Thanks to Hansons auctioneers for the image of Queen Victoria’s table top post box, which they will sell in late January 2023. This once held the mail from Osbourne House on the Isle of Wight and was rediscovered in a Surrey cottage.
The owner of the Dunsfold cottage and their family had collected antiques for many years. A popular pastime in a county where properties can lend themselves to being furnished in a style matching their heritage.
The post box may be a bit budget stretching at the expected £5000 or more, although there are other opportunities for bargains.
Antiques For Sale In Surrey
Places like Dorking, Ripley, and Hampton Court were once packed with antiques shops but the heyday of retail antiques has gone. Tastes have changed to a degree and much of the trade has moved online but not all.
You can still find retail shops and shared antiques markets to hunt around. Regular one day antiques fairs take place throughout Surrey, Kempton Park, Epsom and Lingfield perhaps the best known.
The auction market has gone in the opposite direction to retail and there are good salerooms in the county. Neither are the items sold there all expensive, with good buys to be found all year round.
Craftmanship Versus Fashion
The late Georgian bureau above went through Ewbanks saleroom for the princely sum of £34. Less than a chipboard version, or reproductions in department stores at £1200, or craft built equivalents costing more.
This is not unique to one saleroom, or item, with tables, chairs, chests etc. suffering a similar fate. So called “brown furniture” is out of fashion, yet can offer a quality of build way beyond the cost.
Finer design than the bureau, or more exotic woods can hike the price to a degree but even then, not to an irrational level. The same applies to small, or decorative items, including silver, or porcelain.
There are of course exceptions, a Chippendale cabinet, or chair can still make many thousands, brown or not. Rarities of other types may do the same, yet the chance to furnish a home for a moderate cost is there.
Antiques Removals & Storage
Farrer & Fenwick help with antiques in two ways. The first is collection from salerooms and delivery, the second and more common request is for the special support we offer when caring for antiques during removals.
They may be valuable but their financial worth is often secondary. Items you treaure can be part of your life, or your family’s in previous times.
Our staff offer the skills needed to see they are correctly handled, packed as they should be and delivered without mishap. If storage is required, ensuring a suitable environment can be important.
Whether the items you treasure came from judicious buys, or are part of your history, our Surrey antiques removals service is there to help.
