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About

The Antique Dealers Research Project is an ongoing project that directs critical attention to the history of the antique trade during the last 200 years. The project is international in scope and has developed strategic collaborations with the professional antique trade, a wide range of public museums, and the academic community, to explore key questions related to the history of ‘antiques’.

The project in underpinned by a number of core research projects, including the AHRC-funded ‘Antique Dealers: The British Antique Trade in the 20th Century, a Cultural Geography’ (2013-2016), and the AHRC-funded ‘SOLD! The Year of the Dealer: Antique Dealers, Art Markets and Museums’ (2019-2023).

The research has led to innovative exhibitions in public museums; ‘SOLD! The Great British Antiques Story’ staged at The Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle (January to May 2019) and at ‘Antique Dealers: Buying, Selling and Collecting’ at The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery (March to May 2019).

As part of the resources developed by the project key members of the British antique trade have donated their business archives to the Brotherton Library Special Collections at the University of Leeds – these resources are part of the rich series of research and learning and teaching activities that are a core part of the Antique Dealers Research project.

You can read about the various initiatives and events developed as a result of the Antique Dealers Research Project in our Newsletters - issue 1 (Spring 2020) and issue 2 (Summer 2021) can be found below:

ADRP Issue 01 HiRes FINAL (1).

AD Newsletter no2 highres.