I won’t bore you with a lengthy rant on the distinction between restoration and conservation, suffice to say there is one. So if you were to approach anyone involved in the conservation of items and suggest that what they do is’restoration’, well…you have been warned! To restore an object is to add back a bit […]
Tag: antiques
The Line of Beauty
Jean, Pablo, Amedeo & Keith. Few things are more expressive than the simple line. A sweep or curve, an outline, a bold shape, these are the elements of visual language we all understand. In his Analysis of Beauty (1753) William Hogarth proposed a theory of aesthetics in which the term Line of Beauty was used […]
Plaster Busts Galore
The day that I walked in to Guinevere to find Dean’s dark and mysterious room of plaster breasts, legs, bums and tums, I was instantly mesmerised. The limbs are spread throughout the room, clutching banisters and breasts, kicking balls (metaphorically) and tiptoeing down stairs, they filled my face with a smile from ear to ear. […]
Parma – From Car Boot to Corregio
fur coats, stuffed animals and supposedly Roman statues – all treated with the same irreverence amongst the shouting and gesticulating. After 8 hours of trawling the aisles, asking prices with a scattergun approach because you should never assume that something is going to be too expensive, I decide to call it a day and make […]
Chelsea Design Quarter Summer Party
Parties have a strange effect on people; the pre party nerves can be a killer. For the Chelsea Design Quarter Summer Street party we had pre ordered the champagne and popped the first cork bang on the dot of 6. Marc stood patiently waiting for the first throng of eager visitors, the street was starting […]
My week as an Intern
My week starts Sunday afternoon as I catch the train to Manchester in readiness for a Monday morning start. I had previously been to the shop on many occasions when staying with Marc and Heather. I have always been drawn to the wonderful items they have and so jumped at the opportunity to work there. […]
Visit to PAD and Frieze
I got to PAD at 12.15 in Berkeley Square, conscious of course that I wanted to squeeze lunch in-between the two fairs. I met my friend Geoff at the door and we decided that the best way to navigate this fair efficiently was to walk around the outside then do the alleys longways. The first […]
Valentines day – Dean’s Tale
Valentine’s Day. Sunday 14th February. A Cautionary Tale. Once upon a time there were three brothers: Tom, Dick and Harry. They were nice boys, well brought up and each quietly excellent, in his way. Tom worked hard in the city and earned a lot of money. Most of the time he was stressed. He drove […]
Eurantica
We decided that we would make a quick hop to Brussels on the day of the preview for Eurantica. This is a large antiques fair that is staged once a year and was previously held in Brussels in one of the beautiful halls of the Heysel exhibition park. This is conveniently located in Brussels itself […]
New England in Late Fall
Wednesday morning flight to Boston with BA. At least we left from Terminal 5 which is normally efficient. I was with Hannah, my daughter, who had a couple of appointments in Boston, so we combined our trips. Anyway, we left on time. I had some wine and watched two mindless films to while away the […]