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
