Older news stories and events from 2007 are shown below. News from other archived years are in our news archive section. News stories and reports from this year are viewable in the Latest News section.

11-14 October 2007

BAFRA at The LAPADA Autumn Antiques and Fine Art Fair

Cheltenham Racecourse

by Michael Barrington

Once again our stand at Cheltenham was a great success and attracted the greatest number of visitors to the Fair, giving our Members and Associates a great opportunity to show the public what we do, how we do it and why. Our team consisted of sixteen Full members and four associates who work with BAFRA in various fields supporting our profession.

Shown above left is Cheltenham Racecouse and above right Ingrid Nilson

Our stand was again in the gallery of the Centaur building and had a 10m. frontage. The furniture on the stand belonged mainly to Jeremy Gow who generously funded all the stand lighting. A big bonus this year was the additional space very generously given to us in the next door stand by Fair Director Ingrid Nilson in which six pieces of furniture were exhibited.

Shown above left is Furniture on display provided by Jeremy Gow and above right is Mark Coray who set up his bench and ripple moulding machine alongside the publications racks and attracted large crowds of visitors.

To one side of these two stands and in the corner of the gallery was a display of BAFRA Member's cards and leaflets with a map of the UK showing Full Members locations together with racks of BAFRA publications which were taken by visitors in large quantities throughout the Fair; so much so that we almost ran out of Directories and one of the earlier Journals in which the Arts and Crafts period was addressed – perhaps not surprisingly since Cheltenham is in the middle of the English Arts and Crafts Movement area.

Shown above left are Richard Cook, Theo Sturge and Karen Pecenkus and above right are Barry and Tony Ansell.

On the stand itself members showed off tools and work examples and there were many examples of objects of furniture, barometers and clocks awaiting attention and in varying states of damage and decay. Upholstery was very well covered on two days by Barry and Toby Ansell and Philip Wellesley-Davies.

Shown above left are David Hordern and Hugh Haley, above center are Malcolm Buck, Malcolm Green and Stefan Herberhols and above right is Tim Naylor.

Carpet and rug conservation-restoration was demonstrated by Lenka Bashford while David Hordern attracted much visitor interest with leather lining/gilding, colouring and patination. A set of three 17th C Charles I walnut chairs in very poor condition because of serious mechanical damage and pest attack created much interest and discussion and on the Friday Paul Leary from Thermo Lignum was there to describe in detail how pest attack and damage is dealt with. We are very grateful to Thermo Lignum for their most generous contribution to our stand. One of the most eye and interest-catching skills demonstrated was Japanning and Gilding by Rod Titian, Karen Pecenkus and Annie Clarke.

Throughout the four days our stand was full of visitors asking questions about furniture and what we do and how to find and look after the fine objects which are found in so many households, many of them inherited, and often in poor states of repair and depletion. The Fair features very high quality stands across a very wide selection of the decorative arts.

The Conservation Register, represented by Caroline Saye was present on the stand for two days and attracted a great deal of visitor interest.

We are most grateful to the new Gordon Russell Museum in Broadway for transporting the stand up to Cheltenham, along with a 1936 carpenters bench of Nazi origin loaned to the museum and Rob Tandy for his help in breaking down on Sunday and transporting the stand back to Head Office in Dorset. The Chairman of the Gordon Russell Trust Ray Leigh visited us on the first day with his wife and readers of our May Journal will remember Ray's highly interesting article about Gordon Russell.

Shown above left is Rod Titian with Admirers and above right is the Entrance Hall and the Carl Linneus theme.

Shown above left is Rob Tandy showing off his leg moulding box and scratchbox skills and above right is a view of the BAFRA stand.

We have a great deal to thank LAPADA and the Fair Organisers for not just at this Fair but during the whole year. All BAFRA Full Members are registered Service Providers for LAPADA as the notice displaying the LAPADA logo shows infront of Rob Tandy in the picture above.

Shown above left is Gail McGuffie public relations expert for both the Fair and for BAFRA and above right Janet Pruce Pruce from the Fair Reception Team and once BAFRA's Directory advertising organiser.

More of our LAPADA Hosts at Cheltenham. On the left is Gail McGuffie public relations expert for both the Fair and for BAFRA. On the right is Janet Pruce from the Fair Reception Team and once BAFRA's Directory advertising organiser.

27th June 2007

The 12th BAFRA Conservation Award

West Dean College, near Chichester

by Michael Barrington

This year's Finals took place at West Dean College near Chichester, West Sussex, the birthplace of BAFRA back in 1979. As always West Dean were wonderful hosts and allowed us to use the Sussex Barn for the event which provided a large hall for the eight entrants' pieces and where the judging took place. Next door there is a very good large room where we could all sit, talk and eat the quite excellent lunch provided by the College under the direction of Margaret Rutherford of the College Staff.

The eight entries came from three of the BAFRA affiliated Colleges :

Lauder College, Dunfermline, Buckinghamshire and Chilterns University College and West Dean College. Each college was represented by their Senior Tutors David Young, Paul Tear and Norbert Gutowski respectively.

The Judges Team was led by BAFRA Life Member and the former senior tutor of West Dean Humphrey Sladden. Adrian Smith, President of BAFRA was the co-ordinator of the team of BAFRA Accredited members and our visiting judge Tony Wilkinson, a BADA Member specialising in furniture in Petworth. Our very generous Sponsors this year were again Heath Lambert and Hiscox, specialist insurers in the fine art and conservation fields represented by Tom Dudson.

Right to Left : Vincent Reed, David Lewry, Humphrey Sladden, Adrian Smith, Albert Plimb. Simon Paterson, Tony Wilkinson, Tom Dudson. (John Hartley was unable to be at the prize giving when this picture was taken).

The standard of work submitted for the competition was as usual very high. The winner this year was Peter White from Buckinghamshire and Chilterns University College with his 18th C Boullework Inkstand which gained the universal agreement of the Judges of quite excellent work, very well researched, executed and presented.

Peter receiving his ward from Tom Dudson and Alex Storey representing Sponsors Heath Lambert.

In second place was Masahiko Hosokawa from West Dean with a Visagapatan Writing Slope Box c. 1880-90 of engraved ivory veneer and penwork.

In third place was Glen Smith from West Dean with his 17th C Spring Clock Case by William Cattell 1685

The fourth Prize which was sponsored by The Life Members of BAFRA was presented by Life Member and former President of BAFRA David Lewry to André Notley from Buckinghamshire and Chilterns University College who entered a Louis XV-XVI Veneered Commode.

Merit Awards were given to the four other entrants from :

Lauder College – Robin Wragg who entered a 19th C mercurial wheel barometer with thermometer;

Oliver Everett from BCUC with his Rosewood Chaise Longue, James Sinden from West Dean with an 18th C Mahogany Single Drop-leaf Table and Harm Jan Dunnink, also from West Dean with an early 19th C French Curved Back Chair

Our host for the day was Robert Pulley, Principal of West Dean College who very generously presented to the winner, Peter White, an additional prize of a weekend course at the College. Bob also spoke about the most pressing need to retain traditional hand skills which of course are the foundation of all the work presented by competitors in today's competition. Whilst the scientific work of material analysis and treatment is extremely important and has been improved upon over the last two decades, at the heart of successful conservation and restoration practice lies aesthetic understanding and highly developed haptic skills. Although recognition of this fact seems to be less clear at the beginning of the 21st century the mission of West Dean College is to emphasise, safeguard and improve the fluency of artistic and craft skills.

During the lunch break Norbert Gutowski led a most interesting tour of the College finishing in the Furniture workshops.

A fuller report of the event will appear in the next (September) issue of the BAFRA Journal.