Furniture

Every piece of furniture has a practical purpose regardless of how simple or grand it is, even if some pieces were built more for display than function. Today, furniture remains one of the largest areas of the antiques market and items are categorised by type and period.

The term brown furniture refers to traditional pieces made from dark woods such as mahogany, while pieces made from native woods like oak and walnut are sometimes referred to as vernacular furniture.

Famous historical makers include Chippendale, Gillows, William Vile and John Cobb. More recent market trends have seen modern vintage pieces appearing in specialist design and ‘Interior’ auctions.

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Globes from 1816 take £50,000 in Wales

09 April 2013

This pair of full-size library globes was the pick of more than 800 lots from a Pembrokeshire country house sold by Carmarthen firm Peter Francis.

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Louis Vuitton trunk sells for £30,000

19 February 2013

Vintage luggage made by Louis Vuitton was a fitting addition to this year’s aptly named ‘Travel in Style’ ski sale at Christie’s South Kensington.

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Mackintosh cabinet offered without reserve takes £36,000

04 February 2013

This Arts and Crafts music cabinet, entered into a recent sale at Robertson’s of Kinbuck, near Dunblane, without reserve, turned out to be a hitherto lost design by Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

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Green shoots in market for dull brown?

29 January 2013

Green shoots in the market for the most iconic of all English furniture was among the more encouraging findings of the Antique Furniture Price Index in 2012.

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Stylish Finnish chair in decorative sale

18 January 2013

Created by the 20th century Finnish architect and designer Alvar Aalto, this Paimio seat, with a model no. of 41, is to be included in Sworders’ Decorative Art Sale on January 29 in Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex.

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Prayer rug appears at Oxford sale

11 January 2013

This Shirvan Marasali prayer rug is part of a private collection of Caucasian rugs consigned to Mallams’ sale in Oxford on January 23.

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Russian collection in Rye

21 December 2012

A large 200-lot Russian consignment of items from the InterContinental Hotel in Prague is estimated to fetch around £350,000 at Rye Auction Galleries in East Sussex on January 4.

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Heal’s exhibition suite for sale

26 November 2012

In December, Wellers’ Guildford saleroom will offer a seminal suite of furniture by Ambrose Heal (1872-1959) consigned by a member of the family who purchased it at the turn of the 20th century.

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George Eliot’s desk stolen

26 November 2012

A portable writing desk once owned by George Eliot is still missing after being stolen from Nuneaton Museum and Art Gallery.

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Yorkshire cottage yields prize Arts and Crafts furniture

19 November 2012

Scarborough saleroom David Duggleby posted a house record for furniture when a suite of oak Arts and Crafts furniture from the workshop of Cotswold School cabinet maker Peter Waals (1870-1937) sold as a single lot for £31,000 at their latest auction.

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Cinema seats in Cirencester

10 October 2012

Thirty original Art Deco seats from Cirencester’s Regal Cinema, demolished in 2004, are going under the hammer at local auction house Moore Allen & Innocent on October 12.

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Bacon rugs: The Third Man emerges

08 October 2012

The appearance of a Modernist carpet at a sale in Germany next month writes a further chapter in the tale of two rugs, signed ‘Francis Bacon’, that have been withdrawn from sale in the UK twice in three years.

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Carter tiles ready to be snapped up

05 October 2012

Recently rescued from Kent & Sussex Hospital in Tunbridge Wells, a selection of 13 Carter tiles attributed to Phyllis Butler are to be offered at Bonhams Knightsbridge on October 16.

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Francis Bacon rugs remain an enigma after second withdrawal

24 September 2012

A pair of rugs signed Francis Bacon, and thought to relate to the artist’s early career as an interior decorator, have been withdrawn from sale for the second time in three years.

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Indian inlays at £16,000

12 September 2012

The latest Interiors sale at Dreweatts of Donnington Priory included this 2ft 6in (77cm) wide coromandel and ivory marquetry centre or Communion table.

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Vuitton trunk brings $30,000

03 September 2012

The attics of Camden, Maine, a famous summer colony for the ‘haves and have yachts’ of the Gilded Age, are just the place one might expect to find period Louis Vuitton luggage.

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The high art of the weathervane

30 August 2012

Weathervanes have always been at the pinnacle of aspirations for collectors of American folk art.

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Table leads furniture at Newbury sale

29 August 2012

Leading Dreweatts’ interiors sale in Donnington Priory, Newbury, on September 5 is this Indian or possibly Indo-Portuguese ebony, coromandel and ivory inset centre table.

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The Mayor of Bristol’s writing desk

01 August 2012

This 19th century metamorphic mahogany estates writing desk will appear at Diamond Mills & Co’s sale in Felixstowe on August 8.

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Glasgow School collection goes under the hammer

30 July 2012

Lyon & Turnbull are to sell the contents of the New York home of Donald and Eleanor Taffner, important collectors of works by the Glasgow School.

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