Getting antique valuations?

lostinrates

Hi, hope this is in the right place.

My DH has inherited a quantity of furniture, most of it not to our taste, and it is costing us storage. We have asked a local antique dealer about it, giving only verbal descriptions, and he said most of it was prety unfashionable and we would be better hanging on to it as we would get very little for it (hmmm, but we wouldn't be paying storage for it then, which has to be better than paying storage on stuff not worth much!). He declined the option to come and see if here was anything worth him selling.

How does one get valuations with out dragging it to the antiques road show :rotfl: ?

ampersand

Take pix before anything else - it was perhaps unfair to ask a dealer to value sight unseen. Let's be fair and ask if you would give a valuation on goods unsighted.
I think not.
If you want to pm me, please do.
Much will depend on where you are and age/condition/quality-marriage?/provenance of pieces.
It could be worth asking one of the Big 4's provincial outposts to come and look, but I can't advise further........et oui, sight unseen.
A good local auction can be better than the Big 4.
What you need to avoid is having the Lots unsold and doing the Auction rounds.
On the other hand, new to market/untouched, is a positive.
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Also, be realistic in a time of Brown Furniture downturn.
Remember to allow for Commission, gen. 17.5% on hammer price plus any catalogue pix, insurance and VAT on these totalled stoppages.
Any private dealer offer will have to factor in whether or not he/she has a buyer-in-waiting, length of time pieces will remain in stock and possibly non-selling floorspace occupied, THEIR costs/overheads/probable £drops to seal a sale.
Good luck!

lostinrates

ampersand wrote: »

Take pix before anything else - it was perhaps unfair to ask a dealer to value sight unseen. Let's be fair and ask if you would give a valuation on goods unsighted.
I think not.
If you want to pm me, please do.
Much will depend on where you are, age/condition/marriage?/provenance.
It could be worth asking one of the Big 4's provincial outposts to come and look, but I can't advise further........et oui, sight unseen.
A good local auction can be better than the Big 4.
What you need to avoid is having the Lots unsold and doing the rounds.

yes, we were asking him to come and see them, he asked for basic desriptions and he declined . The furniture is in storage in Somerset, about three miles from the dealer we asked. I gather that this is a bad time to be trying to sell anything without great value to an over seas market? The condition is in the main, fair but not brilliant. The worst pieces are in fact the ones we would want to keep (but would also quite like valued, for example a Beidermeyer..hope that's spelled correctly -desk/cabinet, with quite extensive cracking on some of the veneer).

Provenance will not be anything special whatsoever and so far as I know all of the furniture is unmarried :rotfl: sorry.....what do you mean by marriage?:o

Thank you very much for your offer of help. I have soe valuingme very poor quality photos which I would similarly not think of use to someone valuing (were taken in the dark as I could not get the shutters of the house open as it was boarded up on the persons death) so now the stuff has arived in UK I'll go and have a poke about and take pictures.

Oh, its mainly Italian and English stuff, I would say maily of not much age. I think it woul be more suited to local dealers than posh ones

Thank you very much for replying :cheesy:

ampersand

What a pity you didn't dispose of it in situ! - then return with the Biedermeier, for which restoration(at first blush<your description)shouts 'costly', I fear.
'Marriage' is a term used when elements of different pieces have been put together(perfectly legitimately at times) e.g. table top on other legs, clock cases cut down and used for other casements, true tallboys divided in two for the dimensions of today's smaller houses - list is endless. it need not be too much of a negative if long-standing.
Provenance need not be of the fairy-tale AR variety, but reassures - let us say - in your case, by known continuous family ownership.

lostinrates

Unfortunately I think the Italian market is even less comfortable than ours right now, and the shipping of the stuff to UK was free...so although in the normal course of events I agree, the key to this was the free shipment and the fact there was a timescale (DH was told they came and we stored or they were disposed of and he would see nothing of them or any payment for them...families, eh? )

Oh, I think all the pieces are still unmarried in that case, thank you for telling me the meaning of that! As for the provenance, it will mostly have been in the family for the last two generations, some longer. Most of it has been carted around Europe but within the same family. Some was bought in the sixties.

The restoration of things is indeed a financial worry, but those are the things with sentimental value. It might be they have to wait a little while, at least til we can get them a house to live in! but with any luck theymigh help the next generation and they will bring DH great joy. In the main I like those pieces, the others I'll learn to blink as I walk past!
You've been really helpful, thank you!

Photos and local auction house will be my next step. Thanks again!

ampersand

Thankyou for further clarification - free shipping! What a bonus!
Why not chance your arm on Ebay?
Call it £x(you choose your limit)on listing fees plus any Final Value seller's fees?
Furniture CAN do surprisingly well(private buyers generally more numerous virtully than the foot-trade which may be physically present on your Auction day) - and Buyer pays transport/uplift.
In a moment, I'll paste a link to a search engine which allows people to specify a mileage range for items on offer.
I have used it to find kitchen units near-ish by but don't be alarmed by their Blah which aims to convince potential buyers they'll pay less this way.

http://www.emsengine.com/uk.html

There are others - check the ebay Forum here on mse.
Ask the Auction house to come out first - then arrange transport yourself, it will be cheaper. make sure all Ts&Cs are apparent, clear before you complete a Consignment note.
I hope they are of reasonable stamp - ask if your pieces will appear online, in specialist sale, etc.etc.

lostinrates

Ebay scares me!.....I suppose its worth a go once I have an idea of value though. If I could do it once I could do it again and goodness knows I have a bunch of stuff for when I am no longer scared of listing things for sale on ebay! (on the plus side, I don't buy there either yet!)

Maybe this furniture is going to have a plus side!

ampersand

Let me add that the kitchen units I have looked at time and time again over a year or so have ALWAYS sold for way beyond my Budget, even though they may start at 99p.
You can always set a reasonable Starting Price - don't pay Reserve Price fees. If things don't sell first time, you can drop your prices and - upon sale this time round - the first set of fees will be refunded.
I would definitely ask the Auction house to come and look; better yet, if there are two of them, invite both(on separate occasions of course!) Gut instinct is not bad to follow here.
BEFORE YOU DECIDE, GO TO THEIR AUCTIONS AND GET A FEEL OF THEIR STYLE AND PRICES REALISED AGAINST ESTIMATES. JOT THE PRICES MADE AS YOU GO. ESPECIALLY NOTE ANYTHING THAT ECHOES ANY OF YOUR PIECES.
Have you done an online search for Big4 provincial Valuation days yet?
I'll have a look, back soon.
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Scan this list:
http://www.ukauctionguides.co.uk/areaprot/auction_details/southwest.htm
I see Bonhams have a Honiton outpost, Devon though.
BACK TO BOLD AGAIN - DON'T BE AFRAID OF ASKING THE BIGGIES TO COME & LOOK; THEY'LL BE KEEN FOR THEIR COMMISSION IF THERE'S THE SNIFF OF ANYTHING THEY CONSIDER SALEABLE.