The Year of the Dealer digital trails
A series of digital film trails at five of the UK's leading museums highlighting the significance of the role that the British antique trade has played in the development of collections in public museums.
The trails focus on well-known and familiar museum objects that were sold to the museums by antique dealers in the 19th and 20th centuries. At each of our five partner museums we have chosen ten objects that tell the stories of the antique dealers who sold the objects to the museum – so there are 50 objects to look at and more than 40 antique dealer histories to explore!
Our digital trail films are between 3 and 4 minutes in duration. Our partner museums are: The Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle; Temple Newsam in Leeds; Lady Lever Art Gallery in Port Sunlight, Wirral; the V&A in London; and Preston Park Museum in Stockton-on-Tees.
Mark & Mo
In the digital films you will be guided around the museum and the antiques and antique dealer histories by Mark and Mo, our friendly avatars! Each digital trail film uses video and audio and a wide range of visual material. You can also watch a two minute introductory film for each of the five museums where the respective museum curators introduce their museum and the Year of the Dealer project.
There is also a three minute 'Year of the Dealer' project film that gives you an overview of the whole project, as well as a four minute film called 'what is an antique?' where museum staff and the project team reflect on what antiques actually are.
You can also find out more information about how to see the antiques in the five museums.
Watch the films
See the films that reveal the stories of the antique dealers who sold the antiques to each museum in the Year of the Dealer trails.