Thinking of selling mum’s silverware? It’s all in the timing

Timing is everything when it comes to selling. Whether it’s a house, the furniture, objects or the artefacts that are accumulated over a lifetime, things only have a monetary value in the context of time. What’s treasure for one generation is often seen as hard rubbish for the next.

Take Featherston furniture, for example, designed by Grant and Mary Featherston in the 1950s through to the late 1970s. A Featherston “talking chair”, first unveiled at the Canadian Expo in 1967, was extremely valuable 10 to 15 years ago.

Auctioneers Leonard Joel, for example, sold one such chair in 2010 for the princely sum of $16,000. Today, that same chair is now valued between $5000 and $7000, a substantial drop.

“There are two factors working against it. One, they’re expensive chairs to restore (it came with built-in headsets that captured the sounds of the Australian bush). Secondly, the chair has been put back into production,” says Andrew Shapiro, managing director of Shapiro Auctioneers.

According to Shapiro, other Featherston designs have also headed south, or “plateaued”. “It’s a good time to buy Featherston furniture,” he adds.

While Featherstons – along with other post-war designs – have faltered recently, other designs are coming into their own. These include those from international designers such as Pierre Paulin’s “Ribbon Chair” and “Groovy Chair” (1960s/’70s) along with T. H. Robsjohn-Gibbings’ “Klismos Chair”(circa 1960), the latter being the timber-framed dining chair currently on eBay for US$5,200.

It’s certainly not easy predicting what to buy and what to leave.

“The interest in the ‘Hollywood Regency’ style has been generated by magazines, such as World of Interiors, reflecting the current trend for more eclectic interiors,” says Shapiro.

Some items, such as silver tea services like the ones your grandmother owned and had been passed down through the generations, were seen as “old deary”, something just to keep in the back of one’s cupboard and brought out when the family visited.

However, as the price of both gold (doubling in four years) and silver (doubling in two years) increases, these tea sets are taking pride of place. “Silver tea sets have doubled in price. Two years ago, it was $500. Today, it’s $1000, irrespective of whether it’s Georgian, Victorian or Edwardian,” says Jennifer Gibson, director of Gibson’s.

Other items, such as furniture designed by architects Denton Corker Marshall (DCM) for the Adelphi Hotel in Melbourne, which opened in the early 1990s, were ignored for decades, according to Gibson.

The Melbourne-based auction house sold a pair of table lamps (after the hotel’s later refurbishment) for $1586, with an initial estimate of $600 to $800. “Some of the furniture, such as their hard-edged leather lounges and chairs, is now seen as sculpture,” she adds.

Other periods from the past are also finding a new audience. The art deco period (1920s through to the late 1940s) was considered passé. But a recent auction held by Gibson’s, the Carolyn Fels auction recently proved exceptionally popular.

A stylised tapestry by French designer Paul Vera, depicting a winter scene with figures and garlands was estimated to sell between $6000 and $8000. On the day, it was knocked down for $24,000.

Gibson has a saying: build it, and they will come. But she also feels that there haven’t been many great collections of art deco furniture that have come onto the secondary market in recent times.

It’s certainly not easy to predict what to buy and what to leave. Mid-century furniture still attracts a younger audience while other periods, such as the late 1980s and early 1990s, hold a certain attraction for many, including this writer, in particular, furniture designed by Japanese creatives who made their mark at the time.

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