Dominic Orr
My family has been involved with buying and selling Textiles since the 1960s. Every Saturday my mother sold antiques in our local town and our house was always full of interesting artefacts. Summer visits to grandmother’s house in Wales introduced me to items she had collected abroad and local Welsh blankets from different woollen mills. My father was born in Cairo in the 1930’s and some family heirlooms are in my collection, including antique bags and Islamic art.
As a young adult I began trading in Totnes, South West England. My mother opened a vintage clothes shop in the 1970s. She sold and hired out Victorian clothes and vintage fashion items. At first, I specialised in antique glass then I began to sell 20th century studio glass and pottery. I visited Portobello in London where I began trading regularly.
Ottoman embroidery, 19th Century: silk on linen. Size: 45cm x 42cm
I have frequented many other markets and fairs throughout the UK and today I primarily deal in rugs and carpets: Anatolian, Persian, Caucasian, and from the Silk Road: Central Asian and Chinese. I also buy and sell on commission with an ever-changing collection of antique tribal textiles, stock which ranges from 18th century items to more affordable pieces made in the early 20th century.
I have lived, worked, and travelled extensively abroad including time in China (including Tibet), India, North Africa, South & Central America, USA and across Europe. I have sold regularly in at fairs in London and South East England, as well as boutique, pop-up fairs in the West of England.
I also sell online via ebay.co.uk and rugrabbit.comas well as my own website,DominicOrr.com, whichwas launched in 2017, six years after I became a self-employed rug dealer. Since then, I have also sold textiles and tribal pieces via dominicorr.info (on Instagram) and face to face at Shepton Mallet Flea Market near Bristol.
