Hungerford Arcade co-owners, Adrian, Hazel, managers, Rita, Wendy and James, all the staff and stallholders wish Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II a very happy and joyous Birthday.

Original: Joel Rouse/ Ministry of DefenceDerivative: nagualdesign [OGL 3 (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3)]

Hungerford Arcade has many connections with people from all walks of life whether

Photograph Courtesy of Granddaughter, Claire O’Neill

L-R Claire with Arcade Manager, Rita

they are local or far, far away.  This time, a lovely young lady, Claire O’Neill called in to tell us about an Antiques Fair in honour of her grandad who recently passed away.

George had been a silver dealer for over 55 years as was his father before him.  He was a well respected member of the community and much loved.  George was very ill and became a patient at the Hospice in the Weald.  He was so grateful for the care he was receiving that he promised the Hospice he would hold an Antiques Fair to raise money for them.  Unfortunately, George did not live to carry out his promise, but in stepped his Granddaughter, Claire O’Neill who put the wheels in motion so that the Fair could go ahead on the day that George had planned it for, 28th April 2019.

The Skinners School has kindly donated the whole school for the occasion and as well as the Antiques Fair which covers two halls with over 55 stalls, there will be live music and refreshments kindly donated by Fuggles Beer Cafe.

The Mayor of Tunbridge Wells, Len Horwood will be officially opening the Fair which will be announced by the Town Crier.  It is going to be a marvellous day.

George was still dealing on the internet while in the Hospice and even after his passing, was still selling and making money.  Nice one George!

Hungerford Arcade was very pleased to welcome Erik Thorbjørnsen all the way from Norway to do a special shop here at the Arcade. Erik stayed for quite a few hours and bought a whole host of beautiful items to take back to his shop Blå & Maritim Antikk Hvasser.

Erik said that many people recognise him from the restaurant Den Blå Brygge in Sandøsund, which was decorated with various objects from far and near. We quickly found out that guests wanted to buy these items.  We first started on a hobby basis, but now we have left the restaurant to others and are focusing on the sale of beautiful and old items full-time, both through the shop in the old bank room vis-à-vis Hvasser Motell, as well as at our online store.

I am particularly keen to track down objects that, in addition to fulfilling a function, also meet aesthetic and craftsmanship requirements.  Two words, professional pride, which is almost never used anymore, characterises much of what I can offer. Artisans and specialists who made run-of-the-mill items in ancient days often said that what they did was also to be beautiful, in addition to being solid and user-friendly. This is reflected in beautiful wood, shiny brass and great design.

You can visit Erik on his website at https://www.blaantikk.no/

This is a supplement to  a small series of articles in which I will discuss items that I have either purchased or just seen when visiting antique establishments in Hungerford and elsewhere.

A Spring Day

It was one of those early spring days which state clearly that winter is over, even though the air is still cool.  Blossom is on the trees and all kinds of creatures (including the crazy ducks) are engaged in complex courtship rituals.  One feels good to be alive, safe in the knowledge that the home test matches are two or three months away.

Today was such a day and Caron and I decided to catch up on a few chores that we had put off during the darker winter months.  Once these were complete, I decided to pop into the Arcade as Tesco’s was not my scene.  I purchased four items which I have listed below;

A vintage clothes brush in the likeness of a Marie Antionette (this is my best guess although I have never met her).

Les Fleurs du Mal (The Flowers of Evil) by Charles Baudelaire (a brand new paperback copy).

The Dryad Quarterly dating from Jan-March 1935 (which contained some great thirties advertisements).

A pamphlet containing the works of Edward De Stein (1887-1965) who was known as a First World War poet (he only published once in 1919 and this later collection appears to have been printed just for fun).

I do not intend to go into any great detail in this short article and have written it (whilst waiting for a train) to illustrate what can be found when just browsing within the Arcade and elsewhere.

As you can see, I love poetry and tend to gravitate in that direction and the Marie Antionette clothes brush was just a small gift for my wife for putting up with my general disinterest during the day.  It is great fun drifting through antique Arcades and shops and the like. You never know what you will find.  If I had set out with the above on my shopping list, then it is unlikely that I would have ever found them.

This was my journey and for the price of a book of stamps, I was able to purchase all these fascinating items  You should try this yourself (wherever you live) as it is great pastime.

Happy Hunting

Stuart Miller-Osborne 

 Hungerford Arcade have many classic car collectors come in looking for scale models of vehicles they own or, wish they owned.  Geoff was thrilled to pieces when he took delivery of his vintage 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air today!  There are many more where that one came from, so do come in and have a leisurely browse.

Don’t forget our Classic Vehicle Show outside the Arcade on the 19th May 2019 with the West Berkshire Classic Vehicle Club and their fabulous cars!

Hungerford Arcade has a lot of visitors from around the world and one lady in particular caught my eye the other day and her name is Margaret Lucas.

Margaret travels all the way from Australia every year for the Cheltenham Festival and part of her journey always has to include Hungerford Arcade.  Here she is with Adrian (co-owner of the Arcade) holding on to her treasured horse brasses.

Hope you had a wonderful time at Cheltenham Margaret.  It was fantastic seeing you again and we look forward very much to welcoming you back next year.  Rita

Small Finds Five

This is the fifth of a small series of articles in which I will discuss items that I have either purchased or just seen when visiting antique establishments in Hungerford and elsewhere.

The Piccadilly Circus Saucer

Most people in the UK have visited Piccadilly Circus at some time or the other in their life.  I can remember visiting the landmark when I was very young and being totally in awe of the magnificent light display.

As I grew up, I visited Piccadilly Circus on many occasions, sometimes to hook up with friends or just to kill time whilst waiting for a performance at a nearby theatre or cinema.  Whilst I do not do crowds that well, I did enjoy sitting under Eros just watching the world go by.  I was there a few weeks ago as I wanted to take in the bookshops on the Charing Cross Road and although the light displays are very much state of the art these days, the actual feel of the area has not changed that much.

https://www.pexels.com/photo-license/

There has been a road rationalisation of course, but the Criterion Theatre is still there and tourists from all nations can be found just chilling out and taking photographs.  There is an exciting buzz, but also I feel a degree of calmness when I am there for some reason.

With the advent of mobiles and selfie sticks, you can bet that if you sit under Eros for any length of time, your image will be captured a thousand times and in the weeks after, will be transported to a great number of different countries.

You might have guessed that I find Piccadilly Circus an interesting place as you feel that you are in the heart of London.

Diego Delso, delso.photo, License CC-BY-SA

I remember chatting (with difficulty) with my daughter who happened to be in New York with her family and as luck would have it, was in Times Square at the same time as I was sitting under Eros.  To think that I was in Piccadilly Circus and she was in Times Square at the same time gave me a peculiar feeling of movement and stillness.  She was in a similar environment thousands of miles away with visitors from all corners of the globe as company whereas, I was in London with the like visitors surrounding me.

For fun, I suggested that we should click our fingers simultaneously in London and New York.  Which we did.  Nothing happened, the world did not end, we had not proved or disproved the Chaos Theory and there were still butterflies nearby.  Enough of this Stuart, there is a time and place to write about La La Land and you should have by now explained why you have called this short article The Piccadilly Circus Saucer.

The answer is easy as recently I purchased a solitary saucer from the the only stall with a basement in the Arcade.  But why did you buy it?  Because it had an illustration of Piccadilly Circus printed on to its face.  Fine, but is is just another example of the London tourist tack which is available everywhere.

The saucer is not dated so I am looking for clues as to its age.

I purchased the saucer because it challenged me and if you look at the photograph of this saucer, you will see where I am coming from.  There are a number of clues.

What are the clues you may ask?

The red AEC Regent buses and the general traffic, including the cabs help to date the illustration.  The bus radiators are old fashioned and the cars and coaches definitely are from the 1950s/1960s

This could have been painted yesterday.  I agree, but why would a pottery take the trouble to illustrate this vintage scene?  The saucer is genuine but I have not firmly dated it.  But there is a bigger clue which you might have spotted whilst I have been waffling on.  Yes, the actual advertisements will help me to date the saucer and as normal, I will turn to the internet for help.

As you can see, the main advertisements are the Bovril and Guinness ones.   Both of which vanished years ago.

Well unless the artist used artistic licence, the illustration pre dates 1954 as the Coca Cola advertisement was next to the Guinness time clock from that year onwards and although it has been moved around slightly, it is there to this day.

The second clue is the Schweppes Tonic Water advertisement which can just be made out on my little saucer under the bold Bovril one.  Well according to my researches, both the Bovril and the Schweppes advertisements were in place between 1920 and 1961.

So here goes.  I believe that this illustration dates from between 1950 and 1954, but I have a feeling that the artist has pulled a fast one as the motor cars seem to have been of a later design and the red buses had such a long life that they provide little in the matter of detail.

I tried dating the illustration by taking into account the position of Eros, but this statue has been moved so many times that I began to get dizzy even thinking about it.  All this for a small saucer that cost me just fifty pence.

But I did learn one thing when writing this article, and that is The Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain that we all call Eros is nothing of the sort.  The winged statue is not Eros at all, but of Anteros his brother.  It as an easy mistake to make but it took the purchase of an obscure saucer in a small West Berkshire town for me to realise this.

Happy Hunting

Stuart Miller-Osborne