COACH HOUSE BROCANTE

Julianne Cronin is a familiar face at many UK antiques fairs, where she sells soupières and other French nds…

I was born in London and would holiday at my grandparents’ home in Westgate- on- Sea on the Kent coast. Mum and I would visit junk shops and go to markets and jumble sales. Those days were my ! rst experience of looking for treasures.

In my teenage years both my brothers would be o! "shing, watching football or scuba diving, leaving me with mum and dad most weekends, so I would go with them to antiques fairs around London. Our favourite fair was at the Royal Horticultural Halls in Westminster. Mum collected silver spoons, netsuke and antique bu"ons, and dad would collect military badges and bu" ons. These visits started my ! rst collection, which was, and still is, perfume bo" les.

In December 2014 we went on a short holiday to France and I bought lots of small items at the brocantes and markets. I came back and sold them at a local antiques fair. It went quite well so we went again and again. We sell mostly French brocante ! nds with in #uences from Belgium and Holland. Our items range from porcelain broody eggs, various ironstone white dishes, and old handmade escargot pots at £ 2 to soupières at £ 20 to £ 85, and ironstone cake stands from the 1850s at £ 150.

We believe we are the number one supplier of soupières dating from the 1800s to 1920s in age. We normally take about 40 soupières to each fair and they are our signature look. We seem to be drawn to all ironstone china – jugs, plates, bowls, sauceboats, ladles, and plates or drainers with holes in. We also love embroidered French linens.

We live in Derbyshire in a Victorian house, which has a small detached coach house. We plan to extend and develop it into a showroom for our ironstone and linens to be displayed and stored. It will be exciting to welcome customers to visit us here at the Coach House. coachhousebrocante.com