Driscolls Antiques – Antique Furniture Blog

Christmas opening times

During Christmas we will be closed from Friday 24th December until Tuesday 4th January. During this time we are able to open via appointment and if you would like to make an appointment please email us and someone will get back to you. Also we will be available during this time via email so please email any questions or enquiries and someone will try to answer any questions. All new deliveries will be starting mid January.

Finally I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and happy New year!!!

Please see some of our latest comments below of pieces of antique furniture we have recently sold –

Hi, Thanks for making the effort to get our furniture to us for Xmas, it appreciated and the bookcase is great,  Merry Xmas,  Mark

Hello James, Just to say that the chiffonier arrived on time and is lovely – a beautiful piece and I’m delighted with it.  It fits perfectly in our living room. Thank you and best wishes for Xmas and the New Year. Kind regards. Carroll

Hi James, Sorry I didn’t pick up your e-mail yesterday but, thankfully, the shelves arrived today. I wish to express my thanks for a lovely piece of furniture and for your superb efforts to deliver it. Please pass on my thanks to the guys who struggled down here in terrible conditions. Also, thanks to Barbara, who kept in touch and was right on top of the situation when I phoned yesterday morning, she’s been great. Many thanks, Grant

Hi James
The table has arrived – amazingly! Thank you very much. Have a good break. Nina

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No VAT increase on our antique furniture

Driscolls antiques will not be increasing our prices in the New Year on our antique furniture to cover the VAT increase. We have decided to keep our prices competitive and keep our prices the same so we will cover the increase from our profits. The only thing we cannot cover is the delivery charges so this will increase by 2.5%. Even though many people do not think antiques have VAT charged on them unfortunately yes there is VAT on everything! Hopefully at some stage the government will realise how antiques are recycled goods, are green and good for the environment, they may want to reduce VAT for these items to help promote them.

We intend to keep all of antiques to high quality and at reasonable prices, so please keep checking daily for the new pieces we put up for sale and especially in the new year as we have some stunning antiques coming in January.

My daughter (just turned 11) asked for me to put this Christmas picture on my blog, which i thought was cute!

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How can I tell if my antique furniture is an antique or fake?

If you own a piece of antique furniture or are looking to buy a piece but are not sure whether it is a real antique or not how can you tell if it is an original antique or a fake reproduction piece of furniture?

It is not always that easy to tell but here are a few tips to make sure you have are looking at a real antique.

Firstly look at the timber the antique furniture is made from as the most pieces of antique furniture will be in mahogany, rosewood, oak, and walnut or if it is a country piece, pine.

These are the main woods used but there are more rare woods used but you would need much more experience to recognise these.

Check the construction and screws used in the furniture as in antique furniture the screws will be handmade and have uneven threads and off centre screw heads. Check on the undersides of pieces to see if the wood is new looking and unfinished. Check the edges and if they look very sharp and newly cut then this can be a good indication of a fake. antique furniture usually has very thick veneer used where as modern usually has very cheap and very thin veneer (almost paper thin). upholstered furniture can be difficult but if you can peel back some fabric look for old nail holes and check the corner brackets for older screws. Check for old repairs as this can show age, whereas new pieces will have no repairs what so ever.

If in doubt I would suggest to only buy from reputable antique dealers like us at Driscolls Antiques as we have been established for over thirty years and are LAPADA members. We only deal in quality antique furniture.

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A very nice thank you letter

We have recently sold some antique furniture to a customer in USA which included an antique linen press and an antique card table. We received a very nice thank you letter from them and I thought I would share their comments to show how you can be confident buying from us anywhere in the world.

I have been meaning to write ever since the furniture arrived 2 weeks ago.  I can’t tell you how delighted we are with the linen press and card table.  It is always a gamble when buying sight unseen, but the furniture was exactly the high quality promised .  We  visited your ware house last summer and everything we saw was in fabulous condition, so we felt confident ordering from you over the internet.  Our confidence in you was certainly rewarded!

Thank you so much for your professional and efficient service.  The company that packed for shipping couldn’t have done a better job and both items arrived beautifully crated.  We would highly recommend you to anyone looking for good quality antiques and have already passed on your website to numerous friends in the USA.

If you are interested in any of our pieces of antique furniture in America or anywhere in the world please contact us and we will get the best quote for packaged, insured door to door shipping using a professional antiques shipper.

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The expo scam is back again!

If you have not heard about the expo scam then read on as it has affected so many people in the antiques trade so I want to warn all of my reader just in case they come across this company who scams many, many people.

This scam appears every year in a new form and basically even if it looks different it is still the same scam. You are sent a form in the post to update your free listing in a directory called the Expo Guide. It all looks nice and innocent but at the bottom you are required to sign the form.  Unfortunately your signature also approves that you accept continued listing for 3 years + for a very large fee of 1180 Euros per year as stated in the small print. Expo are now going around fairs, shops in person and targeting people in the flesh so people are being pressured into signing on the spot as they do not know what they are signing for. Please all antique dealers and everyone else be warned as this is a very awful company that will con you out of your hard earned money.

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The Pleasure of owning antique furniture

Antique furniture can be a please to look at and especially if you own it and it is sitting in your home to see every day. This is why you should always buy something you love the look of and it must be in good original finish so you can beautifully clean for many years to come. If you are on the lookout for buying antique furniture please check out our website as we update it daily and add beautiful pieces of antique furniture for sale in many different periods and styles.

It might be worth looking through our entire website, even the sold pieces to get an idea of the types and styles you like.

There are many different styles and woods to choose from mahogany, rosewood, oak, walnut, elm, ash, satinwood and many rare woods, some have unusual inlay or brass decorations. Most people like to get matching pieces of furniture in the same room like a mahogany and mahogany chairs but I like to have a mixture of woods as this can offer a very nice contrast.

You can trawl around many different shops, antique fairs and auctions but you have to consider most shops will only have one or two pieces of furniture at one time. fairs are difficult to arrange transport from and are usually un restored items and with auctions you have no come back if you change your mind, most items are un restored so you have the additional cost of restoration and transport, plus you have bidders commission. If you look on our website we have hundreds of quality pieces in restored condition and we can deliver to your home with a 28 day money back guarantee. All our antiques are clearly photographed and described and we only stock the best quality.

You can be certain that if you purchase antique furniture from us you will have a the perfect piece and you will get many years of pleasure owning a quality piece of antique furniture.

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Collecting Antique Furniture as an Investment for the Future

If you are collecting antique furniture as a future investment to hand down to your children it can be a very nice hobby, looking around at the beautiful pieces of antique furniture. This is one of the best ways to invest as you will get years of use with beautiful antiques in your home and then the older the furniture gets the more valuable it will become, especially if cared for properly. At the end you then have something very special to pass down to your children.

One of the best pieces of advice when you start collecting is firstly buy what you like the look of as you will be living with this for many years. Always buy quality furniture and in original condition not over restored pieces. Always buy from reputable antique dealers like us at Driscolls Antiques as we have over 30 years in the trade.

Check over each piece of antique furniture carefully to make sure there is no bad damage or is a marriage.

Be very careful when buying from non LAPADA dealers or at auction as they do not have to tell you if pieces are restored, marriages or have been messed around with.

Over time your collection will start to grow and you will learn all about them as it can become a very interesting and addictive hobby. 

Try to place your furniture in the right area in your home to protect from sun damage or heat, we have some very good articles on looking after your antique furniture on our website and blog so have a search for good tips.

Don’t forget you are also helping the environment when buying antique and not new as basically you are recycling.

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Simple but Beautiful Regency Furniture

Regency antique furniture is one of my favourite periods as they can be very simple in design but very beautiful to look at especially as they come with fine details. Regency furniture usually is constructed from quality woods like solid mahogany or rosewood but comes with interesting veneers like rosewood or kingwood cross banding and string inlays. some pieces are more elaborate with metal plaques but I think the nicer pieces are the more plain looking with simple lines but you can see the quality in the piece. I have just put up for sale on our website two very nice regency pieces like this and they would look stunning in the same room together if you have room as they are both very nice quality and have a similar look.

We have a beautiful antique bookcase from the Regency period and constructed in stunning rosewood. It has an elegant moulded cornice with 3 glazed doors and adjustable shelves on the interior. The antique bookcase has lower cupboard doors and stands on a plain plinth. It is a real beautiful piece with simple lines but very nice curves that gives it that elegance.

To fit in the same room we would suggest the antique sofa table constructed from mahogany and from the regency period. It has drop leaves and rosewood cross banding around the edges with string inlay so this is a really nice feature. The antique sofa table has elegance with shaped sides and splayed legs with brass casters.

Both pieces of antique furniture are truly beautiful pieces and are in extremely good condition for their age, we also have many more quality pieces like this on our website.

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Warning after stolen antique tiles may be sold in Britain

Some very rare 16th and 17th century Delft tiles have recently been stolen and not a small quantity but over one hundred of them valued at many hundreds of thousands of pounds from one of the best collectors in the Netherlands who had been collecting them for over forty years. They were stolen in mid October from his property in the North of the Netherlands they are believed that they may be now in the UK and trying to be sold to poor unknowing collectors so i wanted to pre warn all my reader to keep a careful eye out for them as I know some of you are keen collectors.

All the tiles are in remarkable condition for the age and pictured is an example of one but there are many different subjects including painted ships, men, ladies, animals and rare pictures of mermaids. So please be careful if you are offered any rare pieces like this and if you have any suspicions please contact the police.

new pieces of antique furniture is added to our website daily so please check our homepage now.

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The alligators trap

Here is a funny picture a friend sent me who lives in Florida.

he thinks the alligators have put this sign up ! I thought it was very funny so no blog on antiques today just something to make you giggle.

By the way we are now down to are last few bookings for delivery before Christmas so act fast if you need your table and chairs for Christmas lunch.

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