Furniture

[ellenkushner]

Jumpy as a cat. Partly it's the weather that keeps changing every 10 minutes - partly that I'm waiting for a call from our antique Storage Co. in NJ, who are shutting down, necessitating our finally having to do something about Delia's godmother's original 19c furniture from her house in the New Orleans Garden District. Huge 4-poster, armoire, etc. - all just plain too large for our apt (which, as some of you know, is not small) . . . . We're trying to sell it to the people who bought (and restored) the house a few years ago. We meant to do this right after we moved to NYC, but we are idiots & neurotic & wasted a lot of time. I just hate this sort of thing. Who doesn't? But in the end, it's just work. No sense getting all worked up.

Also acutely aware that BEA (Book Expo America) is even now going on down at the Javits Center. Everyone is there. I have a ticket. I'll go tomorrow. Honest.

Comments

[p-zeitgeist.livejournal.com]

My thoughts are with you. I hope the folks in New Orleans take it; you know how I hate the thought of those pieces going, but I would take considerable solace in knowing that the place they were going was home.

[1crowdedhour.livejournal.com]

What she said.

[handworn.livejournal.com]

Remember there's always the auction houses. It would obviously be better for it to stay together and in the house where it has so much history, but southern furniture is rare and desireable, since so much of what they used down there was imported from other countries or the north.

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

The owners of the current house are taking everything but the huge 4-poster. Any reccs on places up here to try to sell it? 3 years ago we tried Christie's & Doyle in NYC and they wouldn't even return my calls.

[handworn.livejournal.com]

I don't know where it's currently located, or its age, origin, et cetera, but if the local auction houses are still not hungry enough for your business, you could inquire at the iGavel representative in NYC (http://www.igavel.com/aboutUs/consigncenters.html). I've put stuff on iGavel via a local antiques dealer north of Philly (http://www.locatiantiques.com/), who's pretty good, and it has done all right. It is possible to put reserves on pieces, if there's a minimum sale price you have in mind.

There's also Freeman's (http://www.freemansauction.com/), down here in Philly; they're another serious auction house which I worked for for a short time. They might have a local rep or someone travelling to NYC anyway who could swing by and take a look at it.

Just as a piece of general advice, most antique bedsteads, if they haven't been modified (bedrails lengthened, that sort of idea), do not take standard size mattresses or boxsprings. Usually they have to be custom-made, so if this is the case, the whole thing will sell better with the mattress & boxspring.