The Changing Trends in Antiques
Wed, Jun 8th 2016 at 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
.
The speaker on 8 June was Dennis Clark, Auctioneer and Valuer at Shapes Auctioneers, and the title of his talk was The Changing Trends in Antiques. He illustrated it with photographs of representative pieces.
Dennis started by saying that he was inevitably having to limit the subject area of antiques and he was doing so by identifying current trends in 3 areas – furniture, ceramics and whisky. No prizes for guessing which excited most interest among the Rotarians!
Within the field of furniture Dennis picked out the huge interest in Chinese and Oriental furniture for which there was great demand attributable to a large extent to the growth of the Chinese economy and the demand from China. There was also demand for Arts and Crafts furniture and, interestingly, in 1960’s retro furniture, notably in G-Plan. If only we had kept it!
The Chinese and Oriental influence was also strong in the area of Ceramics and Porcelain with demand for 18th century Chinese porcelain and for Japanese vases. Sadly there was currently little interest in Staffordshire pottery at present other than the ever popular Clarice Cliff and some Moorcroft.
And then to the whisky! Here Dennis identified the whiskies which commanded the highest prices, some of which were now so old as to be undrinkable. The Macallan was a popular brand with collectors, a 50-year old bottle fetching as much as £25,000. Asked about grain or blended whiskies he said there was little interest in these from an investment point of view, however drinkable.
Ronnie Maclachlan thanked Dennis on behalf of the Club.
Dennis started by saying that he was inevitably having to limit the subject area of antiques and he was doing so by identifying current trends in 3 areas – furniture, ceramics and whisky. No prizes for guessing which excited most interest among the Rotarians!
Within the field of furniture Dennis picked out the huge interest in Chinese and Oriental furniture for which there was great demand attributable to a large extent to the growth of the Chinese economy and the demand from China. There was also demand for Arts and Crafts furniture and, interestingly, in 1960’s retro furniture, notably in G-Plan. If only we had kept it!
The Chinese and Oriental influence was also strong in the area of Ceramics and Porcelain with demand for 18th century Chinese porcelain and for Japanese vases. Sadly there was currently little interest in Staffordshire pottery at present other than the ever popular Clarice Cliff and some Moorcroft.
And then to the whisky! Here Dennis identified the whiskies which commanded the highest prices, some of which were now so old as to be undrinkable. The Macallan was a popular brand with collectors, a 50-year old bottle fetching as much as £25,000. Asked about grain or blended whiskies he said there was little interest in these from an investment point of view, however drinkable.
Ronnie Maclachlan thanked Dennis on behalf of the Club.
'What We Do' Main Pages:
