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19th-century
mahogany furniture
Over the past few weeks we have all seen
articles in the press announcing that
antiques are out of fashion, that no one
wants a piece of 19th-century mahogany
furniture, and that modern chrome and
glass are all the rage. These reports were
supported by poor sales at Sotheby's and
Christie's auctions in Bond Street and St
James, and at the two big fairs at Olympia
and Grosvenor House.
Imagine my surprise then on seeing the
results of the sale of surplus furniture
from the Bank of England which took place
recently. I had viewed the sale on the
Monday before it took place. Here was a
collection of very ordinary late-Georgian
and Regency furniture: large desks for
corpulent accountants, lawyers and civil
servants to sit behind; bookcases,
dining-room tables and chairs, all
unwanted. What is more, most of them had
had a hard life at the bank, and had been
poorly restored, or should I say repaired,
over the years.
Yet the sale was well publicised,
particularly in the Square Mile, and it
was a huge success. Perhaps it was because
the provenance of the pieces was not in
doubt, perhaps it was because they were
mostly well made, if conservative, or
perhaps it was simply because much of them
were in shiny "over-restored" condition
and cheap.
Whatever, only two of the 256 lots in
the sale failed to find buyers - an
extraordinary statistic when you consider
that as much as 50 per cent of furniture
at recent sales in the capital has not
sold.
Inevitably there were one or two
"sleepers". This is the name given to
something good that escapes the
cataloguer's notice, only to achieve a
high price on the day. The best example
here was lot 155, a carved mahogany side
table which made £10,150, an
astonishing 10 times more than its low
estimate. It was catalogued as "George III
style, early 20th century", but several
bidders clearly thought it was
18th-century and in the manner of Thomas
Chippendale. After further research, the
canny buyer may be able to attribute it
definitively to one of the top cabinet
makers of the 18th century, in which case
he will have done well.
It was not the only bargain. I
particularly liked a large partner's desk
of about 1900 in a classic design. This
was taken home for £2,800. There was
a particularly good set of eight Regency
dining chairs - a little tired after 200
years of service at the Old Lady of
Threadneedle Street - which found a buyer
at £2,650. The new owner, perhaps
sitting on one now, reading this over his
Sunday breakfast, should know that he has
bought well.
As other homes celebrate the arrival of
handsome antiques, late of Threadneedle
Street, the message from the day is that
the antiques business is not dead - it has
just been sleeping.
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