A fairly recent addition to the antique dealer archives is some material associated with the Loughborough based antique dealer C.W. Briggs (1906-1981), acquired in January 2023 at the Nottingham auctioneers Mellors & Kirk. C.W. Briggs archive and ephemera. Photograph, Mellors & Kirk auctioneers, Nottingham. The material is an eclectic mix of stock books, personal letters and ephemera, together with a selection of material associated with an exhibition of ‘Old Masters’, held at the showroom of Smart & Brown Ltd, Nottingham in February 1928 – at which the paintings had been ‘hung’ by ..read more

Following on from the last Blog Post (which seemed to go down very well with readers), I thought I would continue the theme of Antique Shops in visual culture and focus on a few more images of antique shops, both exteriors and interiors, that are part of a growing archive of paintings we have as part of the research projects on the history of antique dealing. We can start with an example from quite a well-known series of images of antique shops by the artist John Cole (1903-1975). Cole was the son of the English landscape artist Rex Vicat Cole (1870-1940) and from a long line of well-known art ..read more

A very recent acquisition to the growing archive of antique dealer ephemera, gathered as part of the wider antique dealer research project, is a fascinating cache of invoices from the dealer William Boore, dating from the late 1880s to mid 1890s. Invoice, W. Boore to J.E. Taylor, 1888. Private collection. They relate to sales of antiques and jewellery by the dealer William Boore to John Edward Taylor (1830-1905), the prominent newspaper proprietor and owner of the Manchester Guardian, which had been founded by his father John Edward Taylor (1791-1844). John Edward Taylor the younger was a majo ..read more

Exciting news for the forthcoming start of 2024 – I’ve curated a new exhibition (with Rachel Eckersley, rare book specialist at the Brotherton Library Special Collections and Rhiannon Lawrence-Francis, Special Collections Curator), which opens on 9th January 2024 at the Treasures of the Brotherton Gallery at the University of Leeds.     The exhibition, ‘Part of the Furniture: The Library of John Bedford‘, which runs until 2nd December 2024 (so plenty of time to see it) is focused on the library of furniture history, assembled by former antique dealer, John Bedford (1941-2019). John owned Will ..read more

Readers of the Antique Dealers’ blog will be aware that we have previously posted a couple blog entries on the antique dealer Samuel Richards (1859-1927) (see blog posts November 2018 & June 2014). Richards is well-known for producing charming and detailed lithographed catalogues of his stock of antiques, which he issued monthly (with a few exceptions) from the early 1890s until the period around the First World War. Richards’ catalogues are quite rare – there are a few copies at the Victoria & Albert Museum Art Library in London, bound together in a couple of volumes. We also have a s ..read more

Our thread on ‘Antique Shops in Visual Culture’ seems to be very popular with readers of the Antique Dealers Research blog, so here’s the third instalment (the last for a little while at least). If you have missed Parts I, & II of this thread, you can catch up in Blog posts July 30th 2023 and September 30th 2023. Our first image in this third instalment of the ‘antique shop’ in visual culture is by the artist John Watkins Chapman (1832-1903) and dates from about 1880. John Watkins Chapman (1832-1903), ‘The Antique Dealers’, c.1880. Oil on canvas. Private collection. Photograph Antique Deal ..read more

This month, October 2023, is a significant moment for the Antique Dealers Research Blog – it’s our ANNIVERSARY!….we are 10 years old this month! Our first post was back on 25th October 2013 – a small, two sentence post briefly announcing the start of the new Blog with a small image of an antique dealer invoice dated October (the symmetry was deliberate) 1907, from ‘Adams’, ‘antique dealer’, who was trading in Edinburgh and New York. (see below) – Adams Antique Dealer invoice, 1907. Photograph, Antique Dealers Research project, University of Leeds. Since then, we have posted 231 individual Blog ..read more

The history of antique dealing (in it’s modern form at least) can be traced to the opening decades of the 19th century, and as part of the research project on the history of antique dealing we occasionally come across material dating from this very early period. There are examples of very rare sales catalogues produced by some of these early dealers – those that made it to the SOLD! exhibition at The Bowes Museum back in 2019 may remember we had on display some key examples of this rare material – a catalogue produced by the curiosity dealer and bookseller Horatio Rodd, who traded from Great N ..read more

This month’s blog post is one of our occasional series of invited contributors to the Antique Dealer Research Blog. We have a really fascinating blog on the history of the well-known antique dealers F.G. & C. Collins, of Wheathampstead, Hertfordshire, composed by Anne Atton, the grand-daughter of one of the founders of the business. We are very grateful to Anne for sharing her memories and research with the antique dealer research project – Thank You Anne! Mark Hi, my name is Anne Atton and I live in Wheathampstead, a rural village in Hertfordshire where my family ran a provincial antique ..read more

Yet more examples of historic ‘antique dealer’ booklets and catalogues keep turning up – this time our friend Thomas Lange, researcher at leading London based antique furniture dealers Ronald Phillips very generously send us a copy of a rare brochure from his own collection. Thomas has been a keen supporter of the Antique Dealer Research Project for many years and has often sent us information and historical material on the history of antique dealing – thank you again Thomas! On this occasion Thomas discovered an antique dealer that had not previously been known to us – Godfrey Giles & Co ..read more