English Furniture Free Fall

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The Antiques Collector Club annual index of English Antique Furniture prices, compiled by John Andrews was just released, and the news is rather distressing.  The overall index has fallen by its greatest level ever.  The index shows pricing falling by 8% during 2010.  To make matters worse, the previous greatest decline was recorded in 2009 at 7%, so not only is the decrease in prices evident, but so is the strong downward trend which is continuing and not abating or stabilizing at all.

The Antiques Trade Gazette reports on the ACC AFI

Historically the strongest of all categories across 42 years, Oak (-12%) and Country (-10%) became the biggest losers in 2010. Displaying a vulnerability not previously recorded by the AFI (but visible at grass-roots level for some time), these double-digit falls reflected disappointing results for former stalwarts such as the high-back dresser.

Mr Andrews cited both a change in taste and a lack of good examples.

Dressers join a long list of once-desirable furniture forms that have lost ground in recent years, particularly those associated with the decline in formal dining or pieces too bulky for the modern interior. For reasons of space, large cabinet furniture, such as the secretaire bookcase, the linen press or the court cupboard, needs exceptional characteristics to find buyers, while for reasons of function the davenport, the canterbury, the bureau and the Pembroke table have lost popular appeal.

All seven of the AFI's constituent indices registered falls, with Walnut (-7%) Regency (-9%) and Early Victorian (-8%) pieces all feeling the pinch. Only items that were well above average in terms of quality, form, colour or provenance maintained their values in 2010.

Early (-6%) and Late Mahogany (-6%), the centre ground of the furniture market, has taken the brunt of the fashionable hostility to 'Georgian brown'. Interestingly, post-1770 mahogany furniture now carries the lowest of all index figures (1860), something Mr Andrew believes should attract canny investors. "The realisation seems to be dawning, however, that antique furniture has been sold at a discount for a long time now; if not yet a wind, a light breeze of change seems to be stirring."

To read the ATG article, click HERE. The full report will be published in the February issue of ACC's magazine, Antique Collecting.