Sunday 8 September 2013

Days out . . . Builth Antiques and Collectors Fair

Yesterday my husband and I spent a long - and tiring - day at Builth Antiques and Collectors Fair.  Hundreds of stalls trading, and you practically need a bicycle to get round!  We walked round and round for about 5 1/2 hours and my legs are complaining today.  It is such a great day out for us though, and of course, it's like a gigantic treasure hunt as we are searching for the things which interest us.


Fierce isn't he?!  The card reads: "A very large Sawankhalok pottery temple naga finial. Thailand, 145h - 15th C, with incised brown decoration over a cream glaze. . . . . . . £350."


I bet my eldest daughter would go for this!  So Flower Power and Psychodelic!


A badger from an earlier cull . . .


A retro corner took me back to my childhood . . .


An interesting corner.


Bits and bobs are on virtually every stall.


I wondered if this was a little goat cart, but they have side shafts, so perhaps this had a human in harness!  Sold, anyway.


Badly foxed, and at £40 I couldn't see getting it down to what I'd have LIKED to pay for it, considering the foxing, but I loved this old print!  First line says "Screwdriver & Reardone's opinions concerning "The Prize", own brother to Lottery on the 1st May 1841.  (Lottery was a famous racehorse who won the Grand national in 1839).


A selection of quilts.


A stable full of rocking horses were in one corner . . .  And there were some . . . hair extensions on sale there too!


A view of the main hall from the balcony.


Above and below - a wonderful display of colourful Carnival glass, which I have a soft spot (but no money or room) for . . .



This stall of kitchenalia is always here and is one of my favourites.  I love to check it out, if I can get near (it's always popular.  Check out the rarer yellow and white striped T & G Green jars . . .


And here's what I bought.  A lovely honey glazed Aller Vale pot (Torquay pottery), dating from about 1910 or so.  You can tell labour was cheap then, as it had four lines of poetry . . .  Later pieces mostly have just a short  saying on them.


The pattern is called "Kerswell Daisy".  There were a couple of missing bits of flaked glaze but that doesn't bother me, as you'll not notice on the shelf, and it came cheap enough.





8 comments:

  1. I love the jug you bought BB - and also how I would like to own that little cart!

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  2. I'd have been right at your elbow in any stall with kitchen treasures, and of course there to admire the quilts.
    Looking at the over-view from the balcony I know I'd have needed a break in a quiet corner for a bit not to be over-whelmed by so much sensory stimulation!

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  3. What a fabulous collection of stalls - it must have been hard to decide what to buy. The little jug is really distinctive. Jx

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  4. Oh those rocking horses! I always dreamed of having one as a child and now when I see them I fear for their lives were I to mount them. I wonder if anyone makes adult-proof ones?

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  5. I inherited a carnival glass bowl from my mother-I certainly couldn't afford to buy one though! What a great collection of things to look through!

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  6. Jan - some of them are amazingly cheap at car boot sales, but generally just the everyday orangey ones. I got a clear glass bowl in a charity shop recently - you only notice the iridescence when you hold it up to the light. I love my little jug/bowl - the honey glaze is so distinctive, and much nicer than the later off-white glaze. My hand didn't even hover over it, it just went straight in and grabbed!

    Em - sounds like a marketing opportunity to me!

    MM - not much in the way of quilts, though plenty of Welsh blankets about. How I wish you HAD been there with me - it would have made a good day perfect. We have just noticed that Malvern is on when Tam is here in a couple of weeks' time, so we have decided to go to that, although as we remarked when we were going round Builth, Tam is so thorough, that she would still be on stall 5 or so, when we were finishing!

    Weaver - pretty little cart. I thought for a goat at first, but they went between shafts, and some even wore bridles with teensy little snaffle bits. Glad you like my jug too.

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  7. Looks an amazing place to visit. Love the rocking horses though not sure about the badger!!!!

    Really like the little pot you bought :)

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  8. Lovely photos - love history and antiques. I havebeen all over the UK from the orkneys to st ives and Sissinghurst to the lake district, isles of skye and mull. i didn't realise they had that much carnival glass over there - i am a collector myself of northwood patterns. are there any dealers who specialise in it you know of? great photos! enjoy your wanderings! Will

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