‘Museum’ debuts at Antiques and Collectibles Fair

In a sense, the annual Antiques and Collectibles Fair held inside the Lindo Auditorium at Campion College in St Andrew can be referred to as a two-day pop-up museum. It is an event that is replete with a plethora of the items that could be on display in a museum, only that all of items are for sale.

Yet, at this year’s installation, for the first time, there was a museum section, with items from a personal collection on show, and it was a hit with patrons who were fascinated with the items that they would not otherwise get a chance to see.

There was an interactive element in the form of a 19th-century apparatus through which you can look at magnified black and white pictures. Of note were two framed original newspaper pages, one on which the story of the Kendal crash of 1957 is reported.

However, the pieces that kept patrons gawking and which pulled their eyes back to over 500 years ago were the Taino artefacts, many of which are in pristine conditions. The owner of the collection said what was on show was only about one per cent of what he has, and hopes one day to have a museum set up, with the help of the Government, to give people a chance to see his vast collection.

Speaking with Hospitality Jamaica about the museum, Kimberly Kong, one of the coordinators of the fair, said, “There was some fear [among prospective vendors]of being in the upstairs area of the auditorium, but this year we decided to add some features to bring the crowd up, and one of those things was the museum.

And it worked; the area was abuzz with activities. There were and items from the past that was not for sale, but nonetheless significant for their historical value, silently teaching invaluable lessons of our storied heritage.