Orange Zonta Club's 37th antique, vintage fair on Saturday, June 19

Around 30 different dealers from across the state as well as Victoria and Tasmania made the journey for the two-day fair which is now in its 37^th year.

It was Sydney couple and antique dealers Russell and Sandy Brookes' first time at the Zonta fair, after several years of them being on the waiting list. One of the dealers' specialities is the accessories of Parisian artist Lea Stein. Known for her compressed plastic buttons, brooches and bracelets, she is often hailed as "the most notable and innovative designer of plastic jewellery of the 20^th century".

Now in her 90s, the reclusive artist's reluctance to sell a lot of her work had given her a cult following which had additionally made her more vintage items highly sought by collectors.

"We found someone in Paris we can buy them from. You can't buy them off her, she won't sell to the public, she only sells to certain people," Mrs Brookes said.

"So we would probably have more Lea Stein [items] than anyone else in Australia.

"She started making them in the 1960s and she's still making some.

"Her husband was an industrial chemist so he worked out how to make the plastics then she did the designs."

Fellow antique dealer Kevin Dahya had been coming up to the Orange fair from Tasmania for the past 12 years.

Mr Dahya's taxidermy collection was one of the more unusual items for sale at the fair - namely because some of the creatures which were taxidermied between 60 years and a century ago, were now on the endangered list.

In more recent years, the dealer had noticed a demand among younger people specifically for taxidermied crows.

"A lot of young people buy them [because] they're quite goth," he said.

Volunteer Patricia Logan from the Zonta Club of Orange said the proceeds from Saturday and Sunday's fair would go towards local family support services.

Once the not-for-profit had counted their takings, they would divvy the money up between the organisations which support women both in the Orange community and further afield.

"Annually we make up about 600 birthing kits which go overseas to women in developing countries who don't have the medical assistance [they need]," she said.

"We're very grateful that so many [antique] dealers have come back to support us and help us keep going. And once the COVID restrictions have lifted a little bit, we'll be back better than ever."

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