News» New Arrivals from Ireland and England, Spring 2015.
As I have oft lamented there are not many old farmhouses and country houses out there anymore with the original furniture - most were gutted and re-furnished in any one of the last 5 decades. This means that whilst one can find the odd thing worth buying in far flung fields it's often difficult to put together a full and economical load.
Our recent pick up from Ireland gathered furniture, chairs and other items from several counties and also the North that had been bought and stored over the last 8 months and consisted of pieces from country house sales, collections,
museum dispersals and farmhouse clearances. In the last week alone we have been offered at least two Irish dressers as well as several others bits of English furniture, all stripped and all in spite of claims to the contrary quite ordinary pieces. We did not buy any of it, and whilst I thanked all parties for giving us the chance to see what they were seeking to dispose of I had to explain that our standards in our field are the highest, we go to extreme lengths to find things that are fresh, unusual and rare, original, untouched and, most important, desirable. The ordinary such as old stripped pine coming out unloved from English houses is relatively easy to find at the click of a button on auction websites. The sort of pieces we are trying to offer are the things you would not find if you scrolled down 900 images on e-bay.
Not everything goes straight on the website on arrival, in fact hardly any, as most things need some restoration or tidying up as we say, but to give a taste of things available or coming, there are 8 country chairs from Ireland including two
17th century chairs with carving. There are also several primitive windsor style chairs, in other words chairs with thick solid seats and spindled backs and stick legs, they came from the dwellings of the poorer country folk and most are laden with history and atmosphere and where unrestored and unaltered they have a unique sense of character acquired over time, it's hard to over emphasise what rare survivals such pieces are. Also quirky and folky is a painted pine icon stand, in
layers of original paint, there is a green wooden sofa bench from Cork, and two large pigeon hole cupboards in original grey paint.
There are items from country houses too, a tall 18th century standing plate rack in original paint, and another, in original white paint, that once hung from a hinged bracket on the wall. There is a bank of drawers from a Castle Lough in Donegal in the far west of Ireland and best of all from the same property a pair of Gothic painted pine bookcases.
Buying in the Uk, or on the mainland, is a similarly piecemeal process, good enough pieces only turn up now and then and here and there. There was a good looking blue painted linen press that came up at auction recently, it was estimated at 400-600 but made a heady 1800 plus commission and by the looks of the interior, which was unpainted,
it may not have been original painted piece at all. Buying is a hazardous business and for us to buy what is affordable to retail after restoration we have to look in the less obvious places. The last year's searches have turned up some great pieces, and these mostly await restoration, so keep checking the website. We have a Regency waterfall bookcase in original paint, not one but two, a large one and a very fine small one, a pine cricket table in original putty coloured paint and pad foot, side tables or washstands, one in original white paint with blue detailing, another in original cream and blue paint with floral details also Regency, a Georgian linen press in original cream paint, as well as several Georgian dressers. We not only have furniture there are also two overmantle paintings both English and with similar subject matters, one a generic piece showing huntsman in an Italianate landscape and another large painting on board of the Appleton-le-Moor hunt in Yorkshire.
Some of the above would have made up our stand at the Bath Decorative Fair 2015 in early March but this year we did not do the fair and so the plan is to put on a bit of a spread of really mouth watering items here in Warwick.