Hunting for Treasure at Ardingly

This morning I had to make a difficult decision between Excel spreadsheets and heading out into the sunshine to hunt for treasures at Ardingly Antiques Fair …. No contest really, apologies to my accountant!

It really is such a pleasure to do a bit of ‘hunter gathering.’ It is quite impossible to anticipate what treasures are waiting to be found and over the years has been a fantastic source of furniture for our home.

There is one treasure I really missed – an entire collection of Parisian hand painted textile designs which must have been at least 100 years old. They were absolutely exquisite but an American chap was in front of me and without even looking through them all he, ‘bought the lot!’ He then turned and told me how great they were and that they were going to be used to decorate his hotel in Vietnam – Arrrgghhhh !!!

I then found a beautiful French school book full of tiny handmade items of clothing all with detailed written notes on the techniques involved. Unfortunately I turned my back for one minute and guess who was in there like a hawk! He then went on to buy everything on the stall and I mean absolutely every lovely item with an apparently limitless budget.

I did however manage to find a vintage DMC woolwork tapestry of abstract flowers and birds. It needs some work on the frame but can soon be spruced up and should look quite funky in my living room. Fingers crossed my husband thinks so when he returns home from the office in Germany later this week!