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Extract from the February 2009 Magazine
February 2009 Magazine Pages 4-5 ANTIQUE FURNITURE IN 2008

The ACC Antique Furniture Price Index - 40 years on

by John Andrews
During 2008 there were some spectacular sales at the 'top end', with Christie's netting £10 million for ten pieces, including a few by Chippendale, at their 'Exceptional 12' sale in June, reported in these pages.
The Hotspur/Jeremy sale in late November realised some outstanding prices too (see page 36). But generally the year ended in turmoil. Financial and property collapses finally closed down the bloated contemporary art scene, bringing speculation about investment money switching to the more established art of the past and to the decorative arts, including antique furniture. We await such developments with bated breath, since reports of sales at antiques fairs are mixed and unsold percentages at auction went up even though some high prices were realised for things that did sell. The gap between London and most provincial auction results has widened. The 2008 overall antique furniture scene was muted, with the RICS in autumn suggesting a fall of 2 in prices. By the end of the year the ACC Index had moved downwards by 1 to 2942 (1968=100), mainly due to falls in the Victorian, Regency and Country indices. Oak and Walnut price indices rose by 1 and the Mahogany ones more or less stood their ground. This was a disappointment in view of last year's consolidation and hope for recovery. Compared with almost all other economic and investment performances in late 2008 however, it may have been lacklustre but it was far from devastating news. Volume is undoubtedly down, though, and January is due to produce interesting times in the Chinese sense.

February 2009 Magaazine Page 9A serpentine fronted chest of 1780-90 with 'Hepplewhite' shaping to the apron and feet derived from French examples. At £5,000-£6,000 these chests represent remarkable value for money.

The ACC Index is derived from a variety of typical pieces of furniture from seven distinct periods or categories illustrated and charted in the ACC book, British Antique Furniture (BAF), which altogether illustrates 1,400 items. The Index has been calculated annually since 1968, when it stood at 100. It is based on retail prices from shops, fairs, markets and auctions across the country. The collation and assessment of the prices of antiques by the ACC was a pioneering activity, subsequently emulated by well-known publications, but this Index is the only one with a 40-year track record. Methods have remained consistent so that comparability is maintained. When the Index started, its constituents were chosen as examples of good quality antique furniture readily available to middle-scale collectors in a range of peripheral London and good provincial shops rather than the rarefied central Bond Street/St James's areas or museum pieces collected by the very rich. Were we to have included some of the spec-tacular country house pieces by Chippendale and other celebrated cabinetmakers, the Index would be upwardly affected very strongly by recent sales. But the gap at the top has opened wide, with few of the peripheral London and provincial shops of 1968 still in existence and even more disappearing in 2008. The Index's constituent pieces, although still not top of the scale, are starting to look increasingly like those now collected by the rich rather than the middle of the 'food chain' once prevailing, where we were all comfortable.
By far the largest number of antique furniture trans-actions takes place at auction, nowadays with a significant retail element. It is twenty years since Christopher Weston of the auctioneers Phillips claimed 'We are the retailers now' even though the trade still constitutes a major element in their business. It is correct for the Index to reflect this weight of information in addition to the others. The relatively recent availability of millions of auction prices on the Internet is undoubtedly an additional blessing to our collations, but the raw data available needs to be viewed with caution. Very often the initial impression given on tapping into Internet auction price records is that of a huge catalogue of low-priced or unsold items with jaw-dropping bargains flowing through the rooms, indicating a massive drop in antique furniture prices. A 'Sheraton' bonheur-du-jour in 2008 seemed to go at auction for at most a few hundred pounds rather than the £5,000 and more of a real one, but on close examination what is recorded is neither Sheraton nor 18th century. If one types in 'bureau book-case' and finds examples starting at £30, one has to know that the item listed, with or without an image, in no way resembles a George III mahogany bureau bookcase of the 18th century. Even the description 'George III' can be used very loosely and need not necessarily refer to an 18th century piece. And so often, having a fund of auction catalogues to hand, one looks for the Internet record of a piece which has struck the eye and fetched a handsome price, to find absolutely no record of it among the items logged on the site. Several reasonable quality 18th century mahogany chests of drawers sold well in the autumn - well by my definition being £4,000 upwards - but there is no sign of them on Internet records yet.