Furniture

With most English furniture still underperforming at auction, it is French 19th century cabinetmaking that is providing the soundest base of furniture sales in England.

“We were particularly encouraged by the performance of the furniture with many pieces selling to trade and private buyers for ‘old school’ prices.”

A fresh-to-market consignment involving great names of Art Nouveau/Arts & Crafts and a New York buyer determined to have it… It hasn’t taken long for newcomer Heliers Auction (18% buyer’s premium) to come up with the sort of winning combination all auctioneers hope for.

The generally encouraging start to the year enjoyed by English auctioneers extends to Scotland where Lyon & Turnbull (25% buyer’s premium) enjoyed a buoyant season-opener.

Pretty, petite and French – a seductive combination which won admirers of this kingwood and floral marquetry escritoire at Mallams’ (20% buyer’s premium) Oxford rooms.

Specialists who relaunched North Yorkshire auction house generate old-school optimism.

“The selling price was really encouraging,” said Chichester auctioneer Peter Parker after an 18th century walnut chest made £5800, “but it just emphasises how polarised the market is between the top end and the rest.”

Another classic piece of English furniture to go well above expectations was a Regency mahogany window seat in the style of George Bullock offered by the Cumbrian firm 1818 Auctioneers (17/12% buyer’s premium).

As with the overall market, Dutch furniture is much less popular than it once was and the 18th century walnut, floral marquetry and ivory-inlaid bombé bureau cabinet, below, had a couple of condition problems for bidders at Andrew Smith (19% buyer’s premium).

English furniture, works of art and decorations of the most traditional kind were the object of a 365-lot, single-owner sale held by Doyle (25/20/12.5%) buyer’s premium in New York.

Tony Haynes of Haynes Fine Art is preparing to show a room-set from the collection of Vivien Leigh at his London gallery next month – but not to sell it.

The first of a series of events to mark the tercentenary of Thomas Chippendale’s birth has opened at Leeds City Museum.

Designed by Bodil Kjaer, this 1960s oak, palisander and steel ‘executive desk’ offered at Chiswick Auctions (23% buyer’s premium) is a classic example of the huge influence of Scandinavian architects on Western post-war design.

Antique Church Furnishings, which describes itself as ‘God’s Furniture since 1985’, sells almost everything in the religious line – from chasubles to crucifixes and misericordes to missal stands.

Upholstered Victorian armchairs not being the most in-demand of auction lots at present, the £100-150 estimate of a pair offered at Greenslade Taylor Hunt (19.5% buyer’s premium) did not seem overly pessimistic.

Galloway Antiques Fairs returns for its second edition at the Midhurst stately home Cowdray House this year.

Antique pine furniture has many followers who buy it battered and cheap and simply ‘tart it up’ with an invariably low degree of skill and taste to sell on.