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If anyone is to blame it is Charles

   Welcome to the very first blog on this site
   I've been thinking about what to start with, and I have come to the conclusion that I ought to explain myself.
  I hope you are the patient type because I'm probably going to take the long way round. After all, why waste a few hundred words when I've got thousands to spare.
  So if you're here and thinking why on earth is this bloke even bothering with antiques, I suggest you direct your complaints to my great and great great-grandfathers, both of whom were called Charles Horner.
   For some of you that is a name that will need no introduction, but to others it will lead to blank looks all round. Who he?
   Both Charles Horner's were Yorkshiremen, and they also happen to be a moderately well-known jewellery designers and manufacturers.
   My grandmother, Marjorie, was eldest daughter of CH the younger (1870-1949), so my Mum, who died in 2014, was his granddaughter. And that means that the Horner legacy was always part of my life. Mum had a very ornate mirror, decorated with Monkeys and other wild animals hand carved in silver. You can see this in the definitive guide to Horner jewellery by Tom Lawson (about which more is at the bottom of this post). I imagine, as a child, that this exotic mirror fascinated me, not least because my Mum knew the man behind it and that he used to have monkeys as pets. Indeed, I have a video somewhere of CH the second with my Mum and sundry other grandchildren which proves the point.    
  When Mum used to drag me round places, it was always "I'll just nip in to see if they have any". Considering the amount of just nipping in we did, she didn't buy much. I think it was just to look really. And anyway, money was tight. But what she did end up with is very personal, mostly inherited, and include a couple of things made by the man himself, like the mirror, so completely individual.
  I'd say this is not the place for me to go into Charles Horner, his life is documented and the book I referred to above is as good as source as you will find on his life and works. But he is the reason I started in this trade. I, like Mum, collected a few nice bits. I remember buying one pendant at Olympia, I think it was, and paying the huge, to me, sum of £70.00. I still have that pendant and I'm happy to report it is worth a fair bit more now.
  But I still haven't answered the question. How do I get from there to being an antiques dealer? Back in the day,  I was an advertising copywriter, and mouthing off to some friends about Horner, showing them the pieces and waffling on until they were bored stiff. As much to shut me up as anything one of them said something along the lines of I should put that knowledge to use and trade in the stuff.
  That advice stayed with me, and one day, when the timing was right, I made the jump.  I started at the bottom, trading on market stalls, and now I'm in my own shop in a small village in Devon. It may not be Bond Street, and the stock may not (all) come from Sotheby's, but it is mine and I love this job. No two days are alike. And I've always got some pieces of Charles Horner's wares to admire, so I can be sure to say thank you to him, every day.

PS: Shop now closed not by choice, but by mean landlord who took it back in-hand without explanation and has since done zip with it

The book I refer to above is Charles Horner of Halifax, by Tom J Lawson 2002 GML Publishing Ltd ISBN 0-9542354-0-1

and there is more about Charles Horner here

08/04/2016 Posted by Paul Hardy Tags: bampton,  devon,  horner,  antiques
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