FINANCIAL TIMES
Antiques Hunter
"If you are in the need of furniture, but the 1940s isn't your decade, perhaps it's time to find out what is. Instead of skulking around the auction houses alone, put off by all those woody estimates, hire an antiques consultant. One of the best is Tim Corfield.

He spends his life pulling out drawers to detect any repair work, turning chairs on end to assess their quality from the underside, and asking obscure questions about provenance - so you don't have to.

He helps clients in the US and the UK, "not just to furnish in antiques, but to enjoy the process of building up a first-class collection - at a fair market price". His specialty is 18th and 19th century British furnishing.

Realising that his clients - mostly senior executives and their spouses - are not stupid, just busy, he wont bore you with antique lingua franca. But he will do the legwork necessary to find precisely what you want. And he's the kind of man - frank not phoney, with a sense of humor and of value - whose opinions you can trust.

Corfield believes that great antiques, like the houses they fill, are paid for with persistence. So, after talking to you about the pieces you're after, he then travels to find them - whether at auction or within the trade, in London, the country and, in the case of important pieces, farther afield. He vets each piece for authenticity and originality, and assesses the cost, versus current market value, and the viability of any restoration required. He then co-ordinates the restoration and shipping, using selected specialists.

In short: he leaves you delighted, not duped. Which is why one Californian businessman, before moving into a larger homestead, called on Corfield to locate and ship a container full of one-of-a-kind finds."

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