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.
Reflections on a Glasgow mirror at ten times estimate
08 January 2003Unsigned Arts & Crafts metalwork has lately been getting the sort of high prices normally reserved for attributable material and this copper-mounted mirror, right, was no exception – the sleeper of Bonhams’ (17.5/10% buyer’s premium) sale of Decorative Arts at Glasgow School of Arts on November 28.
The ungnawn Beaver
06 January 2003Coming up in Galashiels... The Yorkshire Arts and Crafts cabinetmaker Robert ‘Mouseman’ Thompson hardly needs an introduction. His distinctive adzed oak furniture, each piece relief-carved with a small mouse, proved so successful that a menagerie of imitators sprang up in the 1950s and ’60s.
If you’re all sitting comfortably, I’ll begin…
18 December 2002Just where were those bears made? The familiar stands, seats and other furnishings fashioned as realistically carved bears, usually from limewood, have traditionally been attributed to the Black Forest region of West Germany but recent researches suggest that Switzerland is a more likely source.
A £260,000 quality assessment beneath two centuries of redecoration
11 December 2002The table pictured right was very much the star entry in a 230-lot sale of English and Continental furniture and works of art held at Bonhams (17.5/10% buyer’s premium) Bond Street rooms on November 26. It singled handedly accounted for a third of the entire £787,620 auction total when it made £260,000. Nothing else came near this in price, the next most expensive entry being a £19,000 Louis XV period marquetry commode.
Regency mahogany secretaire bookcase sells for £27,500
06 December 2002With the recent closure of numerous manufacturing depots belonging to a Cardiff company, the time came to dispose of items from the manager’s flat. The best of these items, all of which were sold on November 20 at the Cardiff rooms of Anthemion Auctions, was this Regency mahogany secretaire bookcase.
Wicker world
06 December 2002FOR a while now wicker furniture has been fashionable. It dates back to Ancient Egypt and from the 1870s to the 1930s was very popular indeed, moving indoors from the porch and summer house and being used extensively in cruise liners and airships.
Furniture star at jewel specialists
06 December 2002Birmingham auctioneers Fellows & Sons (15% buyer’s premium) are particularly known for their silver and jewellery sales but on October 29 it was a piece of furniture which took the top honours. A William and Mary walnut and crossbanded chest on stand had made £3400 when it was auctioned in 1998 by James & Lister Lea of Birmingham as part of the estate of the Late Mrs Joyce Cadbury of the Bourneville-based chocolate dynasty. Here it was punchily estimated at £4500-5500.
£12,500 chairs justify ‘realistic’ furniture market
28 November 2002While many provincial auctioneers berate the slowing down of the brown furniture market, Phillip Taubenheim of Gloucestershire auctioneers Wotton Auction Rooms (10% buyer’s premium) is finding it pretty healthy. “As long as we are realistic with our vendors and they are realistic with us, everything seems to be OK,” he said.
What do we do about brown furniture? NAVA ask members
28 November 2002FACING up to the decline in demand for brown furniture was the central issue taxing the National Association of Valuers and Auctioneers (NAVA) at their annual general meeting in Cardiff.
Wood yew believe it? Burr cabinet rates a £5200 bid
21 November 2002Robert Finan has been holding these specialist sales at the Ship Hotel for six years and next year intends to go quarterly. With the major UK auctioneers having shipped their tribal art departments to Continental Europe and America, the valuer’s biannual outings are just about the only chance for the serious connoisseur to root out African totems and Maori weapons from the colonial timecapsules of the British countryside.
Irish court ruling underlines importance of due diligence
12 November 2002The importance of clear due diligence in dealings has been highlighted by an Irish court overruling the country’s statute of limitations on stolen goods in a civil case.
Closed shop pays a £112,000 dividend
05 November 2002Auctioneers Walker Barnett & Hill (buyer’s premium 15 per cent) were understandably celebrating their decision not to break up the contents of WTM Snape’s Tea and Coffee Merchants of Queen Street, Wolverhampton, right, when they were put up for sale on September 30.
William Morris wallpaper designs
05 November 2002Edinburgh’s Royal College of Surgeons was the venue on the evening of October 29 for the sale by Thomson, Roddick and Medcalf of four important and original wallpaper designs by William Morris (1834-1896).
Adam Revival occasional tables sell for £22,000 each
22 October 2002The firm of Wright & Mansfield (1860-86) are often cited as the instigators of the Georgian Revival and, unlike many of their contemporaries who produced Victorian pastiches of earlier styles, are renowned for their craftsmanship, using high quality materials for accurate recreations of the Adam and Sheraton style – often difficult to distinguish from the 18th century originals.
Cassone tops ‘best day in years’
17 October 2002BRINGING a welcome change of climate into English salerooms from North Italy, this 18th century cassone, right, led what auctioneer Ben Gamble described as a day when “everything seemed to be selling well” at South & Stubbs (10% buyer’s premium) on September 27 at their Penkridge, Staffordshire salerooms.
Victory for function over style
11 October 2002Chinese Classic Furniture – The Dr S.Y. Yip Collection: It may come as a surprise to some to learn that the Ming dynasty’s minimalist huanghuali furniture has traditionally been more prized in the West than it has been in the East.
Sitting pretty on the old front line
08 October 2002FANS of television’s Sharpe will be well acquainted with the tough life of the trooper during the Peninsula War, and also with the grander life of the officers who managed to dine elegantly in their tents on the eve of battle.
New stance on stick stands
23 September 2002ONCE almost the hallmarks of those corner junk/antiques shops, wrought-metal stick stands these days have a genuine value – a sort of camp appeal utilised by the decorator trade. Of course, the interest in this example, right, offered at Raymond P. Inman (15% buyer’s premium) at Brighton on September 2 may simply have been a greyhound enthusiast attracted by the dog and racing trophy. Whatever the bidder’s motives, the grey-painted stand sold at £790.
Laying down a strategy
23 September 2002LONG a convert to selling shows, Kent rug dealer Desmond North holds another of his regular marquee sales in the grounds of his home, The Orchard, Hale Street, East Peckham, near Tonbridge, on the weekend of October 5 and 6. But even in specialised worlds the market has to be pursued and Mr North, who says he is baffled by what new homeowners use for decoration and furnishings in their ever-more valuable properties, is aiming at this area.
Drawing on England's strength, in Sheraton's opinion...
23 September 2002THE word English is arguably superfluous in the title of a selling exhibition entitled The English Drawing Room, which runs from October 1 to 19 at the Mayfair showrooms of Windsor House Antiques.
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