My Guide to Buying Antiques at Auction
Have you ever considered buying a piece of antique furniture at auction but have found the idea a little daunting, or been scared of making an expensive mistake? If so, read on for my insider tips…
Until early in 2020, I had never bought anything at a ‘proper’ auction, by which I mean a bricks and mortar auction house, not ebay or similar.
My first experience of buying at auction was just before the first covid lockdown hit. I went to the viewing day at the auction house and looked at what I wanted to buy, set up an account on the-saleroom.com and figured out how to bid online (all very straightforward), bid on the piece I wanted and got it - it was very exciting!
And then covid hit, and you were no longer allowed to visit auction houses in person. We had decided to set up Antique and Unique, so needed to start buying stock, and auctions conducted online were really the only option to buy from as there were no fairs running and the shops were closed, so I learned the ins and outs of buying at auction pretty quickly, mostly by trial and error. We have bought some fabulous items, and occasionally got a real bargain, but we have also bought some pieces that unexpectedly needed one hell of a lot of work to get them to anything like a saleable condition.
Buying for business reasons, when you have your own van to collect items and you have a workshop at your disposal to restore and repair items as required is different to buying something for yourself. If we buy something that turns out to need a repair, or french-polishing, we can do it, but if you buy the same item, chances are you probably can’t do it yourself so will have to pay someone to fix it for you.
For the purposes of this blog post the advice I’m going to offer is for someone who just wants to buy a nice piece of furniture for their home. If you have the skills to repair furniture yourself, or know someone who can, then of course some of this may not apply.
So, what to bear in mind…
Firstly, if it is possible to visit the auction house and physically view the item you are interested in then I can’t recommend strongly enough that you do this. Photos do not always tell the whole story, especially as many auction houses only have one or two photos of an item in their online catalogue, and the descriptions they give tend to be brief - some auctioneers are better than others in this respect. Auction houses usually have viewing days a day or two before the sale starts. If you can’t visit, ask them to provide a condition report for the item and ask any questions you can think of. Some may also be willing to provide additional photos if you ask for them.
Never rely purely on the auctioneers description and photos. An auction catalogue can sometimes list thousands of items, so you can’t blame them for not going over every item with a magnifying glass; it is very much buyer beware. An example of this is the dutch marquetry demi-lune table shown in the photo below. In the online auction catalogue it looked much as it does in this photo, though rather dirtier, and the description was very brief with no mention of any issues. So we bid on it, because it’s lovely, and got it. When we collected it though we picked it up to put it in the van and one leg fell off! Maybe we should have complained, but as I’ve said we can fix things like that so didn’t bother too much, though there was probably a bit of muttered swearing. When we got it back to the workshop we found that another leg was only still attached fully as someone had fixed a metal bracket to the back, and it was quite badly warped so nothing was level. Luckily we hadn’t paid much for it. We spent quite a long time repairing it, but it was never going to be perfect, so I decided to take it home with me, which was a terrible hardship because I love it, despite its wonkiness!
My Dutch marquetry table, now with all three legs attached!
Depending on what you see or are told about the item, you can then decide on whether you want to bid on it. If the item needs restoring then it would be advisable to find a craftsman who could do this and ask for an estimate of how much it will cost before you decide on how much to bid. Don’t forget to factor in transport costs for getting the item to and from the restorer.
How to bid…
When it comes to actually bidding you have a few ways to do this. You can go to the auction in person and bid in the room. You can phone the auctioneer and place your maximum bid over the phone in advance - the auctioneer will then bid up to your maximum amount for you. In some auctions you can arrange a phone call for when the item is live and bid live over the phone. You can bid live online, either through a platform like the-saleroom.com or easyliveauction.com or through the auctioneers own website (you will need to set up an account and register a payment card in advance whichever platform you use). You can also leave advance bids online through these platforms if you can’t watch the auction live. Whatever option you choose try to settle on a maximum price you are willing to pay and stick to it - it is very easy to get carried away and spend a lot more than you planned. Saying that, everyone who buys at auction will sometimes let their heart overrule their head. Sometimes you just can’t bear the thought of letting something go!
When you are figuring out what is the most you want to pay, don’t forget to factor in the auctioneers commission, which is on average around 30% on top of the hammer price. If you are bidding through a selling platform such as The Saleroom, then there is also a fee that they charge (I think it is 3% for Easylive and 6% for The Saleroom). So, for instance, if you buy an item for a hammer price of £300 through The Saleroom, assuming a commission rate of 30%, plus the 6% fee, the price you actually pay will be £408.00. So it soon adds up.
Getting the item home is the next thing to consider. If you have your own vehicle to transport it in then great. If not then you will need to arrange a courier. Often the auctioneer will be happy to recommend someone who can deliver it for you. Bear in mind that typically delivering a piece of furniture costs between £60 and £100 depending on how big it is, how far it’s going etc. If it’s especially big and heavy and a two man delivery is needed then this will cost more.
You can get some fantastic pieces of furniture at auction, and if you’re lucky at really good prices, and if you bear the above points in mind then hopefully you can’t go too far wrong. It is also, in my opinion, a lot of fun! But… if you don’t fancy risking it, then buy from someone like us who has already done the difficult bit and will just deliver it straight to you, all beautiful and clean and ready to love!
Thanks for reading!