For the love of french furniture

As promised, and better late than never I wanted to do a post on the French furniture I photographed when I visited France in the spring time.  As the owner of Vintique Tree and because I have a serious thing about furniture, especially upholstery the interiors of the French Chateaus' we visited were of huge interest.  I thought that the furniture and upholstery in the French houses was much more accessible than in the country houses of Britain, here everything is roped off at a distance, whereas you can really get up close and feel the age of the French pieces! Or at least I could. I love seeing a warn chair or the patina on wood, I really wish I could get the history of what the furniture has seen by just touching it!

I like the simplicity of English furniture, the majority being carved clean straight lines, but I can't compare it to the curves and flamboyancy of the French furniture. From the stunning carved sideboards that take up a whole wall  to the crazy amount of braid they put on their upholstery, it just wins hands down in my eyes!

Anyway enough gushing, here are just some of the few favourites I took whilst visiting:

Selling at Europe's largest antiques and Collectors fair - IACF Newark

Newark is around an hours drive from home and is Europe's largest antiques and collectors fair. I can honestly say even though it has been going for years, before I got into the antiques business I had no idea what I had been missing out on!

Even if you are not a dealer or collector, there are so many things to see and buy to make your house unique and stand out from the crowd. You can pick up furniture for half the cost of the big retail stores, and the furniture is better made and has a history you just cannot find on the high street!

The Vintique Tree stall was full of treasures and finds from our sourcing trips but by the end of the fair a lot of our things had found new homes!

Battle of Bosworth - the unusual site for a English Christmas fair

At the start of December Vintique Tree had a stand at the Christmas fair which was held at the unusual location of the Battle of Bosworth visitor centre in the picturesque Leicestershire countryside. This location is beautiful in the summer but with twinkling lights and a band singing carols it did feel rather festive!

On offer for shoppers was a  drop of  free mulled wine and a mince pie.  It was a  jolly and festive evening where crafters and sellers came together to sell all of their Christmas stock. With most stalls very reasonably priced you really could pick up something quirky and different for gifts and stocking fillers. All in all it was a successful night and I will definitely be going back for the spring fair!

Autumn Antique treasure hunt

I took Vintique Tree on the road and stood at Newark international antiques fair in October, I haven't had chance to blog, life has been busy!

The weather can be a friend and a mighty foe at these events, but luckily it was kind apart from one or two short but sharp showers. Newark is one of the biggest antiques fairs in Europe and is considered "one of the 1000 things you should do before you die".  Although I was selling I still had to have a browse round and thought you might enjoy some of the things I saw (photos on iphone so some are a little blurry sorry!)...

A summers day at the antiques market

The Vintique Tree stocks were getting low, so, a urgent sourcing mission was needed! Any excuse is good enough to head to an antiques fair so today we took a trip over to the decorative antiques and home show in Lincolnshire, check out our day in photo form! Sorry about the quality they were on my phone!

Some of the goodies I found today...