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So Britain's officially in recession is it?
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With all the financial gloom and doom of the last month it will be interesting to see how this affects the world of fine art and antiques.
One observation could be that with the stock marketing heading spirally
downwards that investors will have to leave their money where it is and wait
(with a prayer) for the eventual resurgence of the equity markets.
Another slant, and probably nearer the truth, is that many investors will have
foreseen this market crash and the subsequent investor panic and will have converted their stocks into cash or bonds and
whisked it off to the safe haven of an Icelandic Bank....
That's a point, where is a safe haven today? The traditional turbulent bolt holes of bonds, gilts and even precious metals might not give stupendous returns however they have reassuring safety and comfort attached to them.
In the September newsletter we mentioned that we had been receiving a surprising
amount of interest from customers who were thinking of enjoying art and antiques
to the full. Why have your hard earned cash tied up in a safe yet minimal
return
investment when you can have a steadily appreciating asset safely wrapped up in your
own home? Fine traditional furniture, clocks and pictures may not set the world on fire with dramatic highest
bidder gains at London auctions (we don't want "boom and bust" do we!) but
appear to be appreciably moving forward even in this troubled market place. We
are not saying that you will make a killing short term when buying antiques; but they
are a great long term investment that you can admire and enjoy in the meantime.
With this in mind, we have noticed a
rise in interest at the top end of the market, with customers not deferring or indeed bringing forward the purchase of these top quality pieces:
does this bode well for Olympia in November?
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Brand new shiny www.millingtonadams.com!
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At last we have finished the majority of the work on our website
www.millingtonadams.com. After much toil we have fully integrated the site into a database driven engine with a new look that has been progressively rolling out of the last couple of months or so. Our physical server is also new and for those of you who may be interested is now a dedicated machine (just for us!) running Fedora Core with a RAID array and a 100 m/bit internet connection. OK so you've now fallen asleep.....
For the user though the main thing you will notice is the changes to the stock
item viewing screen. You now have the capability to
change the viewed image, super zoom and also "X-pand"
the image (by clicking "X" in the top left) to 90% of your browser window.
Try it, click the screenshot on the right......
When you first view a stock item, a low
resolution image will be loaded (for speed), clicking on the same picture in the
thumb-nail section will load the hi-res version instead. You can zoom and move
any part of the this image in the main window, just by clicking and dragging
with your mouse, or you can use the tools in the bottom left.
You can also print fully illustrated information sheets on any piece by clicking the
printer icon on the bottom left.
We have also added a new custom search facility which is available from any main
page on the site, artworks (including sold items) are returned in graphical
format, just click the thumbnail image to view the artwork. We would welcome any
observations and will try and sort out to the best of our ability any gripes you
may have!
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The Olympia Fine Art & Antique Fair - 10th - 16th Nov 2008
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Our next and final event
in 2008 is the winter Olympia Fine Art & Antique Fair, held at Kensington's
Olympia Exhibition centre in London from 10th to the 16th November. For the
discerning collector this has been long regarded as the best of the two Olympia
Fairs with less pomp and certainly more high quality unusual and ultimately
buyable antiques and works of art.
Millington Adams are in the same location as we have been for the last two
years on stand E23, on the ground floor, immediately ahead of you as you enter
via the main door, underneath the large gallery staircase.
In addition to many of the new pieces shown here, we hope to have a few
stunning late
additions for the exhibition, including a superb William & Mary walnut seaweed
marquetry escritoire, a wonderful floor standing mahogany corner cupboard with swan neck pediment, an absolutely superb early George III mahogany breakfront library bookcase and a beautiful Sheraton period mahogany compact cylinder bureau bookcase.
We will be sending out Winter Olympia 2008 tickets shortly to those of you
registered on our database, if you are not you can follow the link below to
download a printable "e-ticket" for the fair.
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LAPADA London fair now in Berkeley Square for 2009
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LAPADA have announced new dates and a new Mayfair venue for the 2009 staging of
their flagship London event. The LAPADA Art & Antiques Fair will be
held from September 24 to 27 in a purpose-built marquee located in the centre of
Berkeley Square in the very heart of Mayfair, London W1.
Since 2006 LAPADA have held their London fair at the Royal Academy's, 6
Burlington Gardens, but were forced to seek an alternative venue following a
change in tenancy, and truth to be said, from the dislike of the hot cramped
venue by exhibitors and visitors alike.
Millington Adams have been exhibiting at the LAPADA London Fair since its
inception 3 years ago, we like other exhibiting members felt now the fair has
been established in Mayfair it
had to stay, not least because there was evidence that it attracted
well to do local residents and professionals who tended not to shop outside the
West End and seemed not to visit other London fairs.
We hope to be at Berkeley Square in September 2009, keep an eye on this
newsletter for more details.
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Recent Acquisitions
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Along the left hand side of this newsletter are shown our most recent acquisitions, these have been added to our web site
www.millingtonadams.com since our last newsletter in
September. Click on any picture or the text below it to go to our site and view the piece in more detail, with full descriptions, pricing and zoom-able pictures. |
This newsletter is produced by Millington Adams Ltd, if you would like to unsubscribe please click the link below, if you require any further information on any of our current stock then please e-mail
sales@millingtonadams.com and we will answer any questions you may have. Visit our web site via any of the links included in this newsletter or all of our most recent acquisitions can be viewed by clicking here.
Remove your subscription to this newsletter by clicking
here.
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