The Year of the Dealer project final project event takes place on SATURDAY 25th February 2023. Our project partner curators, together with other members of the project team will attend a workshop at the University of Leeds which aims to reflect on the project and it's development, and think about possible futures for the project. We are also 'live testing' one of the Year of the Dealer digital trails at Temple Newsam, Leeds in the afternoon. This event is invitation only, but do keep your eye on the project website for updates on the YoD Digital Trails.
As part of the Year of the Dealer project, we will be organising a Q&A panel with leading antique dealers, Louise Phillips (Chair of the BADA), Simon Myers (of R.N. Myers & Sons) and Tony Lumb (of Charles Lumb & Sons), about 'being an antique dealer' on WEDNESDAY 16th November, 5.30pm-8.00pm at Temple Newsam, Leeds. A wine reception follows the Q&A.
THIS EVENT HAS HAD TO BE CANCELLED DUE TO COVID ILLNESS - we will find another date...come back soon.
More details to follow, but hold the date!
As part of the Year of the Dealer project we will be organising a Q&A with leading antique dealer and Antiques Roadshow regular, Lennox Cato on 'being an antique dealer' at the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight on Thursday 3rd November, 5.30pm-8.00pm. A wine reception follows the Q&A.More details to follow!
THIS EVENT HAD TO BE CANCELLED DUE TO RAIL STRIKE - we will reschedule...keep your eye on the webpages!
More details to follow!
The antique dealer archives, generously donated by leading antique dealers to the Brotherton Library Special Collections at the University of Leeds, has brought together, for the first time, an extraordinary range of historic business archives of several well-known antique furniture dealers such as Phillips of Hitchin and Ronald A. Lee. This event, chaired by Dr Mark Westgarth, brings leading dealers Jerome Phillips and Martin Levy in conversation with Joanne Fitton, Head of Special Collections, and Karen Sayers, lead archivist, at the Brotherton Library Special Collections, to explore the riches of these archives. The event will highlight key items in the archives, some of which date back to the 1880s, as well as outlining their history and how they came to Leeds. There will also be an opportunity to direct questions to the participants and to hear about plans for the future of these increasingly important resources.
Join the University of Leeds Library Team for an insight into work on the remarkable collection of the John Evan Bedford Library of Furniture History.
Join our Rare Book Specialist, Project Archivist and Collections Officer to hear about their work cataloguing this remarkable collection and see some of their selected highlights.
The John Evan Bedford Library of Furniture History is an exceptional collection covering all aspects of the English home, from interiors and furnishings to lighting and metalwork, drapery and upholstery to architectural and garden design. The collection is a highlight of our Art and Antiques Market Collections.
Locating the Jewish Art Dealer in London: cultural and spatial geographies
This keynote lecture from Dr Mark Westgarth forms part of the Jewish Country Houses’ project workshop: Jewish Dealers and the European Art Market, 1850 – 1930.
'Pattern books, early trade catalogues and many other rarities': the John Evan Bedford Library of Furniture History. Wednesday 24 March 2021, 18:00-19.30 (GMT)
At this FHS event members of the Bedford project team from Special Collections at the University of Leeds will highlight some of the rare books and ephemera in the John Evan Bedford Library of Furniture History and explain more about the ambitions of the cataloguing project. Chaired by Mark Westgarth, the presentations will be followed by a discussion with the Bedford team and an opportunity to ask questions about the project.
When the art and antique dealer John Bedford died in February 2019 he gifted a remarkable collection of rare books, manuscripts, artworks and objects to the University of Leeds. Assembled over almost half a century, the John Evan Bedford Library of Furniture History is an exceptional resource covering all aspects of the English home, from interiors and furnishings to lighting and metalwork, drapery and upholstery to architectural and garden design. Comprising over 3,000 printed items, many of them extremely rare, and in some cases unique, the collection includes furniture pattern books, designs for ornament and inventories of country houses. The archive is also rich in rare ephemera including trade cards, labels and pamphlets, many of which are unknown outside this collection. The John Victor Bedford Will Trust, with great generosity and vision, is funding a cataloguing project based in Special Collections at the University of Leeds to make the collection fully searchable and accessible.
The Antique Dealer in Fact & Fiction
A Lighthearted Zoom Talk with Dr Mark Westgarth
Mark Westgarth is Associate Professor in Art History and Museum Studies at the University of Leeds in the UK.
He is founder and Director of the Centre for the Study of the Art & Antiques Market in the School of Fine Art, History of Art & Cultural Studies.
He is author of A Biographical Dictionary of 19th Century Antique & Curiosity Dealers (2011), SOLD! The Great British Antiques Story (2019) and more recently, The Emergence of the Antique & Curiosity Dealer in Britain 1815-1850: the commodification of historical objects (2020).
He was guest curator for the recent exhibition, ‘SOLD! The Great British Antiques Story’ at the Bowes Museum, County Durham.
This will be a light-hearted talk about the role of antique dealers in fact and fiction and will cover from Dickens to Lovejoy! Should be fun!
