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A Journey for Antiques

Submitted: 03/07/2013 19:48:00

Antiques take us on a journey to days gone by . For example, an old stool today could be battered, however solid and firm due to being made from oak, and oak is resistant to woodworm. The stool has stood the test of time and survived more than four hundred years and will survive for another four hundred years.

Since first beginning its life it has been through such a lot. When it was made ordinary people did not sit on chairs - chairs were far too good and grand to sit on. People sat on stools and benches and shivered, as houses in those days were rather austere and cold. The stool has only three legs. This wasn't due to the fact that such stools were easier to make, rather they were made with three legs as floors in those days' were so uneven the stool made like this was much more stable.

The development of furniture was very haphazard, no one knows who first thought of putting a box within a box and inventing the drawer. It was only a matter of time before people fitted drawers one on top of the other. Therefore the chest of drawers was born.

Antiques are living history and we should buy them and look at them and cherish them for the unique objects they are. Obviously everyone has different tastes. Some find Victorian furniture oppressive and heaby while others think that the elegant Georgian furniture as spindly and cold. And others, due to the invention of the simple and mundane spiral spring much preferred to curl up in one of those massive, comfortable 1860's armchairs. There is always an unprecedented fascination in their survival.

The heyday of collecting was possibly between 1770 and 1830, probably due to the English gentleman being more affluent than the continental contemporaries, and capitalised on this. England was in a state of calm while Europe's great collections were being broken up, museums were being ransacked, therefore everything was available to the Englishman - who had a long purse or deep pockets.

Eventually Georgian furniture was used in the servants' quarters, mahogany was on the out, walnut was rediscovered and rosewood began to find its place. Opulence replaced refinement and from the 1850's art objects were increasingly more in demand which created a structure for buying and selling.

In the 1870's and 1880's the Americans entered the market for a share of the world's antiques and eagerly wanted to buy the best at any price.

There was further competition for the Americans not only from the British collections but also from the German museum and art - gallery curators who had massive pots of money to spend. The British men who had made moned in trade - were lavish buyers, and very credulous with it; in turn building up expensive collections which turned out to be worth very little.

The antique dealing game was a leisurely business . Dealers were seen as lowly characters, quaint, smelling of snuff and crafty so they had to be watched. There were only a few select establishments in the West End of London where only the well off bought antiques usually for use and display and never for investment.

After World War II there was a vast demand for Victoriana and it was considered by those obsessed with G-Plan and the furniture of Ambrose Heal that this was proof of some aberration.

The affluent society of Harold Macmillan, ever became an acquisitive society after it was found that demand regulated prices and that there was money to be made in bric-a-brac and curios. The bargain hunters came out of the woodwork in great force from their suburban houses with their heirlooms under their arms. Antique shops and markets sprang up and trade was booming; everyone becoming an instant expert. Dealers expanded taking over huge warehouses and then started exporting in bulk to America and Australia, making good use of the new transport facility, container vessels. Rocketing local authority rates killed off the old type junk dealer.

It goes without saying that pieces of furniture are the most personal of all antiques, we live with them and use them, taking on a whole personality of their own. They are loved despite of or even because of their imperfections. Part of antique furniture's appeal is that it is never flawless. In the early days the basic requirement was that furniture should be portable; when people moved from one property to the next their furniture went with them.

Before the 17th century houses were sparsely furnished. The most common item being the coffer, which held everything, and the aumbry or food hutch.

Ordinary people slept in beds not far removed from boxes whilst the rich slept in four-poster beds, manly because they served to display costly draperies and more important they could be curtained to keep out draughts which swept through ill fitting doors and windows.

Most furniture surviving from the 17th century and earlier was make from oak. The oak was easily worked and displayed the decoration popular at that time done with chisel and gouge.

Chests were the most important piece of furniture. The earliest were from a hollowed-out tree trunk, however from the 13th century chests were made with simple carved decoration and hinged lids which were lockable.

In the late 15th century thin panels were set loosely in the chests, this was to reduce the impact of shrinkage of wood. The ornamentation on the panels is known as linen-fold this being so as they were carved to imitate folded cloth.

Towards the end of the 17th century chests were made with drawers. They were beginning to develop into something else.

Chests were also uses to sit on, as were stools - three-legged or four-legged. Some stools are known as joyned or joynt; this is because they were made by joiners.

The main early table was of the trestle type, quite narrow, sometimes 25 feet long, and dismantled when not in use. The diners sat on long benches. Small tables with fixed tops were used in the private rooms.

The best furniture was imported, and the immigration of refugees from religious persecution brought new ideas of what constituted tase to Britain. More important was stability; when the lords and major personages no longer had to trek from castle to castle with their belongings or raise armed bands to fight their neighbours they could begin to think about comfort, about armchairs and large static pieces of furniture, such as the court cupboard, which could display treasures and valuables such as plates.

Michael Davies