If you’ve ever cleared out a house, be it your own or a relative’s, you will know that it is both an emotional and a logistical challenge. Once you’ve sorted through all the personal and sentimental items, the trickiest thing is working out what to do with any remaining furniture – charities aren’t always in a position to take it and older pieces rarely do well at auction now. When my family and I were clearing out my grandparents’ house, we were surprised that even their collection of finely crafted antiques and 19th-century British art attracted little interest.
Few people are better placed to help you navigate this process than an experienced and reputable house clearance expert. They have existing relationships with charities, they know how to go about recycling and upcycling things and, crucially, they have a good idea as to what will and what won’t sell at auction. One such individual is Paul Cassar, who runs London-based firm Manor Clearance. He has nearly 30 years of experience and works with clients from all walks of life, from royalty and rock stars to professionals living overseas who ask him to manage the clearance of a relative’s house back in the UK. Drawn to this industry by his love of history, Paul has developed an excellent understanding of the furniture market. I asked him to take me through the top trends and key changes of the past few decades, in the hope that I might absorb just a fraction of his knowledge.
Big, bulky furniture is out…
I’m afraid, in this instance, the pages of House & Garden are somewhat misleading. We feature many houses furnished with beautiful freestanding furniture, and like to encourage our readers to embrace the mismatched, eclectic approach. But these homeowners are, in fact, in the minority. Instead, people are moving away from freestanding furniture towards fitted everything. ‘I did a huge house in Barnes last week,’ says Paul. ‘And in the eight bedrooms, all you’ve really got is the bed, bedside tables, and possibly a dressing table, because everything else is built in.’ The same is often true downstairs, where bookshelves, kitchen storage and cupboards are all fitted.
As such, the demand for large pieces of wooden furniture just isn’t there; even traditional dining tables are falling out of favour because, as Paul says, ‘how many people want to lose a whole room to a huge mahogany table?’ When it comes to the younger generation, or ‘generation rent’ as we’re often called, we simply cannot take on any furniture. ‘The younger generation, including my own daughters who are 31 and 33, are travelling a lot lighter,’ says Paul. ‘They don’t want to be burdened with their parents’ or grandparents' possessions as they need to be more mobile.’
…And smaller decorative pieces are in
But what we can do is find small, characterful and easily transportable pieces to add a personal touch to our space. ‘People are accessorising their homes to create a certain mood rather than furnishing them,’ says Paul, citing Etsy and Vinterior as the new go-to sources for decorative pieces. This might be a vase, a lamp or even a small piece of furniture like a side table or a mirror. ‘When it comes to these smaller items, there is still a real market for antique and vintage stuff,’ adds Paul. ‘If they like the look of something and it doesn't take up too much room, it doesn’t matter what period it’s from, people will bite. It’s the bigger, lumpier furniture that’s hard to shift.’
Repro furniture is all the rage
For those who are able to buy larger pieces of furniture, be it a coffee table or a set of dining chairs, Paul has found that many buyers, particularly those in their thirties and early forties, are more concerned with how something looks than how it is made. Perhaps this is due to social media and our obsession with photogenic interiors, or perhaps it’s simply down to the wider availability of mass-produced pieces, but it does mean that repro furniture is usually winning out over originals. ‘Even a lot of the wealthier homeowners in, say, Chelsea and Hampstead, don't care if it's a reproduction piece,’ he says. ‘They don’t care where it’s come from or how it’s made as long as it fits their scheme. Sometimes the real thing is actually cheaper than the reproduction piece, like those armoires with chicken wire that are now made in China and shipped over, but they still choose the new version.’
The Chinese market is booming
The phrase ‘Made in China’ has very different connotations when it comes to antique pieces. ‘What’s going really well in the UK is anything Chinese,’ says Paul. ‘Because Hong Kong was a British colony, a lot of stuff was shipped over to the UK and has been here since. Now that the Chinese economy is doing well, people of Chinese heritage both here and abroad want to invest in these pieces.’ The same is true of decorative pieces. For instance, in May this year, a rare Chinese vase and wine pitcher that were more than 300 years old sold for a combined £135,500.
The Ikea effect is very real
There’s no denying that much of the population loves Ikea, and the editors at House & Garden are no exception. It’s reasonably priced, convenient, simple and stylish, so it’s understandable if some of us choose it over antique furniture. And it seems to have fuelled a wider obsession with anything Scandinavian or Scandi-inspired. I ask Paul whether he thinks, in decades to come, house clearance firms like his will be removing nothing but pieces of Ikea furniture from our homes, much like the stream of good brown furniture they see today. ‘Absolutely,’ he replies, before noting that, as always, there are crucial demographic differences.
Mind the generational – and regional – gap
While the youngest generation of furniture buyers might consider Ikea pieces to be retro, for the Millennials and Generation X it’s all about mid-century. ‘The thing to consider is what a certain generation is looking at retrospectively, so that’s why the 40-somethings are all buying the stuff made in the 1970s.’ In other words, for something to feel truly vintage or retro, it has to be older than us.
What you buy might also depend on where in the country you live. First, there’s the matter of property size, as urban homes tend to be smaller than rural ones, so your furniture has to follow suit. Then there’s differences in style. For instance, Paul has found that the people of Brighton love mid-century regardless of their age and the east London hipsters gravitate towards industrial-style and distressed pieces. ‘Victorian leather armchairs are only popular once the leather starts to become battered, because there’s this fashion to have something distressed in your otherwise very modern home.’ However, in rural areas, many people are still going for the more traditional, country-house aesthetic, with carefully chosen antiques and artworks.
Anything at the top of the food chain will always do well
‘The very best pieces from any of the periods will always sell for a lot,’ says Paul, citing genuine Thomas Chippendale furniture as a prime example. ‘Even with the mid-century stuff, it’s the names that determine the value.’ A story and a personal connection is also important, if the person in question is of note. We saw this in action two years ago at the Dreweatts sale of the late Robert Kime’s personal collection. The auction achieved a total of £9.64 million, which was of course testament to the exquisite quality of the pieces he had amassed over his lifetime, but it was also a result of what you could call the ‘Robert Kime effect’ – buyers desperately seeking to own a beautiful thing that he had chosen and cherished.
Kempton is still the place to be
‘Anyone who is serious about collecting will go to Sunbury & Sandown Antiques Market at Kempton racecourse,’ says Paul. ‘Dealers from all over the country and Europe are there, along with interior designers, prop buyers, collectors and the general public having a day out.’ (On the subject of prop buyers, Paul recently came across someone from Netflix looking to buy a hundred 1940s desks for an office scene!) Here at House & Garden we are always hearing about the wonderful treasures that can be found at Kempton (and other big markets and fairs like Newark and Ardingly), so we agree that it’s always worth setting that early alarm to arrive in time for the dawn opening.
Sustainability is on the agenda
‘I’m passionate about upcycling and believe that it should be the norm,’ says Paul, who does everything he can to avoid unwanted furniture going to landfill. In recent years, he’s had more and more clients choosing his firm specifically for its commitment to sustainability. ‘But if anyone did want me to dump stuff to save money, I wouldn’t take them on as a client,’ he adds. Manor Clearance also has strong links with several charities, including school projects in Sri Lanka for which he collects unneeded IT equipment. He firmly believes that this approach is the future and urges us all to keep this in mind when decluttering or clearing our homes.
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