When buying antique furniture, size is all important. A large Victorian sideboard, for example, can (more…)
For those of us who are planning to buy some antique furniture, here are just a few points to watch and remember.
Dining Chairs
- Chippendale was a designer, not a maker, so it is unlikely you will find a chair made by the great man
- Dining chairs in sets are usually numbered using Roman numerals
- Stuff over seats should be nailed onto rails made of beech, which is less likely to split
- Check the back legs for wear and weakness as this is where they go first
Dressers
- Mortise and tenon joints should show on the outer surface of drawers
- Dressers tend to be rather plain – elaborate friezes may have been added later
- Marriages between tops and bases however are not (more…)
The mechanisation of furniture manufacture during the Victorian era resulted in a plethora of well made serviceable items such as chests of drawers being turned out for the emerging middle class Victorians in their thousands. This aspiring new market now wanted what the upper classes had had fifty or so years before and its new wealth meant that it was able to indulge itself in the purchase of large impressive pieces of furniture made of Honduras mahogany and other exotic hard woods. Their houses as well as their aspirations were expanding and these large pieces of furniture were representative of their success. A simple example of this was the increase in the size of a chest of drawers from four gradated drawers to five. (more…)
A legal battle is set to ensue where a firm of auctioneers is attempting to claw back a box of jewels and coins worth approximately £100,000 from successful bidder Jennifer Grant. The box was found in Agatha Christie’s mother’s trunk, which Ms Grant had bid for at auction in 2006. She realised that there was a locked box inside but the auctioneers did not have a key to open the box. Ms Grant only recently decided to have the box forced open. She had not bothered to open it before because she thought there was nothing in it.
It is not surprising now that the auction house wants the items returned saying that, as they weren’t catalogued, Ms Grant is not entitled to hold onto them.
Surely part of the thrill of going to auctions for most of us is the possibility of finding (more…)
The humble pine chest in all its many forms has been around since the Middle Ages and still remains a central part of home furniture. It has evolved from its beginnings purely as a storage chest, its metamorphosis into fine cabinetry as the chest of drawers, to its integral role as a piece of working furniture commonly known as a blanket chest during the Victorian period. Almost all servants, nurseries and work areas had solidly built examples of these antique chests and many fine honey coloured waxed Victorian and Edwardian examples can still be bought today.
It was most often the children’s nursery where many of these old chests ended up. Even in the Victorian and Edwardian periods, much older 18th century examples were being used to store all manner of things. Most were of a fairly basic rectangular frame construction. Some had stencil decoration and simulated oak graining and ebony inlay, other examples were smaller and covered with (more…)
The difference between a sideboard and chiffonier is often hard to determine where both were very popular during the Victorian era.
A sideboard during the Victorian period could often be (more…)
If one piece of furniture depicted the Victorian era, what would it be: a large bulbous mahogany sideboard, an elegant chaise longue, or perhaps the good old chest of drawers.
The onset of mass produced furniture in the Victorian era had meant that more families than any other time in British history now had a selection of reasonable furniture at their disposal to use in their homes. What mass production also meant was a proliferation of styles that furniture manufacturers could draw on from Elizabethan, through to Queen Anne, Georgian, Rococo and Regency. (more…)
If there is one thing that you learn in the antiques trade, it is to keep everything as far as possible in its original state and an ormolu finish on a fine antique desk or chest of drawers which gets a lot of wear from owners over time is a prime example of this. As the handles of the chest are continually handled, the gold tends to get rubbed and the bronze comes through.
It is tempting at this stage to get the ormolu (more…)
Since the 1960s, the pine chest of drawers has been regarded as something quite bohemian. These stripped and waxed antique chests, often painted white during the sixties and then dipped later, were mass produced during the 19th century. These pieces were not part of the elegance above stairs, but often became the utilitarian furniture used by servants and were referred to as country cottage or farmhouse furniture.
Its humble beginnings were often as a carcass for much more exotic hard wood veneers and extravagant pieces of furniture. However, it started to come into its own later in the 18th century and developed into particular types of bachelor chests, tallboys, and military chests. However it always maintained a fairly plain (more…)
Early 18th century antique chests of drawers remained the preserve of the rich and influential. These early pieces were usually made of solid walnut or walnut veneered onto a pine frame. Walnut as the cabinet makers’ choice of wood was becoming scarce in Britain after a succession of severe frosts early in the century and France, another potential supplier, banned the export of timber in 1720. So good examples of these early pieces of furniture are now becoming quite hard to find and can go for many thousands of pounds at auction and through dealerships.
The chest of drawers as a piece of furniture evolved from placing a chest, often made of Baltic pine, on stands fitted with two or three drawers made of walnut. The stand was then dowelled into the base of the chest. From this, rich walnut veneers and marquetry inlay could be (more…)