I have been wondering what to do with my first post on this blog and how I was going to make it interesting , after going back and forward with the usual self doubting fear I thought that I may just go ahead and start writing about what I find I am most passionate about , Antique and vintage ceramics , So I am going to tell you a little about the last piece that I bought and that there are still bargain's out there to be had even with mobile internet in the hands of every person in the world and his dog.
I was visiting an antique fair last Monday which was May day bank holiday Monday 2018 , It was a lovely hot day and I took the 45 minute drive to a nice hotel to the coast to go Antique hunting , Now for all beginners in the antique trade antique fairs are not the easiest places to go bargain hunting but it was a holiday and I decided to make the day of it as it was near the coast. I arrived at the Antique fair and straight away the excitement is intoxicating , trying to find a way of seeing all the items as quickly as possible , bad idea as you miss many items this way but my usual plan of action is a quick scan around all of the stalls first to see if any obvious bargains catch my eye , then a few slower more deliberate times around the stalls to investigate a little deeper . So we got started...
First time around I saw very little it was more like feeding my addiction like a quick fix just to calm myself down a little , second time around I was intrigued by a certain gentleman's stall , a dealer I had never met before has the most interesting antique items from around the world , from Cypriot pottery dating 300 years old to a 19th century African tribal sword his stall was the most interesting in the fair in my opinion , everything he had was well researched and well priced or so I thought , A small dish facing the wrong way all of a sudden caught my eye and I went over to pick it up , My heart started beating a little faster as realised what it was , I am an avid collector of Chinese porcelain and ceramics so these little things stand out to me , The dish was not priced nothing on the label so I turned to talk to the dealer and asked him about the dish , Lovely old rustic dish with a cream and brown glaze and hand painted decoration , The dealer told me he thought it may be a copy of an older dish and was will to accept £30 for it , I offered £25 as you do! and he accepted , I paid for the dish and walked away in delight at the fact I had just purchased a Chinese Yuan-Ming dynasty Cizhou decorated ceramic dish dating over 500 years at least , This was a result . With a value of between £150-£200 not a bad purchase .
To be continued.......
This purchase and others like it should give you hope when visiting antique fair for bargain hunting because the antiques trade is one of those businesses that knowledge is key but also so vast and different that nobody can know everything about everything so the odds of actually finding a bargain are really quite good if you specialize in a specific area , I have chosen as well as being a general antique dealer to study Chinese porcelain so this little beauty was the fruits of that labour.
