It’s a good thing I’m like a dog with a bone once I’ve decided to do something, because it was mighty tempting to remain under the doona last Saturday morning as the rain poured down and the alarm I’d set to make sure I didn’t miss the best part of the Geelong Antiques Fair started blaring in my face (I’m not to be trusted with radio alarms – they’re way too easy to sleep through – so I have to go for the truly bogus EH-EH-EH-EH kind where you wake up thinking it’s the apocalypse).
Anyway…I braved the early morning cold/rain/sleet to hit the road at a respectable hour and schlep out to Geelong West Town Hall in Pakington Street. As we approached, the surrounding footpaths began to thicken with elderly peeps in twos and threes, all decked out in their finest bargaining glad rags – hats and serious tweed for gents; I’ll-poke-you-yet umbrellas and big-ass hair/pearls for the ladies.
(Before we went to the fair I couldn’t resist making a pit stop at Geelong Salvos, where I picked up a Trifari owl brooch still attached to its original card…sometimes it pays to be early).
The admission price for this fair was $8 ($6 concession), and as is the case with all these fairs, entry included a chance to win the door prize (some silver deco coffee pots along with the ubiquitous prize of a Carter’s Antiques guide). There were about 35 stalls in all, ranging from the Serious Furniture Guy to the people selling very op-shoppy/Camberwell market-ish stock, who were (oddly) all put together in the same room.
All the regulars I’m starting to see at fairs were there – the Demigod antique prints guy telling people that his stock was ‘half price today only’ (note: it’s ALWAYS half price), the lady who refashions old jet into new jewellery, Online Antiques selling their ever-delightful range of deco collectables (including some very big-ticket items this time).
In an interesting development since my trip to the Ballarat Antiques Fair, there was not one but three vendors selling a significant amount of uranium glass. Maybe the word is well and truly out.
Other than that, the stock was pretty much what you’d expect – a heck of a lot of collectable glass and porcelain/crockery, some military stuff, some old advertising stuff, a fair whack of jewellery (hardly any clothes though), some knick knacks and a couple of whackos – in this case a guy selling Australiana-inspired vases that he’d made himself for over $8000 a pop (how is he passing them off as antiques you ask? With a big sign that says ‘the antiques of tomorrow’, that’s how).
The scones and quiche at the canteen deserve a special mention, as they were both awesome and way cheap.
The beau and I made a few purchases. I couldn’t resist a hugely long 1950s Australian budgerigar brooch (handpainted board covered with some kind of early plastic). Some polite haggling got me a fair price (and the beau got a badge for free, bonus).
The beau also bought a tie clip with the logo of an old firefighters’ union on it. He was pleased.
We then got to talking to two elderly ladies who were having an estate sale at the fair. They showed us some old documents which had been amazingly well preserved (even though the handwriting was in pencil). Then – get this, I still can’t believe it – I was having a look at an amazing, long set of mother-of-pearl wired beads from the 1920s with a m-o-p pendant attached. The marked price was $60. They said ‘Oh, if you like it you can have it for $40’, and I said thanks and kept having a look at it. One of the ladies then said ‘No, you can have it for $20’ and I said ‘Really? It’s really beautiful’ and then she said ‘Oh, no, look…we’ll give it to you. Take it’.
Apparently their grandmother had bought it on some glamorous overseas jaunt in the 20s, and as neither of them had daughters to pass it on to, they decided to just …give it to me. I was so touched, I didn’t know what to say (other than thanking them obvs) and probably ended up looking like a tomato-faced moron. I’ll have to be sure to take excellent care of it.
We also bought a nineteenth-centruy edition of the collected poems of Lord Byron from the same ladies…it had an excellent wooden handpainted cover and gilt-edged pages. Note: I did not consider haggling over this for one single nano-second. Besides, the price on it ($40) was already more than fair, considering the condition that the book was in.
So, all in all I had a great time and would recommend attending this fair next year, though this may have more to do with the Kindness of Strangers than the actual fair itself.
Did anyone else go to this fair, or have any heart-warming treasure hunting stories?
May 19, 2008 at 7:12 pm |
Ok so now I’m wondering just what did those “antiques of tomorrow” vases look like? the mind boggles and at $8000 a pop just how many did he sell? Thanks for your reveiw – it’s so much fun reading about what is happening down your end of the world. Unfortuantely Geelong is 5 hours drive for me or I would be tempted to wander down that way. Maybe Ballarat is a better day trip possibility