Our Christmas news letter has just been emailed out through The Edenbridge Galleries. If you receive this you will see that Lennox is beginning a series of Masterclasses in the galleries, the first one is about the changing fashions of the Georgian dining room. You can learn all about the many designs through this long period with the differing styles of dining tables, chairs, sideboards, wine coolers and much more.

A delicious two course lunch will be served with wine and then an indepth tour of The Edenbridge Galleries to look at and discuss much more about the world of antiques.

If you would like further information or to book a place please go to our events page or call 01732 865988.

Well, what a week we have just emarged from! 18ins of snow and our annual Christmas event to prepare for. It was difficult to know what to do for the best but we decided the show must go on and to give everyone a chance to visit us, we have extended it to this weekend coming as well.

However, it was quite amazing how many people braved the elements and made  a huge effort to join us. We look forward to seeing many more next weekend, when hopefully the weather will be much better, for home made mince pies and mulled wine. All details are at www.edenbridgegalleries.com 

We are now happily ensconced back in Edenbridge after the Winter Olympia Fair and busy preparing for our forthcoming Christmas Weekend at The Edenbridge Galleries.

The weeks seem to go by so quickly and at one minute you think you have plenty of time and suddenly everything is upon us. I suppose it's just that time of year! However, our showrooms will soon be enriched by the smell of mulled wine, mince pies and all things Christmasy. Along with ourselves all the dealers who showcase their beautiful pieces here will be reorganising their areas and bringing in fresh stock. Infact a hive of activity will be upon us next week and we do hope as many of you as possible will come and see for yourselves the hard work that goes into a weekend such as this. 

If you would like further infomation on this please go to www.edenbridgegalleries.com and go to the news page.

All we hope for now is the Siberian weather promised keeps well away!

Finally, a little time to catch up with some BLOG writing on yet another wet and windy day!

Lennox is on his way to Bristol for an Antiques Roadshow Christmas gathering. He will be back tomorrow to finish packing for the Olympia Winter Antiques Fair which starts next Monday evening. This goes on until the following Sunday so please do come and visit us on stand E16.

Last week we attended the BADA Biannual Banquet, this year held at The Vintners Hall. A wonderful evening was had by all amongst beautiful surroundings, great food and ofcourse an excellent selection of wine.

Baroness Rawlings, as usual, gave an excellent speech regarding the difficulties of dealing today and the competition most antique dealers are up against. Particularly with the auction houses who have much capitol to promote their business directed at private clients. She so rightly pointed out that the majority of dealers offer a very personal service and through their many years of dealing have gained experience in their chosen subject second to none, of which they are usually happy to pass on to potential clients. The dealer, having put his own money on the line, is prepared to stand by his goods. The auction houses, on the other hand, sell on commission, in other words they have very little to lose.

It was very refreshing to hear these words of wisdom and understand the dealers plight. That being said there is still a place for the auction house and I suppose at the end of the day, we just all have to learn to live together!

As I write this, I am sitting in our office, fire on, bowl of home made butternut squash soup by my side and contemplating what to write in our first ever BLOG! Having done a fair amount of research on the net, mainly checking out other antique dealers blogs, it has become quite apparent that our American cousins have it far more sewn up than we do. So I have decided to learn by their example and offer a human, personable touch to the every day life of an English antique dealer seen through the eyes of his wife!

We will offer invaluable information about fresh stock, life behind the scenes of Lennox Cato Antiques, including fairs, talks, The Antiques Roadshow, as well as interspersing with information on our sister company, The Edenbridge Galleries. Hopefully all this will give us something to write about at least once a fortnight. You never know we might even increase it to once a week. But let’s not get too ambitious straight away!

The first item of news I would like to bring you up do date with is the wonderful talk Lennox gave last week to a lovely group of people in Withyham, East Sussex. Around 50 people came along with items they wanted to know more about including the history of the piece and the value. It became a very interactive evening with interesting items being passed around for everyone to see. The enthralled audience were captivated not only by the knowledge Lennox has acquired but also the entertaining little anecdotes about his life with antiques. All in all a very enjoyable evening was had by all with hopefully a generous amount of money being raised for the village church. Next time I will remember to take photographs!