Читать книгу Antiques Roadshow: 40 Years of Great Finds - Paul Atterbury, Paul Atterbury - Страница 21

One of the challenges facing Roadshow experts is the need to be aware of changes in fashion, taste and patterns in collecting, and the resulting fluctuation in values caused by these changes. Values quoted ten, twenty or thirty years ago, while accurate at the time, may now be significantly different, and they can have gone up and down.

The area most affected by these changes is furniture, and there have been major drops in the values of most eighteenth and nineteenth century pieces. One of the most important examples of nineteenth century furniture to be seen on the Roadshow appeared at Wisley in 2003. This was a magnificent credenza, or dining room sideboard – one of the best pieces of Victorian furniture that John Bly had ever seen. He pointed out the lavish style and decoration, made from over twenty different types of wood, and with details in ivory, and said that such a piece was a triumph of the cabinet maker’s art and was either a special commission or was made for one the great international exhibitions.

The owner said it had been given to her as a wedding present about ten years before by a great aunt who had emigrated to South Africa, leaving the credenza in storage for twenty or thirty years. She said, ‘It just arrived on the doorstep well after our wedding, I had no idea what I was getting.’

John explained that the key thing about important furniture, particularly of the nineteenth century, was the identity of the designer or maker. He went on, ‘This was a period when design and craftsmanship were all-important, a time when traditional skills were being augmented by the intelligent use of machinery. There was also a demand among the newly wealthy industrialists and others for the best, and this is the best.’

The owner had been able to establish that the original owners were the Baird family from Kelso in Scotland, and their initials inlaid on the front of the credenza matched the initials on the still-surviving gateway to their former house. George Alexander Baird was a famous amateur jockey, race horse owner and breeder whose family wealth came from iron and coal, and he would have been the ideal owner for such an extravagant and opulent piece of furniture.

John’s valuation highlighted the importance of identifying the designer or maker. ‘If we can trace it to a maker, it’s worth in excess of £100,000. If we can’t, then I’m afraid it’s only worth £50,000.’ At this point the owner nearly fainted. Today, the valuation would be lower for this credenza, which while magnificent, is still anonymous, and so this is a classic reflection of changing tastes and fashions in the marketplace.