antiques FAIR focus
f o th ir on a F m e h t
Antiques in the flora Shop for Welsh pottery and textiles among the vegetation of the National Botanic Garden of Wales FEATURE Rosanna Morris PHOTOGRAPHS Jason Ingram
W
hat a treat on a cold, wet day in January, to step inside the giant greenhouse of the National Botanic Garden of Wales and into a tropical microclimate. Birds tweet and butterflies flit and, through the overhanging foliage, you spy several oil paintings, a cow creamer or two and a bentwood rocker. It’s like hunting for antiques in a jungle. ‘Antiques and gardens go hand in hand,’ says organiser Brita Rogers of Derwen Antiques, who was invited by the garden to put on a fair here two years ago. The mix of glasshouses and gardens in the Welsh countryside near Carmarthen is the result of the vision of local artist William Wilkins who, in the 1980s, suggested creating a garden for the public on the site of the surviving ruins of Middleton Hall, a grand Regency mansion owned by William Paxton. Stands can be found in four locations across the site but the most impressive assortment has to be beneath the spectacular dome, which is the largest single span glasshouse in the world. Here we found a Carlton Ware mushroom cruet set, old irons hidden in the convolvulus scoparius and a woman looking through a stereoscope at pictures of London’s Tower Bridge. Over in the Principality House, the former servant’s quarters and the only part of the mansion still standing, you could admire a fine selection of Welsh pottery, including Nantgarw (as featured in our November issue) as well as Ewenny, Swansea and Llanelli. But the most fitting purchase of the day had to be an original 1950s Portmeirion ‘Botanic Garden’ dish – a snip at £10. 110 H&A JANUARY 2014
clockwise from this image The spectacular dome rising out of the Welsh countryside was designed by Foster + Partners; this dealer has used every last inch of space on his table; old irons in the Convolvulus scoparius; Joan Thomas and Beth Jenkins’ beautifully styled stand; polishing glassware
In brief The next antiques fair at the National Botanic Garden of Wales, Llanarthne, Carmarthenshire, takes place on 11th-12th January, 10am-4.30pm, £2.50. 01267 220260; derwenantiques.co.uk JANUARY 2014 H&A 111