Newark - Britain's Largest Antiques Fair

When we are planning a trip to Britain, it's always a struggle to choose the places we want to see, based on their historic interest as well as the opportunity to add to our antique collection (juvenilia), based on the specialty or generalist antiques dealers in a given area.

The trend in Britain (as it has been for a number of years in the United States) is toward antiques malls (or more often referred to as antiques centers in Britain) where you can visit multiple stalls ranging from a dozen to 100 or more.

We find these centers to be great hunting grounds for two major reasons; first, the variety of merchandise is generally greater than you would typically find in a single shop. Perhaps just as important is the fact that many of these malls house dealers that are in the business on a part time basis and have a much lower overhead than a shop keeper would have, thus they are able to work on a smaller margin of profit.

On the down side, the owner is usually not present so you are not able to dicker with him or her directly, which may limit your discount to the typical 10% referred to as a "dealer discount."

ANTIQUE FAIRS
Since an antique center gives you the chance to shop multiple dealers, antique fairs take that to the next level, providing you with stalls representing many more dealers than you would find at an antique center. Indeed, some antique fairs will feature several hundred dealers at one show, and these dealers are also part timers for the most part, earning extra income by doing a circuit of antique fairs.

Before finalizing plans to visit a particular area, we will usually contact the tourist bureau to find out if there are any antique fairs scheduled and obtain dates. If our trip plans are flexible, this may give us the opportunity to change our plans by a week or so to be there at the same time their antique fair is taking place.

NEWARK ANTIQUE FAIR
While we typically schedule a visit to a given area based on the factors we previously discussed, there is one antique fair that is so monumental as to be a destination in itself. It is the Newark Antique Fair, held 6 times a year.

This mind boggling antiques market has in excess of 4,000 stalls at any given show! Yes, you read that right - over 4000 dealers in antiques and collectibles offering a huge variety of furniture, architectural pieces, porcelain, pottery, silver, jewelery, paintings, books, maps, prints, toys, and you name it. If you collect it, chances are someone at Newark will have it for sale.

The fair is sponsored by DMG World Media, and while they also sponsor antique and collectible fairs throughout Britain and the U.S., this is unquestionably the jewel in their crown of shows.

After a brief experiment expanding to three days of trading, the Newark Fair has reverted to a two day, trade-only format, with the fair open Thursday and Friday. Thursday is reserved for professional trade, Friday for general trade.

Dates for 2008 are

• February 7th & 8th
• April 3rd & 4th
• June 5th & 6th
• August 7th & 8th
• October 9th & 10th
• December 4th & 5th

Our tour company (Keystone Traders Ltd.) is planning to take a tour group to the Newark Show in August, with visits to other locations as well. You can write to us for information (505 W. Broad St. Chesaning, Mi. 48616)

Contents © 2003 David Ross and Britain Express