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Our Christmas 2020 Newsletter

We send Season’s greetings to all our clients, contacts and friends, and warmest thanks for all your help and support during 2020. Let us hope and pray that in 2021 the current restrictions can be eased, and that life can start to return to some sort of normality.

The focus of our business has always been to build a strong online presence. With the restrictions on business this year, there has been a noticeable shift within the antique trade towards doing business in this way, which we think will continue to be the case. We continue to work with 2Covet, LAPADA and CADA.

The CADA fair scheduled for October 2020 was inevitably postponed. It is now scheduled for October 2021. Just as a reminder, the new venue for this fair is at Compton Verney, Nr. Stratford upon Avon, Warwickshire.

Following on from the success of our first Catalogue, published autumn 2019, ‘European Glassmaking 1450 to 1700’, we have been fortunate to have acquired several new quality glass pieces of the period. We are now working on a second, follow up Catalogue, to be entitled ‘Venetian and Facon de Venise Glass’. This will seek to illustrate the characteristics by which it may be possible, often admittedly extremely tentatively, to attribute glasses to Venice or to other regions in Europe where glassware of comparable quality was made. We are hoping to produce this Catalogue within the next few months.

As a longer term project, we are working on a Catalogue about early English silver of the Stuart period, and how it ‘reflects’ the tumultuous history of the period.

In the meantime, we are pleased to present ten new silver and Kunstkammer objects; there are two fine pieces of early English silver from the reigns of James I and Charles I; a very rare pair of steel sugar cutters and two lovely pieces of silver from Southern Germany, illustrating the quality of metalworking for which that region was renowned; a pretty little Dutch silver strapwork box; two Spanish silver pieces, and two Spanish Colonial pieces.

We shall be pleased to give further details, so please e-mail or telephone.

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New Year – January 2020

We would like to wish all our clients, contacts and friends a very happy, healthy and successful New Year. 2020 does of course mark the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower.

This anniversary will no doubt be the cause of much celebration during the year on both sides of the Atlantic, particularly in the autumn when the voyage took place. 

Our first Catalogue, which is entitled ‘The Art of Imitation – European Glassmaking 1450 to 1700‘, has now been produced, and we have been busy over the past few weeks sending it out to clients, museums and contacts both abroad and here in the UK.

A pdf version of the Catalogue is being attached to this newsletter, please click the link above. If you would like one or more printed copies, please e-mail your details, and we shall be gladly post these to you. Online, we continue to build our presence.

Towards the end of last year, we cancelled our membership with 1st dibs and now work with 2Covet. – We continue to work with LAPADA, CADA and Barneby’s. We have many new acquisitions which we shall be posting on these and our own website during the coming months. The CADA fair which we have exhibited at the last 3 years is changing it’s venue this year to the Compton Verney Art Gallery, near Stratford upon Avon and close to the M40 junction. It will be held 15th to 18th October 2020. Tickets will be available nearer the time.

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Spring Newsletter 2019

Spring Newsletter 2019

We are pleased to report that the CADA fair at Blenheim Palace, 21st to 24th February, was successful for us. We followed it with a visit to the TEFAF fair at Maastricht in mid March.

During the past 18 months we have been fortunate enough to acquire many more rare and interesting early pieces to add to our stock. Silver from Iberia and it’s colonies have always been of particular interest to us, and we include below four such pieces. All of them are marked either with a town or maker’s mark or both. These and several other new pieces can now be seen on our website.

We are pleased to say the business continues to make excellent progress by personal networking and various social media outlets. Available items appear regularly on 1stdibs, Online Galleries, Barnebys, LAPADA and CADA websites.

Our first Catalogue is still a ‘work in progress’. We are expecting it to be ready for launch in the autumn. It will include several new glass acquisitions. The focus is on the early glassmakers’ quest to produce recipes to mimic natural stones and minerals, rock crystal of course being a prime example. Few early rock crystal pieces survive. Our stock now includes a number of such pieces to compliment our glass collection. The research for the Catalogue is proving to be extremely interesting, but far more difficult and time consuming than originally envisaged.

As to forthcoming fairs, CADA next Spring is a must for us. If we decide to do any other fair between now and then, full details will of course be posted on our website well in advance.

We do wish all our clients and contacts a healthy and successful year ahead.

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Summer Newsletter 2018

We are well into Summer after an exciting few months for Mayflower Antiques.

For the second year running, the CADA Fair at Blenheim Palace was very successful for us. Into its 7th year now, The Cotswold’s Art and Antique Dealers’ Association Fair has gone from strength to strength, and is now a destination for collectors, art consultants, interior designers and the public alike, and we are very pleased to be part of the team.

Next Year the CADA fair is scheduled for the latter part of February, so hopefully we will not get snowed in! Naturally we will be sending out tickets in the New Year.

We have had a number of recent trips to Europe, both selling and buying, particularly some superb glass acquisitions from Paris. A trip also to Belgium to introduce ourselves to Easyfairs, who are the organisers of Eurantica, Brussels and Antica, Namur.

Our recent acquisitions in glass have provided the stimulus for us to start working on writing our first Catalogue to be titled ‘The Art of Imitation – European Glassmaking 1450-1700’. We hope it will be ready to go to print in the Autumn.

We do hope the rest of the Summer will be enjoyable for you.

Our latest pieces can be viewed on our European Silver page.

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January Newsletter

We do hope you all had a good Festive Season and are now looking forward to a Happy and Prosperous 2018.

In 2017 we purchased some very rare special new pieces which can now be seen on our website, LAPADA’s website and now Online Galleries.

We will be exhibiting again with CADA at Blenheim Palace, the dates are the 19th to the 22nd April, 2018, we will be sending out invitations nearer the time.

So far as fairs are concerned, our other aim in 2018 is to find the right fair in Europe for the Autumn.

We are continuing to carry out research in conjunction with the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, on one of our pieces, which is a very interesting project.

As always Mayflower seeks to find and research these rare early high quality pieces, maintaining the high standard that we have always held.

We plan to visit Lisbon in the Spring and return to Paris and Amsterdam which we hold great fondness for.

We will be sending out a Spring Newsletter with a further update of our activities.

We would like to take this opportunity to wish you all A Very Happy New Year!