Thursday, December 23, 2010

Snowed In

Anyone who thinks being an antique dealer is an easy or glamorous job might want to stop and think again. Whenever I tell people we're going away to buy, they respond with groans and 'can I get in your suitcase?' This is the UK in the final days of Wallrocks buying trip and this is the driveway in which the container had to be packed. It might look like the white Christmas you've always wanted but it's an antique dealer's worst nightmare. Not only does winter buying mean traipsing warehouses that are several million degrees colder than the negative temperatures outside them, but this particular trip the container could not get in until the entire driveway had been shovelled clear ... by hand.
Under this blue tarp, sits what will be our new arrivals next year. Not only were we unsure that Nick would even get home on a plane as a result of London's brilliant cold weather runway preparation, but the likelihood of the container being packed and leaving the dock seemed dubious as well.
Fortunately the container was packed, and Nick somehow avoided sleeping in a Heathrow corridor!
Here is a sneaky peak of a couple of stunners that are arriving back in the next container. Hope you enjoy and have a very happy Christmas and New Year!

This is an unbelievable 1920's French Art Deco king size bed with shaped panels of radiating Flame Mahogany, crested with carved shells. Just look at the detail! Enquire about this antique bed
This is a really beautiful 19th century, circa 1880 Italian painted queen size bed with its beautiful original painted provincial Italian scenes. The panels have been bordered with entwined gilded leaves.

Enquire about this antique bed.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Nothing a dust and a polish won't fix!

I'm all excited today because I've been re-organising the showroom and while I was shifting things around I found these stunning 19th century French leadlight doors hiding behind a wardrobe - I had totally forgotten that they were there!
View a larger image of these French antique doors. We've been drowning in restoration in the lead up to Christmas which as you all know I love. It's like Christmas itself for me, I love seeing things come out of restoration. These are a few of the things that have just come out recently...
Click here to view a larger image of this 19th Century Eastern European Bench
This bench was only cleaned, no new paint was re-applied to the piece, but it completely changed colour and all of a sudden we realised there was this beautiful original pattern underneath!

View a larger image of this 19th Century Eastern European Bench Seat

This is a very high quality 19th century English display cabinet. Nothing to look at before restoration, but look what was underneath!

Amazing what a bit of a clean can do!




View a larger image - 19th Century English Antique Display Cabinet

Friday, December 3, 2010

Tiles and Tiles


Flicking through all my old OS photos this morning and came across some gorgeous modern and also 18th century spanish and portugese tiles that I saw and loved when I was there. Enjoy!!!