New Faces and Free Tables at DNW’s Britannia Fair

The offer of free tables for all exhibitors has produced a surge in interest in the first new-style Dix Noonan Webb-owned Britannia Medal Fair, which will be held at its traditional London venue, the Victory Services Club, on Sunday 18 November 2018 from 9.30am to 2pm. Very few tables were left by early October as dealers, auction houses and the Orders & Medals Research Society signed up for the new deal.

Mark Carter, who sold the Fair to DNW but will continue to run it on behalf of Britain’s biggest auctioneer of orders, medals and decorations, said: “There has been a tremendously positive response to DNW's generous and innovative decision to provide free tables for all stallholders and free admission for the visiting public. Several totally new stallholders have already come forward and also several existing stallholders who had not exhibited for some time - including for the first time in many years dealer Turner Donovan Military Books - showing how well this new concept has been received.

“Event bookings are already at over 95% of capacity with a top class selection of medal dealers and auctioneers of all sizes from as far afield as Scotland, Belgium and the U.S.A. wishing to exhibit at and support what is now the capital's only specialist medal fair.”

In July DNW announced that it had bought the Fair to ensure that the event can remain at the Victory Services Club, the venue just 200 years from Marble Arch underground station where it has attracted dealers and collectors for more than 30 years. DNW is running it on a not-for- profit basis. Mark Carter, who acquired Britannia in 2016, sold it to DNW because a large increase in club hire costs would have resulted in him making a substantial loss per fair. Mark continues to run Britannia as fair manager. He does this as an independent consultant, not as an employee of DNW, and continues as usual to run his medal business and his other medal fairs at Aldershot, Stratford-upon-Avon and Yate.

The key elements of the new Britannia Fair arrangements are:
■ FREE entry for collectors and any other interested members of the public.

■ FREE tables for dealers, societies and all auction houses.

Mark was recently awarded the Meritorious Service Medal by the Orders & Medals Research Society “for his outstanding contribution to and organization of medal and militaria fairs for over 30 years”. He was presented with his medal by Society President Air Commodore Graham Pitchfork, at the OMRS Convention in Nottingham in September.

The full address of the Britannia Fair venue is:

Carisbrooke Hall
Victory Services Club
63/79 Seymour Street
London W2 2HF
The 2019 dates for the Fair are 17 March and 17 November.