Collecting Antique corkscrews at Ardingly Antiques Fair 2012

Well the New Year had arrived and it was time for the first large antique fair.  Ardingly in the South of England was the venue. The antiques fair is held at the South of England show ground which is approximately half an hour drive by car from London.

I jumped out of bed at 3.50am grabbed a quick bite to eat and I was out the door, with a 150 mile drive ahead of me. I arrived at the show ground on schedule. The gates for buyers opened at 9am but I needed to get in early with the stallholders. My plan was to stand by the roadside waving a £20 note; it worked, half an hour later I had got in.

I felt I had a trump card, the previous day I had spoken to Peter Borrett who had decided he was going to an antiques fair elsewhere in London first. I had the Ardingly fair to myself with little competition and felt optimistic.

I began my search, after only 20 minutes I realised the fair was approximately one third of its usual size. Fewer stallholders meant fewer opportunities but there were fewer buyers too, maybe my chances were still good. 

 Well, midday approached and Peter and I met up for a quick chat, we decided to call it a day and head to the pub for a beer. 

Very little was found, Peter found a couple of anri pieces and a couple of lesser corkscrews and all I found was the one straight pull. We all concluded the first fair of the year was a very difficult one.

My only find of the fair!

Peter and I decided to continue our hunt. We then headed to Lewes a further 45 minute drive to check out the antique centres. Unfortunately I turned up another blank but Peter managed to buy a figural corkscrew.

As always hunting for corkscrews at antique fairs in the UK was a struggle. The three of us all had similar costs for the day, for me £40 of fuel, £20 to enter the fair and one days lost income, along with 16 hours of hard searching with very little reward. Well that’s corkscrew collecting for you, it is not always enjoyable but hopefully my next visit to an antiques fair will give me something more positive to report.