Another Auction

[poliphilo]

Watching an auction is an education in the vagaries of popular taste.

Thinking of selling your high-end 19th century mahogany furniture? Don't bother. We watched lot after lot of mahogany come up and draw no bids at all- not even derisory ones. We were selling a Victorian barometer in a mahogany case which the auctioneers valued at £100-150. It's still ours.

We had 19 lots in the sale- 17 of which sold- mostly for reasonable prices. The other thing of ours that didn't sell was a late 20th century watercolour of a sailing ship.

Ailz and I were saying to one another that if you didn't mind being unfashionable you could furnish a house ridiculously cheaply with quality furniture bought at auction.

Comments

[lauradi7dw]

You could also fill it with fancy china and crystal. People who try to sell their parents' (always called their mothers') formal stuff are not even finding takers at yard sales.
Maybe newly arrived refugees will end up eating off of bone china, donated by people trying to downsize.

[poliphilo]

There are certain name brands that always do well- Lalique, Wedgewood, Moorcroft- but run-of-the-mill crockery is a hard sell.

We have a big antique mahogany table. My parents will have paid a lot for it. It's very handsome- and in the present state of the market it's worthless.

[cmcmck]

I have a custom built 'Linnet' melodeon by Henry Piper of Eccles.

He would recycle Victorian mahogany wardrobes for the external woodwork.

[poliphilo]

What a good use for them!