Exciting antiques events that offer plenty of scope for collectors

All the fun of the fair in Cork tomorrow will quickly be followed by all the fun of the fair in Dublin next week.

Fri, 06 Sep, 2019 - 15:40

Des O’Sullivan

Des O’Sullivan previews two exciting antiques events that offer plenty of scope for collectors

All the fun of the fair in Cork tomorrow will quickly be followed by all the fun of the fair in Dublin next week. Hibernian Antique Fairs will be at the Clayton Silver Springs Hotel from 11am to 6pm tomorrow with a fantastic line-up of dealers from right around Ireland offering an array of antiques, art, collectibles and jewellery from the highly affordable to the stratospheric in price.

Meanwhile, Timeless —The Irish Antique Dealers Fair opens at the RDS next Friday and runs over the following weekend.

A chart of Cork Harbour from The English Pilot as used by seafarers in the last quarter of the 18th century is bound to create interest at the stand of Charles Vivian at the Cork fair. He has priced it at €385.

Brian Hurley of Kinsale will offer a selection of collectible and affordable porcelain including an Aesthetic Movement Minton Kensington Gore studio handpainted earthenware plate from around 1880, a Samson Paris Chinese Export apothecary jar and a mid-century Dresden vase.

Matthew Weldon of Dublin will bring antique, vintage and estate jewellery with a good selection of sapphire and diamonds.

This antiques, art and vintage fair offers something for everyone across as price ranges and is a hugely popular long-established event.

The Irish Antique Dealers Fair at the RDS is always a big draw too. This year it is titled Timeless and it will offer a selection of items from antiquity to the contemporary.

The range of furniture takes in everything from the highly fashionable mid-20th-century styles to Art Deco and Art Nouveau pieces and classical pieces from the 1750s to the 1890s.

Matthew Weldon, who will attend both fairs, remarked that people are going back to gold with Victorian pieces being re-purposed for the 21st century. T-bar chains and pocket watch chains are enjoying a new lease of life as necklaces.

Marie Curran Antiques has priced a 19th-century Cork glass jug at €495, while Niall Mullen has an Art Deco bronze of The Snake Charmer by Theo Somme at €4,850.