THE Bowes Museum is to host a ground-breaking exhibition about the history of antique dealing with objects on loan from major collections throughout the UK.

It will be the first time the subject has been the theme of an exhibition in a museum, offering an in-depth look at dealers, their taste and eye for objects, their shops and practices.

SOLD! 200 Years of Antique Dealing in Britain will open on January 26 and run until May 5 with a display in the main exhibition space.

Guest curated by Mark Westgarth of Leeds University, SOLD! tells the back story of 25 stunning internationally renowned objects loaned by major museums including The V&A, British Museum, The Lady Lever Art Gallery, Temple Newsam, The National Gallery and the Museum of London, as well as a number of regional museum collections and historic houses.

Visitors will embark on a journey through 200 years of antique dealing through an innovative "shopping for antiques" theme.

Working in partnership with dealers in Barnard Castle, the Bowes will recreate an Old Curiosity Shop from the 1850s giving a visual feast of the kind of objects that would have been on sale in the era of Dickens.

There will also be loans from private collections never seen on display before.

Themes will include the history of the antique trade, looking at the roles and significance of prominent dealers, amateur dealers and collector-dealers.

How dealers valued, catalogued and marketed their objects, as well as the mythologies surrounding the dealer, from Dickens to Lovejoy.

Jane Whittaker, head of collections at the Bowes Museum, said: “This is a most exciting exhibition to be working on and we are proud and privileged to host it. It’s the first time an exhibition has focused on the life an item had before becoming a museum object.

“I’m sure that our founders John and Joséphine Bowes would have been delighted by many of the high-end and visually stunning objects that will be on show, including an exquisite 9cms high Fabergé miniature table and a gilded warrior currently on display at the V&A Museum.”

SOLD! draws critical attention to the role the antique trade has played in the development of public museums and private collections and in changing tastes and fashions in collecting, furnishing and interior design. It is the first exhibition of its kind to explicitly highlight the relationships between the art market and museums.

More information and opening hours can be found on the website thebowesmuseum.org.uk.