Back in the day, I could venture into Sothebys in Bond Street and watch as their top English Furniture sales descended into buyer frenzies with lots selling for multiple thousands.
I have seen dressers, bookcases and tables being knocked down for £20,000, £30,000 and sometimes even north of that.
Regular readers will know, however, that the bottom has fallen out of the ‘brown furniture’ market, as modern households, often more compact, turned their backs on its dated, traditional look.
I noticed a George I bureau in a recent sale down south with a pre-sale estimate of £600 – about a tenth of what it would have been at the turn of the century.
A surprising estimate
So there was a raised eyebrow from me when Lyon & Turnbull slapped a hefty £8,000-£12,000 estimate on the brownest of desks in Edinburgh on February 23.
Mind you, it was a gorgeous late George III mahogany, tulipwood and satinwood pedestal desk, c1780 or so.
The serpentine and lobed oval top had a brown leather liner above crossbanded short drawers, and this above a kneehole with slide.
A library in a grand house
The desk was raised on pedestals with crossbanded and moulded panel doors marked at the corners with beautiful carved fans. It had a conforming plinth base with brass corner brackets, all outlined with crossbanding.
From the property of a Scottish family I can well imagine it in the library of a grand house adorned with silver candlesticks, correspondence trays, inkwell, blotter and quill holder.
Well, full marks to the L&T estimators – brown furniture may be hitting rock bottom, but the cream always rises to the top.
The desk sold for a whopping £50,000.
