News» New Arrivals of Stock from Ireland. September 2013.
September always feels like the beginning of a new season and to mark this we have had a lot of new stock in from Ireland and elsewhere.
Good pieces are bought piecemeal as and when one can find them and when there is enough to justify a transport we get a lorry to gather things up from around the country and get it to us.
Everything needs restoration and so these pieces don’t get seen on the website until they are restored. Some never get seen on the website as they sell in the rough or a visitor buys it to be “done” according to their specification.
For this reason it’s always worth sending us your wish list as always have more in stock then is seen on the site.
In our recent arrivals list there are a number of very good Irish dressers in the original paint, a lot of big tables and serving tables, some counters.
A lovely dresser and high backed settle with panels in an old treacly paint was found in a cottage in Western Ireland. Unfortunately the bottom of the settle was so rotten it came back as powder and shredded wheat! This is a real shame but what can one do. It is a familiar experience for anybody buying furniture at grass roots level in Ireland.
There is an antique dealer from Warwick we know who was a pioneer in Irish pine, he recalls the time in the early 70s when he first ventured over to Ireland in his transit van to buy. He went to the airfield where the travellers had the old pine dressers lined up in rows, £10 for a standard piece, £20 for a good one. He filled his van as best he could and tied three to the roof and set off anticipating an immediate profit on his return for in those days Warwick was a thriving antique centre with many active dealers.
On his return he drove straight to the biggest pine shop in town, got out of his van and looked up at the roof.
That’s strange he thought where are the dressers? he opened the back of the van and half the dressers in there had gone too. Had some clever thief robbed him while he sipped his Double Diamond on the ferry? In fact, closer scrutiny revealed of the 8 dressers he had bought he now had three whilst the 5 frailer ones had been reduced by motion of the journey to a few sackfuls of dust! That was lesson 1 in buying Irish pine.
Apart from new stock from Ireland we have also had in some good new pieces from the continent. A large bank of drawers with old white and pale green paint, a tallboy with original white, a cute small box bench, a grey biedermeier serving table, fairground carvings, ancient jars from the near east, ... Whilst things inspire and catch the eye the bounty never ceases.