David Love

David Love of David Love Antiques Limited, established 1969

A conversation between David Love and project lead Mark Westgarth.

David Love began his career in the antiques trade working in the antique shop of his mother Araxie Love in Richmond, North Yorkshire, before opening his own antique shop in 1969. In this very engaging oral history interview David tells us about how he relocated his antique business to Swan Road in Harrogate in the early 1970s, before occupying the premises of the well-known dealer Walter Waddingham in Royal Parade in 1975, and remaining there for 45 years. David has fond memories of Walter, and many other well-known dealers in Harrogate and York and the Yorkshire area - dealers such as Frank and Basil Shaftoe and Reg Smith of 'Smith's the Rink' in Harrogate and Charles Morrison in York - and in the interview he gives a real insight into the Northern antiques trade in the period from the 1970s until the decline of the trade across the UK in the late 1990s.

David was primarily an inter-dealer trader in the 1970s and 1980s, often supplying dealers in the South and in London with antique furniture and a wide range of objects. He recalls the numerous local auction sales that kept the supply chains running, and the extensive buying trips that he would make, starting in Newcastle, Sunderland and the North East of England, and extending to Coldstream, Edinburgh, Perth, Dundee and Glasgow in Scotland, before returning to Harrogate via Carlisle, Kendal and Barnard Castle - calling in at many well-known dealers such as the Sydneys (in Newcastle), Owen Humble (in Jesmond) and Bill Beaton (in Perth and Dundee). These were 'fun days' as David describes them, when one would not know what would be found in the various antique shops one visited.

Photograph, Antique Dealers Research Project, University of Leeds 2021.