Driscolls Antiques – Antique Furniture Blog

Holland and Sons Antique Furniture (1803 – 1942)

Holland and sons were extremely good antique furniture cabinet makers and if you buy antique furniture by these makers you know you are buying quality. Holland and sons was formed in 1803 by William Holland and by the middle of 1800s, Holland and sons was one of the main competition to the furniture makers Gillows.

Original they were cabinet makers and upholsterers called Taprelland Holland but by 1843 they changed to Holland and Sons.

In 1851 Holland and sons employed over 350 cabinet makers and in 1852 took on the prestigious firm of Thomas Dowbiggin who had previously made the state throne for Victoria’s Coronation.

Holland and Sons worked successfully as undertakers and became responsible for the Duke of Wellington’s funeral.

Holland and sons became cabinetmakers and upholsters to the Queen and their first commission was for Osborne House in 1845. They then went on to supply furniture for Windsor Castle, Balmoral and Marlborough House. Holland and sons also worked for many famous buildings such as the reform Club, the British Museum, the Royal Academy and the Houses of Parliament.

The firm stayed as a family run business until it closed in 1942.

Driscolls antiques do get pieces by Holland and sons and in the past have had many pieces like a Victorian oak antique library bookcase that is stamped Holland & Sons. The antique bookcase has three glazed doors with moulded edges and the lower section has three cupboard doors with beautiful carved panels. We have also had an antique burr walnut what not by Holland and Sons. The top has a brass gallery above rectangular moulded top with satinwood banding and it stands on beautiful turned supports and four brass cup castors.

If you are interested in buying antique furniture by Holland and sons please email us and we will let you know when we get more pieces in stock.

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Who wants to buy antique furniture at auction?

Who wants to buy antique furniture at auction? Well if you look at all the negatives from buying at auctions it might make you think twice. If you are looking to buy antique furniture one of the biggest mistakes some people make is when they have been buying it in an auction house, because they do not realise when you buy in auction you have no come back. Basically because it is not through a retail premises you do not have the consumer guarantee you would get from a shop and also the buying premiums are going through the roof at the moment, as the yearly premium hike is due in most auction houses.

When you buy at auction there is no guarantee that the piece is genuine as they do not have to put a full description of the piece whereas because we are LAPADA members we fully disclose any restoration, its age and authenticity.

The buyers premiums are constantly rising and now in most cases with insurance etc. Premiums add an extra 25 % to the purchase price and this makes a huge difference to the price you thought you paid.

Some people also can very easily get carried away and bid far more than the value of the antiques should be.

Once you have bought your piece of antique furniture from an auction, you then have to arrange to have it collected and delivered to your home and this can be very costly and a pain to arrange.

Also the cost of restoration on antique furniture can be very expensive whereas our items have already been fully restored.

At Driscolls antiques we fully describe all of our items and give detailed photographs on our online website and we only deal in quality antique furniture.

We do not charge any buyers premium so the ticket price on our website is exactly what you pay with no hidden surprises.

Our antique furniture is cleaned and restored only using traditional methods of restoration and we also deliver anywhere in England with a two man assembled delivery service.

So before buying antique furniture or antique desks from auction think of the hidden costs and hassle and instead why not look on our antique furniture web site as we always have hundreds of pieces of antique furniture for sale.

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What to put in a corner of a room

What piece of antique furniture can be used to fill a space in the corner of a room? Well a very nice piece of antique furniture is a corner cupboard. An antique corner cupboard is designed to go in the corner of a room and they are usually wall hanging but we do also get floor standing corner cupboards.

A good example of a wall hanging antique corner cupboard is our antique wall hanging Georgian astragal glazed mahogany corner cupboard which was built in the later part of the Georgian period and this piece has a moulded cornice with dentil moulding above an astragal glazed door, ideal for displaying glass and ornaments. The interior has two fixed shelves and the corners are canted.

A good example of a floor standing antique corner cupboard is our antique Victorian mahogany floor standing corner cupboard. This cupboard has a moulded cornice with dentil moulding above an astragal glazed door, ideal for displaying glass and ornaments. The interior has two fixed shelves and the sides are canted. The lower section has a central cupboard door and the interior has one fixed shelf, and the piece stands on shaped bracket feet.

These are very useful pieces of antique furniture for a corner of a room and are both available on our antique furniture website.

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Antique Mirrors and antique cheval mirror
antique mirrors were very rare up to the 1700s. As the production of mirrors improved more mirrors were made and larger mirrors were made. Very large mirrors were still very expensive but the smaller wall mounted mirrors or small tilting mirrors were cheap enough for people to buy. In larger upper class houses, mirrors of all kinds were designed and made, from smaller antique wall mirrors to pier mirrors and usually the grander mirrors would have gilding. Mahogany was the main wood used for the frames of mirrors due to the beautiful finish and the durability of the wood. Some antique mirrors have pediments on the top usually with a prominent central motif in the form of a spread eagle, or inlaid with a shell pattern.

As mirrors developed new styles were produced like the rococo and Chinese ornament to the mirrors frames and you would see Chinese designs like exotic birds, or some would come with gothic elements in the design. After these designs were produced more delicate designs became vogue as Adam and Hepplewhite, designed more delicately proportioned mirrors, oval and rectangular in shape, with simpler scrollwork with inlaid vase or similar classical motif. Adam prefered gilt work usually on a soft wood and hepplewhite usually used mahogany. Typical of the Sheraton and Regency periods was the circular gilt mirror, one to three feet in diameter.

Mahogany was widely used on antique mirrors and was the main wood used in an antique cheval mirror. In the early 1700s many antique dressing tables were designed with collapsible mirrors fitted into the tops of the tables, and this was also seen in some antique chests of drawers. Most common was a separate toilet mirror that would be free standing on a side table or washstand. Antique toilet mirrors ware basically smaller versions of the cheval mirror, with swing mirrors but these usually had small drawers. The antique cheval mirror was much larger and this is a much larger mirror stood between two upright supports with curving feet and a cross stretcher.

We get lots of quality pieces of antique furniture and some very very nice mirrors. This week we have a large antique William IV mahogany cheval mirror that has a large full length tilting mirror with a beautiful mahogany frame. The antique mirror has scrolled carved upright supports, a turned cross stretcher and stands on four beautiful scrolled carved feet.

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Good quality antique desks for sale

Every week we get lots of good quality pieces of antique furniture for sale and we always display them on our antiques website. We also get very good quality antique office furniture for sale including some very nice antique desks.

This week you can see we have put several antique desks for sale on our website and we have lost more coming in stock.

We have for sale a stunning antique Victorian walnut writing desk with a red tooled leather writing insert. The desk has a central drawer above a kneehole and each pedestal has graduating mahogany lined drawers all with brass handles.

The next antique desk is a beautiful antique Edwardian mahogany desk that has a red tooled leather writing insert and a central drawer over a large kneehole. Each pedestal has graduating drawers with brass swan neck handles. the piece stands on shaped bracket feet and is in a Georgian design. We also have an antique Victorian mahogany desk with rounded corners and a green leather tooled writing insert above a central mahogany lined drawer and large kneehole. Each pedestal has four graduating mahogany lined drawers with turned knobs and moulded edges. Also this week we have an antique Victorian walnut twin pedestal desk with a green tooled leather writing insert above a central drawer and kneehole. Each pedestal has four mahogany lined drawers with brass handles and moulded edges.

So as you can see we get lots of antique desks for sale and we update our website daily with new antique furniture pieces for sale.

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Small Antique Rosewood Furniture

On occasion we get some very unusual and very interesting small rosewood pieces of antique furniture. Antique rosewood furniture is usually very delicate looking and was rosewood widely used in the regency and William 1V periods.

We have two very interesting pieces of rosewood antique furniture for sale and the first is a beautiful antique Regency rosewood teapoy. This is a very unusual item and was designed to store tea. It has a sarcophagus shaped lift up lid and the interior has four lidded compartments and two bowl sections for the tea. The piece stands on a beautifully shaped pedestal with a quadriform base and beautiful small turned reeded feet with brass castors.

The other rosewood piece is an antique William IV rosewood workbox that was used for all your sewing needs. This antique workbox has a square beautifully grianed figured top above a drawer with turned knob. The antique workbox has an unusual upholstered shaped base and a pull out side drawer with compartments. The workbox stands on a moulded pedestal with acanthus leaf corbels and a quadriform base with small castors.

This week we also have a very nice antique rosewood chiffonier coming up for sale so please keep an eye on our website for details.

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Antique Mahogany Sideboards

The antique sideboard came into appearance in the late 1700s came from the idea of a table. The famous designer Adam was one of the first people to design an antique sideboard as he designed a piece of antique furniture standing a pedestal with an urn at each end of the side-table. This then led to the pedestals and tables becoming one piece of antique furniture, so became a pedestal sideboard. The pedestals would usually have cupboards or drawers and the cupboards were used for many purposes, like some of the drawers were deep and were lined with lead for the storage of wine, and some had linen trays built in for the napkins and table cloths. Both of the famous designers Hepplewhite and Sheraton designed light and elegant sideboards and some would have serpentine or bow fronted shapes and some would have the brass rails along the top edge which often stood at the back of the sideboard to hold plates.

A very nice example of a Georgian sideboard is one we currently have for sale. It is an antique Victorian mahogany bow fronted sideboard which has a bow front top above a central cutlery drawer and shaped apron. This is flanked by a smaller drawers above a cupboard all with original brass handles. The sideboard stands on six tapering legs with spade feet and is in a Georgian design. Antique sideboards are very nice and useful pieces of antique furniture.

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Small Antique Glazed Bookcases

Here at Driscolls Antiques Ltd we have beautiful pieces of antique furniture for sale and we also have some unusual pieces for the smaller areas in your home. Smaller pieces of antique furniture are sometimes referred to as antique dwarf furniture and are pieces that look like larger antique furniture but have been built to much more smaller proportions.

For example we have two very nice small antique bookcases and on the photos they look like larger pieces but if you check the measurements you will see they are actually smaller versions.

We have a small antique Victorian mahogany glazed cabinet with a rectangular top above two glazed doors with arched moulding and the sides have beautiful carved, moulded pilasters.

The other small antique bookcase is an antique Regency small dwarf walnut bookcase and this bookcase has a rectangular moulded top above two glazed doors and is of small proportions stands on four small bun feet.

These are very nice small pieces of antique furniture and will fit in any home.

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Antique Chests of Drawers and Antique Tallboys
Most chests up to the mid 18th century were straight fronted with simple lines, usually with four or five drawers, and stood on bracket feet or cabriole legs. Most of the antique chest of drawers have cock beading around the drawer edges. This design stayed the same for many years and was even copied in the Edwardian times. From the late 18th century new designs of antique chests were being made and were influenced from the French furniture. French furniture had more curves, corners, and rococo carving. Fine inlay also became fashionable and serpentine shapes. The bow-fronted chest of drawers then also became popular and is a very nice shape.

As chests progressed also string inlay or brass inlay on the drawer fronts and around the edges was used the use of a deep frieze above the top drawer, which gave the chest of drawers a look of tallness.

Antique chests of drawers were tall, small, bow fronted, straight-fronted, had turned feet, bracket feet and they came with some distinctive features like quarter columns, spiral shaped or Needed on the front corners of the chests of drawers. Antique tallboys or also known as antique chest on chests were also very popular as they were a chest of drawers on a chest of drawers so had plenty of storage.

A nice simple design of an antique furniture chest is a small antique Georgian mahogany chest of drawers that we have for sale. This chest has a rectangular top with a reeded edge above two over two graduating cock beaded drawers. It stands on shaped bracket feet and is a very nice small size.

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Antique Tea Tables

antique tea tables were very popular in the 1700s to the early 1800s. These antique tea tables came in many different forms, some were small rectangular tables or small round tilt-top tables and some were in the side table style with a swivel top like and antique card table.

Antique tea tables were all about tea presentation because at the time tea was very expensive and there ore was served whilst guests were visiting. These antique tables put in a hall or a corner of a room and then when needed they were moved to the middle of the room for displaying their exotic teas.

Mahogany was mainly used in tea table, but other woods like rosewood was also used as well.

Antique tea tables are very beautiful pieces of antique furniture and we always get them in stock. At the moment we have a beautiful antique Regency mahogany tea table for sale and it swivels and opens to double in size with rounded corners above a beautiful pedestal and four elegant scrolled splayed legs with brass castors. 

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