A special theatre performance of the now little known, but important stage-play ‘Quinneys’ (1915, The Haymarket, London) at The Witham (Barnard Castle) for one public performance on 28th March 2020. The performance will take place at 7.30pm; a drinks reception will be held from 6.30pm. Re-staging Quinneys' is part of an AHRC funded Impact and Engagement project; a small charge of £5.00 will be made to support The Witham theatre. You can book tickets here:
https://thewitham.org.uk/event/quinneys/
The subject of the play is fictional antique dealer Joseph Quinney and his activities as a dealer in the early 20th century. The character of Joseph Quinney is based on a real antique dealer called Thomas Rohan (1860-1940) and offers a strategic opportunity to address key tropes in the history of antique dealers such as the relationships between antique dealers and fakes and forgeries (the notion of authenticity) and the relationships between art and money.
Our two-day research project conference, which took place at Temple Newsam House, Leeds in April 2016, was an opportunity to participate in, and hear about, research into the history of the British Antique Trade in the 20th century. Click here for details of the conference. We gratefully acknowledge the following for their support of the...
The interactive map shows the changing history of the locations of antique dealers in Britain from 1900 to 2000, and the relationships between antique dealers and the objects that they sold to other dealers, to collectors and to museums.
Our interactive website is starting to come together. Mark (Sparky) Wales is currently modelling and testing the wesbite and we now are starting to populate it with real data from our research team.
The Antique Dealers project is seeking volunteer help from Local and Family Historians, or anyone interested in contributing to the project. You don't need to have any expertise on the history of the antique trade, but a keen eye for accuracy would be needed. We have composed a little poster.....
The Antique Dealers project had a significant boost today by being front page news on the Antiques Trade weekly newspaper: The Antiques Trade Gazette. The editors at the ATG have been really supportive and have offered to allow use access to their extensive archives. You read the Antiques Trade Gazette editorial here: ATG.
We have recently discovered 2 volumes clippings and photographs of antique furniture, ceramics, glass and silver etc that came from the antique dealers Stair & Andrew. The volumes appear to have been visual resources for the directors of Stair & Andrew, and bear several stamps 'Stair and Andrew Ltd., Director'. The volumes are undated, but appear to date from the period around 1910-1915.
The Antique Dealers Project will be investigating a wide range of archives and sources. Archives generated by dealers themselves are relatively rare, but we already have identified some key archives across the UK.....
We have our first meeting with our new Advisory Board in a couple of weeks. The initial Advisory Board project meeting takes place at the Victoria & Albert Museum on Friday 11th October 2013.
Throughout the 20th century antique dealers have regularly published catalogues of their stock and these offer a fascinating insight into the practices of the trade and the changing tastes for antiques.
