The mid 1990’s onwards saw an explosion of Antique, Art Deco, and Decorative Arts fairs, together with the rise of online auctions, which fundamentally changed the antiques and collectors world. Along with my brother a keen ceramic collector we would stall out at many of these fairs, Alexander Palace, Chiswick Art Deco fair, Battersea Art Deco fair, Kensington Town hall Decorative Arts fair, to name but a few. This period is when I specialised in Whitefriars Glass, mostly pieces from the Textured range [1967] by Geoffrey Baxter, there was little information on this factory at the time, but I was lucky enough to attend the launch in Manchester in 1996 of the new publication ‘Whitefriars Glass: The art of James Powell & Sons’. I liken it to the first Sex Pistols gig where everyone likes to say they attended, but few in reality were there. The appreciation of the Midcentury furniture market which I would move into was still fairly niche among the general public, and the internet in its relative infancy was not the educative tool that it is now. As a dealer pre this period, your knowledge base was kept in your head [a novel concept now] and in the printed word, many times information was only available in ephemera from the period itself, and not at the click of a button. Ah the good old days! 

Camden market was the next move in the late 90’s, where my appreciation of the Midcentury field came to fruition, with a select handful of knowledgeable dealers on hand to educate. Robin Day, Robert Heritage, Verner Panton & Alvar Aalto furniture etc being the mainstay. It is only with twenty five years hindsight that you appreciated the quality of furniture that was available in those times, G-Plan and Ercol was still frowned on by the purists.

Moving to Hackney in the early 2,000’s I was one of the first dealers to stall out at the newly reinstated Chatsworth Rd Market, I had two pitches where I sold a variety of Victorian and Midcentury pieces for three years. During this period [and still occasionally] I traded at the well established Sunbury Antiques fair at Kempton racecourse. This led on to me taking on a a premises which is known as the ‘Proper Old’ shop, seven years on I’m still plying my trade there, and still learning.  It’s like the old adage about the ‘Trade’ you need a lifetime to learn, and a lifetime to put your knowledge to use, but alas you don’t get both!