Recent reports that the dining room may be extinct by 2020 have come as no surprise to regional auctioneers. Anybody in the antiques trade will tell you that this process has been going on for some time. In recent years the way we live our day to day lives has changed out of recognition.With couples both at work in the day, convenience foods and microwave meals have replaced proper home cooking for many people.
For others the television set has replaced the dining table as a focus for family bonding. Just as church attendance is booming at Christmas while dropping away in the rest of the year, eating in the dining room is an intrinsic part of major holidays like Easter and Christmas but neglected at other times. While they may be little used, dining rooms still have strong cultural associations with the coming together of families. Using a dining room once ortwice a year doesn’t make sense for those with little space to spare. For some it becomes a playroom for children, others convert it into a supplementary sitting room or guest bedroom. Alternatively walls are knocked through to make open plan ‘living areas’.
With the rise of the internet and the consequent boom in ‘working from home’, dining rooms often end up as offices too. This shift in lifestyles has seriously affected the financial value of ordinary antique furniture. In the 1980s it was hugely popular with American buyers. These were the days when basic Georgian and Victorian dining tables were selling for thousands of pounds and large dealers and exporters could go to sales and buy nearly all the furniture lots for export. Sadly for vendors and for auctioneers, those days are gone. People who purchased furniture in the boom years often get an unpleasant surprise when an updated valuation reveals that some items are worth less now than when they were purchased.
This gloomy state of affairs should have us all rushing to buy antique furniture.
As fewer houses contain dining rooms, having one will come to have a cachet of its own and filling it with antiques is a wise investment. Not only should it last longer than modern furniture, it has an intrinsic quality and beauty. Secondly, with prices already at rock bottom for standard pieces, it may prove sounderthan the shaky stock market. Should the worst happen, at least you will have a set of chairs toshow for your money… more comfortable to sit on than a valueless share certificate.
Rather than‘knocking through’, thereby losing the privacy of an enclosed room, why not use dining rooms as multi purpose spaces? If you need an office take advantage of the infinite variety within antique furniture styles; use a Victorian pedestal sideboard (currently very good value) as a filing cabinet for example.
Many dining tables will extend through addition of leaves or have tilt-tops, meaning they need not take up lots of room when not in use. Alternatively use the dining table as a desk – plenty of room to spread those papers out (but make sure to protect the surface from scratches). With imagination, the dining room should be able to shine at special family gatherings while being functional in other ways for the rest of the year. Many auctioneers have stopped selling Victorian and Edwardian furniture, preferring to concentrate on that end of the market where certain items can still reach extraordinary prices, but at Simon Chorley Art & Antiques, as at many provincial firms, the aim is to offer a wide range of antiques suitable for all pockets.
If you haven’t been to our saleroom or watched a sale on line, you may be surprised to see what bargains there are to be had, particularly if you are looking for the sort of furniture suitable for a kitchen or dining room. Minimalism may currently rule the roost but when fashions change, as they will, it pays to be ahead of the game.
Stylish breakfast table,a steal at £170, Nov 07
Fruitwood table from our Jan 08 sale, a bargain at £150
No comments:
Post a Comment