Homeward Bound
Furnishing touches
Vintage furniture dealer Saxon Durrant’s pieces can be seen onscreen in films including the Gentlemen, Judy and Skyfall. Now you can get a piece of the action at the Dulwich Midcentury Modern show.
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BY L aura Burgoine 0 top vintage dealers and 28 contemporary designers are descending on Dulwich College for the next Midcentury Modern show where one of the show’s regulars, Saxon from Metro Retro, is celebrating 25 years in the business. “The Dulwich show is a real destination event,” Saxon says. “For this show I’ve got a heap of stuff in the workshop that’s ready to be worked on, I have some aluminium pieces made by an aviation manufacturer; they’re quite rare. I have some mid-century, some English ‘30s looking pieces, a bit of Deco stuff as well – that’s having a mini revival at the moment.” The Essex local first fell in love with antiques as a child. “My granddad had a couple of really nice bits of classic 20th century designer pieces that I’d see when I went round there on a Sunday. It fascinated me and my love of old things followed,” he said. “As soon as I could buy things I did. Then I started selling it locally in Essex.” Following a suggestion of a fellow trader, Saxon started trading at Camden Market in the mid ‘90s while he was doing his A-levels and then at Brighton station while he was studying philosophy at university in Sussex. “I took everything I could carry as I wasn’t driving yet,” he recalls. “It was never about being an entrepreneur. It was the love of it and the joy of the chase: buying and selling and doing stuff up. I’d go to auctions and car boot sales hunting for pieces.” What is it exactly that Saxon loves about mid-
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