Antique Furniture
The antique furniture market have an upheavel since some years ago, this seems to be a major sea-change in the taste and, therefore, buying habits of younger homeowners with a trend towards more clean and uncluttered interiors, often with modern design predominating, but frequently incorprating a very good or unusual single antique item. This, along with the continued popularity of the country house look in certain areas of the real estate market, has helped to lead to a radical polarization of antique furniture prices with the finer pieces reaching formerly unbelievable price heights, while lesser items generally pass seemingly unnoticed.
This new breed of buyer of antique furniture expects its purchases to be not only easy on the eye but also practical.
Delicate antique Victorian cabriole-legged chair have fallen form fashion as a result of their tendency to break with repeated use. The trend is now for the far more robust late Georgian and early Victorian counterparts.
Out have gone antique Victorian nursing and prie-dieu chairs, and in have come big leather armchairs that will comfortably accomodate postprandial slumber.
Nor is the new order confined to the serried ranks of antique brown furniture. It happily encompasses the rich lines and detailed ornamentation of the type of 19th century French confections that were once the stars of many an auction or fair stand.
It would be easy to take a wholly negative view of current antique market trends but that would be very much a glass half empty stance.
