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.
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
Often when it comes to furniture a picture is worth a thousand words and some pieces truly speak for themselves - the same can be said for this fabulous piece, it simply oozes character. Various details about this piece give it this character - the tone, for example, is a rich and moving brown; the incorporation of this colour gives the sofa the warm and inviting presence the perfect sofa should present. When one sits on their sofa they expect immediate comfort and relaxation, and when one looks at this one, they come to expect the very same. Additionally, the large, tightly stuffed cushions clearly offer a similar sense of sturdy comfort. The leather upholstering really adds to the personality to the sofa, by showing ruggedness and reliability, after all its having survived in incredible condition following almost a century of life clearly indicates that its of a high quality and is not easily affected by wear and tear.
But what really sets this sofa apart is that it seems to tell a story. It was crafted at a time of widespread British pride, the age of an empire and certain aspects of the sofa really do seem to reflect such sentiments. It’s large in stature and has an air of reliability and ruggedness, the same tough demeanour often characterised by the likes of Winston Churchill and Queen Victoria. The rich, brown tones of the upholstered leather represent the huge wealth acquired by the empire and the wealth the empire itself had come to represent in its vibrant lifetime. The tasteful curvature of the arms and the back represent the various great British minds in literature, the arts, science and numerous other fields. It is a quintessentially British couch and a marvellous example of one at that.
This piece is a bookcase cabinet constructed by Robert
Heritage and Archie Shine for Heals of London circa 1959. It is entirely
crafted 
Onto the more aesthetic side of this piece, the first
thing to mention is the wood from which it was crafted, that being
rosewood. Rosewood is a hardwood
commonly used in furniture, musical instruments, mathematical tools and various
other applications; this is due to the fact that it offers not only rugged
durability and relatively good shock resistance (making it ideal as a wood to
use for practical a purpose as it doesn't wear easily) but also bears a truly
stunning natural grain which we can see tastefully adorning the forward face of
the bookcase cabinet. The dark brown tone of the wood, coupled with the
cocktail cabinet and the wood’s grain provide a lavish rustic looking quality
to an otherwise totally utilitarian piece and give it a more vibrant
characteristic.
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.
The only cheap reproduction furniture available these days, is the nasty overseas spray polished imports from 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.
