Norfolk Folklore Society March 2024 talk announcement
Our next Norfolk Folklore Society Talk
Mal Cannell: The Folklore of Objects
Tuesday 12 March 2024
Tickets: £6 + Eventbrite fee
Doors open 7pm / talk starts promptly at 7.30pm
Venue: The Assembly House, Theatre Street, Norwich
Hello folklore friends!
We are delighted to invite you to a special talk all about the treasures a Norfolk antique dealer has uncovered during his 50-year career, including witch bottles and stories of a mysterious disappearing antique shop!
Mal Cannell will be joining the Norfolk Folklore Society at The Assembly House in Norwich for a very special talk all about The Folklore of Objects.
He told us: “After nearly 50 years of pursuing and dealing in antique objects, I find folklore and life pretty nearly synonymous, so if I end up relating anecdotes of an antique dealer’s life, I hope you will be forgiving!
“Sometimes the objects themselves are folklore and sometimes it’s where they have been found. Many of the stories of old antique dealers have become folklore in a trade which relies more than most on anecdotes.
“In the antique rug trade, we say: ‘the rugs are free it’s the stories that cost the money…So I will keep telling the stories and some will turn to folklore.”
Mal Cannell began buying and selling from the age of 16 (tomatoes and glass bottles!) and comes from a long line of Cannells who have made their home in Norwich since the English Civil War. For half a century he has specialised in trading in antiques, rugs, decorative objects and textiles from Europe and further afield. He has shops at The Raveningham Centre and at Bayfield Hall, near Holt, supplies shops across the UK and has been featured in national publications and on Channel 4. His customers include interior designers, royalty and those with an eye for the beautiful or unusual. Mal is also a traditional folk singer with a keen interest in folklore customs and runs his own folk club in Raveningham. He has adventured with renowned folklorist and friend Jennifer Westwood and recorded an album of poetry to raise money for charities as well as writing for the Marshlore Zine edited by his daughters the musician Laura Cannell and artist Sarah Cannell.
We are grateful to The Assembly House for hosting this month’s talk. You will be able to purchase drinks from the Grand Hall ahead of the talk.
There will not be a talk in April and in May our talk will be part of the Norfolk and Norwich Festival and will be at Norwich’s Guildhall. Find out more HERE.
See you soon!
Love from Siofra and Stacia
Find out more here:
Raveningham Folk Night is on the 2nd Saturday of each month at the Ravenous Café, Raveningham Centre, Beccles Road NR14 6NU: 2nd Saturdays 7.30 -10.30pm. Singers, musicians and listeners all welcome, 01508 548406
Marshlore Zine: https://marshlore.com
Find out more about Mal here: www.mdcannellantiques.co.uk
Follow Mal on Instagram here: @malcannellantiques