Driscolls Antiques – Antique Furniture Blog

An Antique mahogany kidney shaped writing desk by Waring and Gillows

This week we have put up for sale a stunning piece, it is a kidney shaped writing desk by the famous antique furniture maker Waring and Gillows and what a beautiful piece it is. It has the original leather writing insert and the craftsmanship of the kidney shape is superb. It stands on tapering legs with castors and the handles are silver guilt. It was built around 1900 and was probably built as a ladies desk. We often get beautiful ladies desks in and that are of very nice quality but not often do they hold the makers stamp and of such a good cabinet maker.

If you want an unusual antique desk then I highly recommend you have a look at this desk as it is a very rare piece and I do not think you will see a desk like it again. Please see our desks and bureaux section for more details and for lots of other quality antique desks.

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Now this is a Magnificent Wardrobe

It is not often then we get antique wardrobes in that are over 9ft long but we have got in stock the most magnificent huge Quadruple Wardrobe which is made from burr walnut and is from the Victorian era. It is mahogany lined with a fitted interior and I can say it is one of the best antique wardrobes we have had in stock for a long time. It has a beautifully carved cornice, two central mirrored doors and is in the most striking burr walnut veneer. All the fittings are brass and I believe this piece of furniture would have been made for a very grand house, and some very important people would have owned it. One of the best features also it is in such superb original condition. It is available on our antique furniture website or you can view it in our antique furniture warehouse. I do not think you will see an antique wardrobe as good quality and such a sizable piece anywhere else so if you have lots of clothes and a large bedroom then I think this will be the piece for you.

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Antique desk by Hewetson Brothers – Oxford Street, London

This week we have put up for sale an antique desk by a cabinet maker Hewetson Brothers – Oxford Street, London. It is not a name I am very familiar with but they must have been good antique furniture cabinet makers as this desk is of very good quality and remarkably it still has its original leather top. It is a twin pedestal desk with graduating drawers down either side and has a finished back. If you are wanting a good sized office desk then I would highly recommend you have a look under our desks section as this is a stunning piece. We do regularly get desks in stock but it is always a bonus when you have the makers stamp and a good selling point if you want to sell it in the future. It is also a better investment if you have some provenance in a piece of antique furniture so it can not get better than the makers stamp showing where it originated from.

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Antique furniture scam / Fraudster from Dubai

I am writing this to warn all antique sellers to your guard for fraudster from Dubai. I get several emails from fraudsters and most are obviously rubbish but the occasional ones are very clever.
I received an e-mail for the order for five expensive pieces of antique furniture which are displayed on my web site –

1. Huge Victorian Walnut Bar / Shop Cabinet / Bookcase Ca 1870
2. Huge Quadruple Antique Burr Walnut Wardrobe Ca 1860
3. 17th Century Country Oak Court Cupboard 
4. Victorian ‘Gillows’ Pollard Oak Sideboard Ca 1860
5. Huge Victorian Breakfront Library Bookcase 1840

It was from an investment company with an email address, telephone number and business address. He even telephoned me and spoke very good English but I was suspicious as all the items he wanted was larger items. He asked me for my bank details and bank postal address so I contacted my bank to see what they thought as I thought there would be no risk if he did a bank transfer. Apparently this is a very common scam, as my bank explained that he would not transfer the money he would send a cheque direct to my bank asking them to cash the funds into my account via the post (unlike electronic transfers this makes the trail to the source of payment more difficult to follow).
The cheque would come from a closed bank account of a business but for far more than I was asking, he would then make up a story that he needs the difference transferred back to his account as he overpaid me and then if I had fallen for the scam the cheque would eventually bounce leaving me massively out of pocket. Luckily this did not happen as I did my investigation work.
But this is to warn you to always please be on your guard as there are some sneaky people out there.

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An antiques dealer has just left me this comment via email -
Thanks James
Recieved email from mr Gerrad {DUBAI}re buying big money antiques and wanting bank details.Thought I would google it and your info came up
YOU SAVED ME  SOME HASSLE
THANKS
DAVID

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Regency Mahogany Military Chest of Drawers – what a history

This week we have acquired a regency mahogany military chest which is in remarkable condition with its sunken brass handles and brass strap ware. It stands on its original small turned bun feet and has the original back boards. It is just so amazing how these pieces survive in such good condition especially when a piece such as this has probably been in the Napoleonic wars. It was made in the period of the Napoleonic wars so was probably used by a high ranking soldier of the time and I should imagine it has travelled around the world. It has survived several wars and is still usable and makes a great piece of quality antique furniture. It would be a good party conversational piece, as you can tell the wonderful history of this piece of military furniture.

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Antique furniture whalley

Where can you buy good quality antique furniture from in Lancashire? Well that’s easy. Driscolls antiques ltd has one of the largest antique furniture warehouses in the u.k and we are based in Clitheroe, Lancashire only a few miles from whalley. We are easy to find as we are just off the A59 carriage way and if you just follow the signs for Clitheroe industrial north this will make you turn down Pimlico link road. We are the second turning on the left just behind Travis Perkins. Our warehouse is over 6000 sq foot full of quality antiques and antique furniture and you are welcome to view from Monday to Saturday 10am to 5pm. If you would like to telephone first our number is 0845 2415518. Not many people from Whalley realise we are only in Clitheroe as we are mainly internet based but if you come and look around you will not be disappointed as we have a huge selection of period pieces in various different woods.

We have new stock arriving daily and we also offer full restoration services from a small repair to a full re polish of a large table, we have four onsite restorers so can all restoration jobs. It is only a short drive from Whalley and well worth the trip.

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Antique furniture on Ebay

As you may well know there are people who sell antique furniture on the website ebay and we are one of these sellers. We advertise all our items of antique furniture on ebay as well as our website and we do sell quite a lot of items through ebay but the main problem we find is there is so much rubbish being advertised along side our quality items on the ebay pages. I think it would be well worth ebay to split the sections up so the rubbish is in a separate category and the quality items of antique furniture, like our items are separate. But if you do not want to spend hours searching through the rubbish to find the few nice items then I would recommend you have a look on our antique furniture website where all the items are clearly photographed with prices and descriptions and we only deal in quality. Our items on our website are easy to find, in there own unique categories and we have an easy to use navigation system on the left and top of the website. We offer secure online payments so you are fully covered and we are a trusted firm that have been established over 30 years and have over 5 years online trading experience. We can deliver anywhere in the world and do regular u.k deliveries.

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Why are some antique roll top desks so reasonable to buy?

antique roll top desks can vary in price massively as they were mainly built from the Victorian period to the 1930s. The earlier antique roll top desks are usually in mahogany or walnut and as time progressed oak became the wood of choice.

The oak Edwardian (1901) to 1930s roll top tambour fronted desks are still reasonably priced as you can still buy these for usually under £1000 and the quality and craftsmanship on these desks are quite amazing. There is no real reason why they are so reasonably priced other than there was lots more made during these periods, but in the 1980s-1990s lots and lots of these desks were shipped to the USA and now they are quite hard to come by. I believe within the next five years there will be a massive increase in price on these desks as people will start to realise how difficult they are to buy and also the quality of these desks are far greater than modern copies. If you wanted to have a copy of a tambour fronted desk today, it would cost thousands and the wood would not be as good quality. I think as an investment they are a good piece to go for and they are very usable pieces of antique furniture.

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How can I keep track of the newly added items of antique furniture?

Because our turn over is so quick and we add new items of antique furniture on a daily basis, we have added a very useful tool onto our website. It is an antique furniture added recently button. When we add new stock please check this section first and then you will be the first to see our latest stock. You will see we add chairs, tables, chest of drawers and wardrobes on a regular basis. If we do not currently have what you are looking for please email us with your request and we can add you to our wanted list. If we find anything suitable we then email you with pictures and description of any suitable piece of antique furniture.

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Victorian Upholstered Ottoman – what a useful piece of furniture

This week we have received two victorian upholstered ottoman which is very unusual as they are becoming increasingly hard to find. They are both of a very small size and can be used for several different uses. The main use it to store linen but they can also be used as a spare seat, stool or foot stool and they are also been known to be used as a piano stool. They have been newly upholstered in a neutral fabric and are beautiful shapes. They usually stand on small bun feet with sunken castors and if the body is in a sarcophagus shape than this is a rare and well sought after shape. They are very popular with interior designers as they can dot them around a room and they are really nice pieces of antique furniture.

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