Wednesday, 26 February 2020
Marylebone Antiques is a family owned business run by Stuart Shuster, who has acquired many years of experience and knowledge in the Antique furniture business. Based in Church Street, London’s famous Marylebone antiques district for three decades, Marylebone Antiques are specialists in English, French & Swedish antique furniture dating from 1790-1970. Until recently, we only dealt in items up to the 1930’s period, but now this has changed. The shop has been completely refurbished & brought into the 21st century. It is now an interesting mix of antique, art deco, 50’s 60’s & 70’s furniture, plus many decorative items. The shop is basically a showroom for our two websites: www.maryleboneantiques.co.uk & www.retrospectiveinteriors.com. Please be aware that the majority of the stock on either website will be in our new large warehouse, at Elstree WD6 3AD. Please identify which items you wish to view & if they are in the warehouse, they can be viewed by appointments on most days. A lot of people like to come on Sundays.
If you are looking for vintage mid century furniture, vintage danish modern furniture or retro furniture, please visit our partner Retrospective Interiors. Retrospective Interiors is owned and run by brothers Andrew & James Shuster, who have acquired many years of experience and knowledge between them dealing in Vintage furniture. We are more than happy to answer any queries via phone or email, feel free to get in touch. retrospectiveinteriors.com
Wednesday, 23 November 2016
Current Furniture Trends & Fads
Current Trends in Furniture
& The Latest Fads
I’m often amazed by some of the current trends in furniture & the latest fad of distressed painted ‘antique’ furniture provides a classic example of how easily people are fooled by unscrupulous antique dealers.
I’ve got nothing against antique distressed painted furniture; in fact some of these original pieces have a lot of charm & some amazing colouration. What really annoys me is the large amount of fakes out there. It’s really difficult to make a new polished wooden item look antique, but the opposite is true with painted furniture. All you have to do is apply several layers of paint, then scratch & rub through the paintwork at different levels, dirty up the insides & then you have an antique looking piece of furniture. I see them everywhere. The other thing that some antique dealers do is to rip the veneers off an old Continental chest & then give it a good paint job. I wouldn’t mind, but people are paying amazingly high prices for these items & in a few years time, when the ‘distressed painted look’ goes completely out of fashion, these pieces will be absolutely worthless!
That is the beauty of antique brown furniture. It will always be a good investment as long as it’s a nice looking practical piece & is purchased for the right price. Right now, this sort of furniture can be bought for really good prices, because there was a drop in prices a few years or so. I’ve been in the antique business for over 30 years now & this is the first time prices have dropped. They are already starting to move up again, so take advantage while you can.
Monday, 14 November 2016
The Interesting Thing About The Antique Business
https://www.maryleboneantiques.co.uk/
The interesting thing about the antique business is that
there are many different articles being sold at many different levels. Taking
the furniture angle alone, there are many different levels at which it is being
sold. In the future I will be giving you advice on different ways of finding,
checking out & buying antique furniture, without having to over pay or get
ripped off.
The kind of antique furniture I sell is basically affordable
& functional. I'm not too bothered about datelines. The item doesn't have
to be over 100 years old to be a good piece of furniture. For instance, some
Victorian furniture can be very poorly made, whilst some 1950's pieces can be
of amazing quality. You can buy a cheap quality inlaid mahogany Edwardian
bureau bookcase for £750 or pay £1500 for a top quality 1950's example, which
would be the one I would always buy. The value of both items might go up at a
similar percentage, but the 50's bureau bookcase has got to be the better
investment. To be honest, most items that I sell are at the common sense
buying, price level. Just compare what you would have to pay for the modern day
equivalent in the stores today. Not only would you pay more for the new
equivalent, but it would be far inferior in quality, with a massive loss in value
as soon as you purchase it. More importantly, it won't look as good, with no
character & it certainly will not last as long.
Most of the new furniture, being sold these days, is
spray polished. That normally means that when scratched, the polish can
just peal off & is difficult to polish over. I don't really want to get too
technical right now, because I'd like to save that for another article in the
future, regarding restoration & polishing. What I am really trying to say
is, it's far better to buy the older piece of furniture, providing it's well
made, than the new equivalent.
The only cheap reproduction furniture available these days,
is the nasty overseas spray polished imports from Indonesia Far East countries. The main problem with these items is,
besides being absolutely worthless as soon as they are purchased, the wood is
never seasoned, so it starts splitting & warping in different room
temperatures. Did you know that once the wood is cut from the tree, it needs to
be left to dry out for many years, or be kiln dried; otherwise it will split
& warp.
The main point I am trying to make is, wherever possible, if
you have the choice, steer away from new reproduction furniture, in favour of
older equivalents. As long as they are over 40 years, the quality, character
& resale value will be much better.
Monday, 7 November 2016
Specialist Article by Stuart Shuster
https://www.maryleboneantiques.co.uk/
Please be aware that most of the dealers in the antiques trade are honest & genuine people, but as always the minority can give us all a bad name.
So, once again, don’t be afraid to ask the obvious question about the age.
Specialist Article by Stuart Shuster
As most of you will know, my shop is in Church
Street, London, NW8 8ED. I have been trading there for about 32 years
& have seen many changes myself. In fact, I am now the oldest individual
shop here & unfortunately, probably the oldest dealer in the street.
Church Street is quite renowned for antiques, trendy
furniture & decorative items. We have Alfie's Antique Market & many
other shops in the street, all of who make it a very attractive venue. The location
is also very convenient, with Marylebone, Edgware Road & Baker Street train
stations nearby - plus, we are not in the Congestion Charge Zone & there is
easy & cheap parking in the street. There is also a very reasonable car
park nearby for about £2 an hour.
Unfortunately, amongst the original items, there are quite a
few brand new items & some of them are being passed off as original by
unscrupulous dealers. You will find this happens in all areas of the country
& online too.
I don’t have any problem with dealers selling these items,
but I do hate it when they are being passed off as original. It also gives the
street a bad name. What happens is that a very small minority represent the
items as old & original by clever marketing methods. Often they will mix
new items in with old items so you don’t notice.
There is a very simple way to protect yourselves from
making the mistake of buying something new & often mass produced.
All you need to do is ask for a written receipt, stating the
age of the item & the same if buying online. If they are a reputable
dealer, then they will have no problem with that. If they won’t give you that,
then don’t buy.
I wouldn’t worry so much about whether it’s 1950’s, 1930’s,
1910, 1860’s, etc. As long as there’s a rough dateline, you will know if it’s
new or not.
Actually, online is more worrying for misrepresentation, but again it’s very easy to protect yourselves. Just ask the relevant dealer if the item is new or roughly how old. Look out for long vivid descriptions about the original maker or designer, which are often copied out of wikipedia or something like that. These are often put in there to impress you & divert you from the actual age of the piece.
Actually, online is more worrying for misrepresentation, but again it’s very easy to protect yourselves. Just ask the relevant dealer if the item is new or roughly how old. Look out for long vivid descriptions about the original maker or designer, which are often copied out of wikipedia or something like that. These are often put in there to impress you & divert you from the actual age of the piece.
Please be aware that most of the dealers in the antiques trade are honest & genuine people, but as always the minority can give us all a bad name.
So, once again, don’t be afraid to ask the obvious question about the age.
Regards, Stuart
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