Furniture
The furniture department, run by Christopher Hampton and Gillian Westell, catalogue
and auction over 4,000 lots annually, from the finest 18th century English furniture
to a modest Victorian chest of drawers. Although fashions change, good quality English
and Continental furniture of all periods as always found a ready market. Bearnes
Hampton & Littlewood hold over twenty furniture auctions every year so there
is always an appropriate venue for a client's property, whatever the value.
The market for quality furniture continues to grow and expand into areas in which
there was little interest only a few years ago. This is typified by increasing demand
for good Victorian and Edwardian pieces which, until recently, would have been dismissed
by collectors.
As in many
areas of antiques, furniture which may have been seen as commonplace or utilitarian
when it was bought between seventy and a hundred years ago is fast becoming highly
desirable. Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood extensive knowledge will help you identify
those pieces which have become valuable… even though they have been in daily use
for two or three generations. Indeed this can be clearly illustrated by the pair
of George III mahogany bedside cupboards which the firm sold recently for £75,000.