair of large French tailor’s shears, and I’ve put a lot effort since we’ve been back into getting some very beautiful travel advertisements reproduced, so they’re ready to go.  The reaction to reproduced images at the last Collectorama was great, and this time I have a good selection of images that I’m really happy with.

 

This is one of the hand blown glass birds that
came back with us and will be offered at
Collectorama on Saturday.  Those brown spots
are actually glittering aventurine inclusions, so
this little fellow is much prettier in real life.

But anyway, that’s to come and I shall report on it in due course.  In the meantime I shall finish talking about the buying trip.  So, to continue ….

 

The last of the big Antiques Fairs for this trip was at Newark.  It’s certainly the biggest antiques fair in Europe, and is said to be the biggest in the world.  It covers quite a few acres, but we barely got 20m through the gate before we’d run out of money.  But by then I did have six wooden printers trays, three of them with nice little brass highlights between each segment, and four ship’s lights from a German freighter that was dismantled in the 1940s. 

 

We already had three of these lights for our house's breezeway when it’s built, but figured it would be too late to realise we needed more when we’re back on the other side of the planet.  And if we have any to spare we’ll offer them for sale, and they will be unlike anything else currently available that we’ve found.  So dang, we were glad to find these lights but we hadn't planned on spending so much money and had to hunt down a cash machine and see if we could trick it into spitting out some cash.

 

Tim Wonnacott walking towards the cameras
as he does his opening spiel for Bargain Hunt.
I was in Take 2, but he did 7 Takes so good
luck seeing me on't telly any time soon.

And yay that our trickster skills are still up to par, so we resumed our exploration of the Fair re-cashed.  For the first time this trip I finally ran into Tim Wonnacott, the presenter of Bargain Hunt, and we exchanged quick greetings before I was filmed in the background of his opening spiel – my 16^th time filmed in the background on Bargain Hunt, although to the best of my knowledge I have yet to appear on TV.  He did his opening spiel seven times and I was only filmed once, so unless they go with Take 2 I am destined to remain undiscovered by the antiques viewing public.  I told the crew that after all this time I hadn’t yet made an appearance, and they said they’d see what they could do for Lucky 16. 

 

We felt under no pressure at all to buy stock, which was a very pleasant change for this Fair, where we normally go nuts.  But we had already bought so much on this trip, so for this Fair we decided to limit ourselves to really special things. 

 

Doug said this was the ugliest
Buddha he had ever seen.
She was Not Amused.

So anyway, I was looking for anything interesting, and for a few extra things like more potato baskets.  I found potato baskets, but boy oh boy, the prices were ludicrous!  At first I deeply suspected that there was a Potato Basket Price Fixing Racket going on, because everyone had the same delusional prices.  But that was until I ventured further into the Fair and found the deeply delusional prices.  So I had to walk away from more potato baskets on this trip, and can offer only three when they arrive.  But three good ones!

 

On the positive side, we found a more pieces of interesting French enamelware, some great vintage kitchenware including two enormous Italian sieves, and finally a small brass-topped Byzantine Revival table.  I had been on the look out for as many Byzantine Revival tables as I could find all trip, because they’re very attractive, the tops come off so they travel well (and store well at home) and they always sold immediately when I had them in the shop.  So anyway, at least I found one and we’ll see how it goes at an antiques fair.  A few trips ago we decided to keep one of these tables for ourselves because they are attractive but so hard to come by, and they’re getting increasingly hard to find so I’m glad we decided to keep one before it's too late.

 

The weather was starting to
turn at the Newark International
Antiques Fair just as we got
to our van.  Shopping at the
Fair is great fun, but not in
the rain.
 

Finally, we decided we were done.  It was the first really chilly day of the trip, and all of our shopping had been done at the outside stands.  Then, just as we were slowly traipsing back to the van, each heavily loaded with our finds, tired, cold and all shopped out, we stumbled across two big terracotta pineapple finials.  This was a big deal thing to find, let me tell you, so we perked up immediately. 

 

These finials are French and date from the early 1800s.  They both have a bit of scuffing, as you’d expect on something that has spent the last 200 years outside, and fabulously crackled white glaze.  Earlier in the trip we found a great English pineapple finial which I snapped up because they are so hard to come by.  Interior decorators love them, and why not?  They were traditionally put on gate posts, or somewhere close to a front door, including on stair banister posts in a home's entry, because they symbolize welcome and hospitality.  Sometimes you can even see little wooden pineapples used as finials on very old four poster beds, and you know by seeing them that it was a guest bed.

 

The stylized fox is my favourite
of Lea Stein's brooch designs. 
I caught up with my main supplier
at Newark and bought some
lovely pieces.  One fox brooch
has sold already, but this piece 
will get his first showing at
Collectorama.

In the early days of colonial America, real pineapples were used as table centrepieces by the most gobsmackingly rich of rich hostesses to demonstrate just how much richer they were than you, you hopelessly impoverished rich-as-me-wannabe.  You could even rent pineapples in the early days, just so you could dead impress your guests, but then you had to return the fruit in good condition, without little bites taken out of them.  So over time the fruit took on a particular meaning, which continued into the 1800s, and stylized pineapples made of wood or terracotta or metal were used rather than real fruit. 

 

I have looked out for a large terracotta pineapple finial for years, but have only seen them in chic but expensive Parisian shops.  Much as I’d love to, I don’t shop in chic but expensive Parisian shops, so I’ve always come away empty-handed.  But guess what?  Now I have three.  I'm not sure if we’re keeping one or two, but either way we’ll have at least one to offer when they arrive in Australia.

 

So then there was a flurry of final packing, getting things to the shippers, and bolting down to London to return the van to the hire company (which we did with one minute to spare), and then had two days of chilling until our flight home.



This was a momentary break in the crowd at Portobello Road.  Way too many people and way
too expensive prices to enable any serious shopping.

 

We elected to spend Saturday visiting Portobello Road, a very famous antiques tourist strip that we last visited about 20 years ago.  I’m afraid the passage of time hasn’t really improved this location.  Not only were there thousands and thousands of people strolling around, but the prices were ridiculously high for often pretty routine stuff.  There were some good stands, but few and far between.  I did buy a small sugar sifter as a souvenir purchase, but overall it was a disappointing experience.  Years ago – okay decades ago – you could pick up truly spectacular pieces at Portobello Road, and even though you jolly well had to pay large for them, you were getting something fabulous for your money.  These days it’s not worth the effort of fighting your way through the incredible crowds.

 

Doug would dearly love to carry
off a set of WW2 airplane
spotting binoculars.  But at
3000 pounds tell him he's
dreaming.

The one good thing we did find was a tiny burger bar called Honesty that had a vacant table right in the front window, so we ensconced there to watch the crowd and have a bite of lunch.  And wow, it was fantastic!  I can put my hand on my heart and say it was the best burger I ever had.  And of course it came with chips, because in England everything comes with chips.  And again, OMG the best chips I ever, ever had, with a seriously delicious rosemary salt over them.  Then we decided we’d need something equally delicious to follow, so we headed off to Harrods for desserts. 

 

Harrods is such a lovely shop, full of lovely things.  I inspected the Prada handbags because some years ago I picked up a vintage Prada bag for a song and wanted to see if that little investment had proven to be a good one, but I was left guessing.  In Harrods the designer handbag prices are of the if-you-have-to-ask variety.  But the little cakes and petit fours were lovely and not too outrageously expensive, so we indulged.  And we found a modern counter-part for the gobsmackingly richie-rich colonial American hostess – these days, if you want to dead impress your guests with how terribly well off you are, you can buy a cake from Harrods with a giant ‘H’ across the top of it.  Smaller cakes had edible gold-leafed Harrods labels on them.  All terribly, terribly, dahling.

 

Don't leave your guests wondering where
you got your afternoon tea supplies from.
Harrods bakes all its cakes in its own
kitchens every day, and they're all delicious.

We stepped out of Harrods to find a couple of young ladies busking by singing opera arias.  Wow, were they good.  Seriously good.  We decided that Harrods attracts a better class of busker than the Eumundi Markets, and in that location I expect these gels were well compensated for their efforts.  As they deserved to be.

 

Our final Sunday in England was dismally cold, and it poured and poured with rain. Thank goodness the really bad weather didn’t start until our last day.  We had plans to visit Hampton Court Palace, but decided it would still be there next trip and instead arranged for a late check-out at the hotel and lounged about instead.  Then it was back to Bangkok, where due to the hotel being heavily booked we were upgraded to a two king sized bedroom apartment that was a whole lot bigger than our house.  I know we have a small house until the rest is built but, come on, I had booked a hotel room. 

 

The different halls in Harrods have signs over the
doorways telling you what you can expect inside.
I want to talk to my local supermarket about getting
something similar installed rather than the
standard aisle signs.

I had time to have my hair straightened – at a third of the price you pay in Australia – so goodbye to frizzy hair for the next few humid months, and then we ordered room service.  A lot of room service.  Another late check out was arranged, because it’s much nicer to laze away the hours before your flight in a luxury apartment rather than Suvarnabhumi Airport, which I must say isn’t very comfortable if you’ve got a while to wait before your flight. 

 

Then, voila!, we were home and that was that for another trip.  Now we have to get through Collectorama next Saturday, and then we can relax until the shipment arrives in December.  We are thinking about taking a stand at a nearby Sunday morning market that is right on the beach, but we’ve yet to see if the logistics will work for us, so more on that later.

 

Nice looking wooden crates at the Newark Fair, but what a pity they are all fake.

 

How good to be home.  The builders did as we asked and stopped work while we away, but we’re back now, boys, so I’m expecting that we’ll have a little hive of activity at our house from next week.  Hopefully I’ll have some progress photos real soon.

 

More fakes.  Many dealers don't declare when things aren't real, but seeing the same thing again and again is a bit of a give away.

 

The Semi-Industrial Look is Still On Trend - Dammit!

One of the excellent glass chooks in a basket that
I've sourced.  I also have a couple of lovely
caramel coloured ceramic ones.  They will make
a nice display when put together.

We prevaricated over attending the Dealers' Day at the Lincoln Antiques Fair.  £20 each for entry on Dealers' Day versus £5 entry on Punters’ Day is a big difference.  In the end we decided to attend Dealers' Day at around midday, after the dealers had time to unpack, and this turned out to be the right decision.

It was another fabulous autumn day – t-shirt weather.  The Lincoln Fair is enormous, covering many acres, so walkie-talkies are essential if Doug and I want to find each other after he has taken things back to the van.  And he took things back to the van a lot, so the walkie-talkies saw some use.

We were on a mission to find more good enamelware and those elusive Jamie Oliver giant wooden boards.  This was one of the last chances to find them, so our eyes were peeled.  And at last, success!  I wanted Jamie Oliver boards, and boy did I get Jamie Oliver boards.  And, even better, this time I have three round boards as well as the more usual rectangular boards. 

 

I am suddenly going through a Pretty Plate Phase.
This one is staying home with me, but I've found
some other really lovely ones to offer.
 

Many people have asked if I could get the round boards, which were originally used for curing large rounds of cheese.  The answer has always been no, because they are few and far between and when I have seen them they have been horribly expensive.  The round boards I found were more expensive than the rectangular ones, but this time they were affordable so I scooped them up.  And this was one of the advantages of attending on Dealers' Day – it costs a whole lot more to get in, but the best bargains are available.

My next task was to find some good French rural metalware.  I already had the giant wire basket from the Porte de Vanves markets in Paris, but as you know I may well be keeping that one so I needed some stock.  Metal potato baskets always sold promptly in the shop so I was on the hunt for some.  They are utilitarian items, but their spare lines are very attractive.  But boy, has the price gone up on potato baskets!  Who would have thought that the market for potato baskets would take off? 

 

How good is this cockerel teapot?  He's one of a
number of good quality and interesting teapots
I'm bringing back.

Having said that, over the years the prices for good industrial and semi-industrial pieces has risen steadily, as interior decorators discovered the look and then homeware stores followed the trend.  But nothing beats the original pieces, in terms of looks or quality or actual useability.  The reproduction items in homeware stores are often so flimsy that you would never dream of trying to use them – they are just for looking at.

But this sought-after status has now impacted even on potato baskets, making my job as a buyer that much more difficult.  So I picked up only three baskets, but each one is completely different so I’m happy with the selection.  I would like a few more, if I can find some bargains, but bargains on the semi-industrial front are becoming more difficult to find, so we’ll see what I can do.

This looks totally uncomfortable and is
totally reproduction.  There are a great
many undeclared reproduction items
at the big Fairs, so you have to be on
guard and use your good judgement. 
This one is bleedin' obvious, though.

We packed our purchases promptly, so decided to revisit the Lincoln Fair on Punters’ Day, which our Dealers' Day tickets also allowed.  There was no pressure to buy, having done so well the day before, so we strolled around the grounds, enjoying the sunshine and picking up a few extra bits and bobs.  Often at the Lincoln Fair we are entertained by the Red Arrows, the RAF aerobatics team, training directly above us.  I have often thought, as the team has gone roaring not that far above us, that if they crashed and burned they would take out the entire Antiques Fair with them.  But so far so good.  This time there was only one Arrow, but he shot back and forth at tremendous speed as we shopped.

We came away from Punters’ Day with some more good vintage tins, a French copper sautéing pan, a little bit more glass and a very beautiful French pancheon with a deep mustard interior glaze.  I’ve only had a couple of pancheons before, because they are so hard to find at a remotely affordable price, but in the shop they always sold within a few days of being offered.  We have one of our own, and will now decide which one to keep and which one to offer for sale. 

One of the 5 enamel trays we found, totally unlike
the normal enamelware we find.  And now we've
also found similar deep bowls, which should prove
to be very popular when we offer them.

After that it was off for a late lunch on a charming barge on the Trent River in Nottinghamshire, not far from Sherwood Forest.  So it was a relaxed, fun and productive day – you can’t ask for more on a buying trip.

An aside on the topic of pork pies:  there is no middle ground with the pastry on pork pies – it is either 100% right or 100% wrong.  There is a special texture and flavour to the pastry, and nothing else will do.  The ones we’ve found in Australia are all wrong, and not worth buying.  You expect the British ones to be correct, but we have found only three that pass muster, one from our favourite supermarket (Waitrose), one from a tiny café in South Yorkshire and one from Melton Mowbray, the home of English pork pies.  All the rest we declare to be fake and need to shape up.  Fair warning – we shall test again next trip.

Almost all of this dealer's enamelware was incomplete or broken.  And yet she made it look great by using the pieces as planters for herbs and cyclamen and tiny seaside daisies.  It looked really pretty and was a nice way to use otherwise unuseable pieces.