Ready Steady Bid
It might seem a tad odd to see five people huddled up tightly together along a table but at the beginning of the year, back when we could cuddle, a month before the dawning of Corona Lockdown, Lucy Ryder Richardson, Modern Shows® co-founder, author of 100 Midcentury Chairs, headed off up to Yorkshire to film a new show called The Bidding Room.
Lucy showing off a winning item
Airing this Monday 8th June at 3.45pm and running every weekday the delightfully ebullient and charming Nigel Havers introduces a mix of wonderful characters with stories to tell to the programme before they head with their possession to meet resident valuation expert Simon Bower who arms them with more information about the piece to get them match-fit to meet the antiques dealers in The Bidding Room.
Series Producer Claire Egerton-Jones with Ian and Moses
Different days see different dealers bidding with their own money. Joining Lucy are Modern Shows® regular Moses Otunla from Bleu Furniture, Ian Humphries from Manor Monkeys, Adrian Higham from Hoof Brocante, James Broad from James Broad Interiors, James Gooch from Doe and Hope, Natasha Francis from Urban Vintage Affair and Jane Cave from Jane Cave Interiors.
Adi in a rare moment when he is not talking about his house in France
Because they have such a mix of specialties they are often presented with pieces they haven’t got a clue about but fancy a punt and more often than not the bidding gets very feisty.
Tash looking fantastic as always
Lucy, Moses and Claire having a laugh after hours
First episode line up includes Ian, Tash, Adi, James and Jane. See Lucy Ryder Richardson in the second episode.
Want to know more about the cast of dealers from behind the scenes in The Bidding Room? Here goes:
Lucy Ryder Richardson
Co-founder of Modern Shows® with Petra Curtis, Lucy and Petra’s interiors event Midcentury Modern®, attracts everyone from celebrities to investors for its stunning mix of high-end vintage and top British contemporary. The first of its kind, Midcentury Modern® has been showcasing 80-85 dealers and designers in cool architectural locations in Dulwich twice a year for the last seventeen years and now has a regular show at an Erno Goldfinger building in Hackney too. Often asked to pop up at art galleries (past venues include The Hepworth Gallery in Yorkshire and De La Warr in Bexhill On Sea) Midcentury Modern® has a cult following of midcentury aficianados including Marvel actor Andrew Garfield and Oscar winner Olivia Colman with design lovers gathering one Sunday a few times a year to feed off their mutual love for design at what has been described as “an inspiring museum-style pop up shop” by Max Fraser, The London Design Guide. “The brilliantly curated Modern Shows is a must-visit event for anyone after original mid-century design.” Charlotte Abrahams, freelance design writer FT How to Spend it, Guardian, Observer, Elle. With years of experience mixing the best of midcentury with the latest in modern design, the Modern Shows® team is also an interiors staging and sourcing company often called upon by developers and architects to bring its midcentury modern aesthetic to architect’s new builds, restaurants and offices or given locations gratis to pop-up in as a way to attract crowds to a space.
James Gooch
Doe & Hope specialises in decorative, rare & unusual antiques and fine art from around the globe with a particular interest in the atmosphere that surrounds an object, taking a cinematic approach in the presentation of its inventory. James Gooch’s house style is best described as theatrical. Nicknamed the ‘dark knight’ on the programme, his style is a concoction of old money, dramatic decorative, and faded gentility, with common themes of both humour and the macabre running through his inventory, which includes both academic and playful objects.
The Urban Vintage Affair Instagram
Adrian Higham
This respected dealer in French antiques, vintage and brocante works out of two hangars on an old RAF base on the Romney Marshes. As you will hear regularly in the programme with Bidding Room dealers constantly teasing him about it, ‘Hoof’ Higham is passionate about France and has a base in the Pays de la Loire from where he and partner Tara Franklin, the organiser of Penshurst Vintage and Antiques Fair, source ripped leather chairs, huge wooden shutters, advertising signs, mirrors, bicycles, toy cars, statues, French textiles and loads of galvanised items. He has a passion for toys and especially teddies – any piece with a story that looks like it has had plenty of love is on the menu for Adi, as he is affectionately known. He also has a passion for motor racing and takes his 1975 Scimitar GT and a team to Le Mans for the Classic race.
Jane Cave
Jane Cave realised there was a market for affordable items that could make a real difference to a home after dabbling in antiques in her early 20’s when she worked for Christie’s. She now loves trawling around antique fairs and shops, both in the UK and France, as well as (increasingly) on line to try and find individual pieces that suit most interiors. Like many dealers Jane Cave admits to finding it difficult to part with some pieces that can end up in her Norfolk home for a short period before she decides to move them on. Her stock ranging from early 19th century decorative painted furniture, foxed gilt mirrors and antique lighting through to midcentury can be seen online and at her showroom at Bayfield Hall Antiques & Interiors in North Norfolk where she has had a residency for twelve years along with six other dealers. Bayfield Hall is an elegant country house set in wonderful parkland and the antiques and interiors shop is set just behind it. She and her business partner, Caroline, who lives in the house also sell a range of new items from soaps, candles and sheepskins to decanters and wine glasses from the interiors shop. Almost all the items are sourced (although not necessarily made) in the UK as well as France. On top of this Cave has a small property portfolio and is about to bring her eclectic style to an exciting property project in Norfolk.
James Broad
This 25-year-old antiques dealer from Congleton, Cheshire sells antiques and vintage home accessories ranging from Howards armchairs to 20th century Pifco desk lamps. Not sticking to one style, he simply buys what he likes and tends not to follow the current trends, that way, if the item does not sell, he can simply bring it home (much to his girlfriend’s Emma’s frustration). Although he may be young, he has certainly had his fair share of experience – the bug starting when he was 11 years old visiting UK fairs with his parents. He then began his antique career through a local auction house, Whittaker and Biggs, where he is now the auctioneer and manager and pursuing his auctioneering career whilst keeping up with his passion for antiques through James Broad Interiors.
Ian Humphries
The wonderful Ian ‘Flip It’ Humphries has been in the antiques trade for over 30 years and his passion still runs deep. He strives to keep quality high and is constantly searching for furniture and decorative pieces of all periods and styles to offer for sale. Over the years a number of his ‘finds’ have appeared in leading television and film productions – a leather wingback chair he supplied to the Eastenders set was used for years in the programme. He sold a 20th Century cabinet to the set designers of Father Brown and more recently an antique Khula Khud helmet for Bad Wolf production’s ‘His Darkest Materials’. He recently sold a carved oak head to a Cornish gallery and has had pieces feature in many exhibitions. He prides himself in having ‘an eye’ to source antiques that make an interior, bespoke and special to the owner.
Thanks to Claire Egerton-Jones, Emma Walsh, Caroline Willis, Lucy Freestone Flynn, Drew Leigh, Katie Dowling, Tracy Martin, expert Simon Bower, Jade Kitson and all the rest of the fab production and camera team at Ricochet and the BBC.