Featured If you could travel to any country to search for Antiques?

It's a great hobby to look out for rare pieces, whether at a car boot sale, charity shop or auction house.

I'm in England and there are great opportunities to pick up a real 'gem'. (if only I knew a lot more about the subject)

But which countries do you think is the best for antique hunting?

 

The best? It would have to be the northeastern U.S. and England, at least for my purposes

 

yes...depends on what antiques you're looking for.....

 

Watch yourself in the UK - lots of stuff at shows etc will be restored and fakes are everywhere, especially as the value of the object/work of art gets up there ..the desirability of the piece is directly proportional to the incidence of fakery
US Midwest looks good as is Florida, but no matter where you go, you have to know what you are doing, you can't just rely on your phone and google.

 

Countries with the most plentiful antiques are those with fairly large populations and, historically, a vibrant middle class. That's basically the U.S. and parts of Western Europe. These traditionally have had a large consumer market for non-essentials, either locally manufactured or imported. IMHO.

Debora

 

Good point about Florida, @blooey, although as far as Victorian furniture (my passion) goes, much of it originated in the U.S. Northeast before "retiring" to Florida.

Another good area is the old U.S. south, where the wealthier families had the best of the best of Rococo and Renaissance Revival items in the 19th century. There are several auction houses in Alabama and Mississippi that routinely offer stellar Victorian furniture by Belter, Meeks, Horner, Roux, and Mallard. All you need is money, and lots of it!!!!

 

I'd stay here is the U.S. Would like to travel to Florida. Apparently some of their antique stores and flea markets are amazing due to the demographics. They also have the Florida United Numismatists (FUN) Coin Show a few times a year which is regarded to be the best in the world.

 

Florida USED to be a pickers dream,but alas ,those damn i-phones have ruined that. You see legions of people standing in thrifts and the flea markets searching everything. But Oh i remember the glory days of a cameo glass vase for $2 ! I found upstate new york to be rich for finds,but that was 20 years ago and that may have changed as well (again,i-phones) . When I traveled a lot,I found the midwest to be pretty interesting for finds. A lot of those towns were wealthy at one point ,like Sedalia Mo. I found a 10 piece mahogany bedroom set there at a farm sale for $200 ! When we moved back to Florida I had to rent a u haul because I was determined to bring it with me. it was stunning,and so incredibly heavy . I sold it after my partner died for $1500 ,wich was a steal even then .

 

@johnnycb09 - pretty much anywhere was good when the trade was comprised of just a few knowlegable, or at least dealers with good libraries!

The internet, while it did open up markets, was really the end of the "learned historian" era.

Oh well, no un-ringing THAT bell, eh?

 

Sadly,no ! Now get off my lawn !

 

You still can't beat a good library of books. I use my collection all the time and often find things that I've wasted time looking for on the web.

 

PS UK is still good for hunting. Auctions are best. Find one where the auctioneer is not a specialist in your speciality. I struggle to find anything with a profit in it in Antique stores and fairs but they are a pleasant way to spend a few hours and learn a bit.

 

I agree John. UK auctions can be good, especially where they sell as job lots.
The auction house I use now certainly don't take time to look at all items and if unsure place them in those job lots. Every time I am able to sell one item in a job lot of 15 that covers the whole cost of all.

 

Living in Florida now I am in the middle in a largely rural area. Not too many real antiques to be found around here. It's mostly farm land where I live.

I've been to auctions and estate sales around here for almost 15 years. Although it's true that more good finds were around some years ago, it may not be entirely reliable as a barometer on availability; I believe I'm not looking as hard now as I used to then.

As far as more and better antiques in Florida, that'll be hit & miss too. Perhaps in the wealthier cities, Miami 'burbs, Palm Beach, Sanford [a very wealthy city near Orlando] but I haven't searched there.

The closest I got was Renninger's, a weekly multi-market of antiques and bric-a-brac, near Mt. Dora in Lake County. The large special markets called Extravaganzas, held 3 times a year used to be great for finding good stuff.

Having since moved so far north it has not been practical to pop in to Renninger's like I used to on weekends when I lived less than 8 miles away. So I can't speak for now but I heard from antiques friends that Renninger's is no longer what it used to be either.

When living in Pennsylvania some 20 years ago, antiques hunting was actually pretty good. I was not seeking items of historical import or worth, never had the funds to indulge in them.

But I'd frequent a few local auctions, became friendly with the auctioneers, received calls, preferential treatments so was often very fortunate. New Hope was convenient to me and a short hop over to New Jersey and bigger markets there.

Here the only auction I used to frequent moved too far away for me three years ago (I no longer drive far at night), and then closed down last year. I used to stop by at the previews and leave advance bids hoping to get them. Often did, could come pay and pick up the next day (when it was light). Now that source is gone too.

Estates sales I don't bother with. Usually run by pros around here the good stuff has already been pre-empted by them for their shops so they're a waste of time.

Perhaps it's not well known about Florida but it is when you live here: Most mature blow-ins [a great Brit n Irish expression for people not originally native to an area] do not bring their big old and/or valuable possessions with when retiring in Florida.

Just the moving costs equal a new set of reasonably priced furniture [IKEA is in Orlando and Jacksonville] so to pay thousands to drag living room, diningroom and bedroom suites with is just not cost-effective. These are thus disposed of to children, relatives, neighbors or auctions before moving south.

Unless large fine estates of people who've lived their entire lives in Florida [or for generations], are disposed of at special sales or auctions, don't expect too many high-end finds here.

Christie's, Sotheby's have already been contacted by the estate attorneys when these estates become available so their showrooms would be filled with the real goodies first. For those of us who can afford them of course. No bargains to be expected there.

As for where I'd love to be to hunt for antiques: East Anglia. In the neighborhood of Lovejoy's! Yeah, I know... but he is so real to me!

 

I would have to answer England as well. I wouldn’t necessarily be looking for an amazing historical piece of furniture at a great price that every thaw overlooked. I enjoy just poking around my local stores. There are so many old and different items that it would be fun. I last visited over 20 years ago, and I enjoyed a quaint used bookstore in Canterbury, and bought a bird print and a book. I went to many other used book stores (including l large one in London whose name I cannot recall). I also found some wonderful books. They were old and not particularly valuable, but I couldn’t get them locally.

The first antique store I went to, as a kid, was during a family trip to England in 1982. I loved seeing so many cast iron and brass pieces from Queen Victoria’s era (some had “VR” on them, like some brass frontispiece for a horse). In California, anything 19th century is old, but Victorian things were still relatively new. Anyway, it all was fascinating for me then, and still is.

 

I am (was) him.

 

@blooey

See what you mean, blooey...I did miss the likeness.

 

An awful lot of our antique shops are long gone, sadly. Car boots and some antique centres are decent enough.

 

Pickings are hard in very young New Zealand and even charity shops have become expensive with help from "experts". I'd love to visit the UK, seems to be an enormous amount of well price antiques there if the Antiques Road Show is any indication. Won't be happening any time soon though thanks to Covid.

 

many points to be considered. would I emigrate to the US for antique hunting ? probably not.
where is the value to desirability ratio for re-selling the best ? depends on if you want to make it professional or beside a bread and butter job; for me Great Britain would be out of question in those respects.
I had contact to a few English antique dealers and they all made a big part of their annual income by selling English stuff in the big annual antique fairs in Belgium and the Netherlands, and take continental stuff back home in the same journey in one go.
the best and easiest hunting grounds are France, Germany and Switzerland. the French market is rather closed because the French are not interested in foreign stuff and don't like to study it; so I gathered many wonderful English arts and crafts items especially from the Northern departments along the Channel - very often left behind by English that went back home or passed away there, and sold them to Northern Germany and Switzerland.
the Swiss don't know either what they have when it's not gold or silver or jewelry or then so high class that the wallet is to small.
the Germans don't know the French artists enough.
so all in all a nice carousel.