In your part of the world is there a television programme called the Antiques Roadshow? There’s one in the UK which has been going for decades and is very popular. The antiques experts go to various areas of the country so that people can bring along old things that have been lying around their homes and acquisitions to find out about the objects and what they are worth.
The furniture experts always take a good look around. If it’s the type of writing desk called a Davenport, they like to open the pen tray at the top and see if it’s nicely fitted out.
If that looks okay, they’d probably examine inside the desk, looking for rot, woodworm, new pieces having been added and so on.
And then they might stand back to find…………………………….
That this one is a 12th scale miniature! Better yet, this is a work in progress, at present two and three quarter inches tall but it will be just a tiny bit less tiny when it gets fitted with castors. This is the work of Colin Bird, who, to put it mildly, is handy with a saw. You are the first to see this and I do hope you’re enjoying the sneak preview. It’s a reproduction Victorian walnut Davenport of 1870; Colin has used stained cherry wood to simulate walnut with a suitable sized grain, he certainly had me fooled. Did you know it was miniature, or were you not sure? If all goes well, there will be just two for sale at Miniatura and they will cost £220 each and, like the best miniatures, they have every chance of holding their price and increasing in value just like the originals. If you’d like to see more from Colin you’ll find him on the links page. If you want to make this your first port of call at the show, the Miniatura stand number listings are up on the website: www.miniatura.co.uk.
If you have discovered Miniatura through this site, you may think it a bit strange to wish to know the location of the stands prior to the show. This is, among other things, a collector hobby, big style. Miniatura does attract collectors from all over the world but no matter how far they have come, no one is allowed in before the doors open. There is always a lengthy, early queue and when those doors open the collectors at the front really do run into the hall. There is frequently a separate wheel chair users queue to avoid traffic accidents. Each island of stands has an alphabet letter on a pole in the middle of it; red hot collectors who have checked out the website can be at the stands while the tannoy is still going ‘Ladies and gentlemen the show is now o….’ If I remember and don’t get trampled in the rush, I’ll try to photograph this awesome sight for you on Saturday morning and post it in the evening. In any case if you find something I have shown you here that is exercising your collector muscles don’t hang around. The purpose of the restricted entry numbers on Saturday is to give a little more room to manoeuvre to enthusiasts.
Would you like a sneaky peek at another ‘is this little or a real one’ photo? How about this:
You are looking at a detail of a 17th century lantern clock made by Malcolm Hall who has made clocks in full size for many years. This reproduction clock is a proper working clock. What do you think? Little or big?
Time’s up and it is………. one of Malcolm’s miniature working clocks and it’s going to be seen at Miniatura for the first time. I cannot tell you how many there will be because it all depends on how hard Malcolm can work in the next ten days. If you think this is as good as I do, and I would have to say I think it’s fantastic, you’ll be wanting to run to stand D6 which is where you’ll find Halls Miniature Clocks.
I have spent about 28 Miniaturas taking the work of artisans for photography for magazines, during the show. I have photographed a lot of miniatures myself and watched lifetime professionals do the same; good miniature photographs are hard to take because the things are small. Either of the items pictured here could be hidden in your hand, yet both have been photographed by their own makers for you to see every little detail. My thanks to Malcolm and Colin for taking the time to do this just before the show. However, I would also like to say that I have, at previous shows, taken furniture from Colin and clocks from Malcolm for photography and arranged them and walked round a huge hall with the miniatures, in the course of which I have had my mitts all over them and taken a jolly good look and the photographs, wonderful as they are, are about a 12th as good as the real thing.
Miniatura is a knockout day out, gawping. In between standing at my stand, I still walk round and wear my eyeballs out looking.
Incidentally, if you are a Miniatura artisan who has just found this and you’d like to show something here, please get in touch. There’s only one Wednesday left. There’s only one Wednesday left! What am I doing to chatting to you when there’s midnight oil to be burned?
JaneLaverick.com – bringing you hot art, as it happens!