Many dealers and auctioneers have been bringing container loads of antiques from Europe for years now. The lure of getting "fresh to market" antique furniture and "smalls" is something that can bring renewed excitement back into your antique business. Buying antiques by container load can be a mental "rush", but is it business builder some have made it out to be?
Back in 1998, while I was still in antique and estate auction and liquidation business, I decided to purchase a load of antique furniture and smalls and have container shipped to my facility in New York State.
I’ll spare you details of how exactly this is done during this article.
I received load buy tractor trailer, and had friends help me unload container. It was packed full and tight, and furniture was quite impressive to say least!
I was impressed by high quality and good prices, and by fact that I could have load delivered right to my place of business.
There were twist leg oak hall trees, high relief wardrobes, dining room suits, chairs, bureaus, desks, marble top stands, dressers and much, much more. And that was just furniture!
Inside dressers and desks, there were smalls galore. Tucked inside one of dressers was a hand-stitched sampler from 1861. The sampler was done by a mother who had lost a child at birth, and it achieved a high price at auction. I was most impressed with condition and quantity of smalls.
I have been in touch with auctioneers and dealers who have had both good and bad experiences with buying antiques in Europe. I have noticed that without exception, difference between a good experience and a bad one rested solely on who they actually did business with.
Those that did business with same company that I did business had a great experience. Those that didn’t had a difficult experience.