Antique Trends for 2017
Is vintage still hot, what are the smaller antiques to be buying and what makes the biggest statement in a home? Emma Oliver has been talking to author and BBC Antiques Roadshow expert, Mark Hill.
If 2016 was an annus horriblis for most people and, arguably, the world, what does 2017 hold? The only certainty is uncertainty – with Brexit, Trump, Russia, China, shaky global finances, and how they makes the lion’s share of collectors (mostly middle classes with savings and/or disposable income) feel about what money they have to spend.
With interest rates low, will they see antiques, wine and art as solid investments that they can also enjoy to ease furrowed brows? If so, it’s likely tried and trusted markets will prove immediately popular – ‘brand’ names that have staying power, largely consistent values and an easily digested, widely popular look. Examples in the decorative arts would include Lalique, Clarice Cliff, Art Deco figurines, and solid mid-century modern design.
The canny will look at areas that offer more upside, and are just beginning to return to, or come into, favour. Mixing and matching to tell your own story using ‘things with a story’ has been on the rise as traditional collecting has waned for the past decades, and is closely tied in with ‘decorative antiques’. But it requires courage and skill to get right. However, more interiors magazines, blogs and even high street stores are pushing this look over the bland monotony championed by Ikea, which may eventually help it break through that glass ceiling into wider popularity.
With the world looking increasingly uninviting, there may be more investment in ‘nesting’ at home and retreating into a comforting world of one’s own creation. Think colour, texture, scale, and the unexpected – be that a multifarious mix of quirky individualism that makes a statement, or seemingly basic objects that really act as vessels for happy memories or fun experiences. Expect the snail’s pace regeneration of many traditional antiques, so-called ‘brown furniture’ in particular (still amazing value compared to high street equivalents), to continue.
Filtering in at largely low price levels, many young people (laden with spiralling living costs and, if they can even get one, a mortgage) seem increasingly interested in hand-crafted pieces that tell stories of their creation and life at the time they were created in, and that thus almost act as a ‘rose-tinted’ antidote to the saturation of mass-production. Taking in much of what’s now described as ‘vintage’, treen and tools are also targets.
The drops in price in most areas over the past decades mean that we’ve never been more affordable. But the only certainty about the future is that it’ll be up to us to act like our competitors on the high street and online, and come together, recognise and react to fashions, market ourselves properly to new and existing audiences – and sell to them.
Mark Hill will be speaking at AFE London Art Antiques Interiors Fair from 13th to 15th January at the ExCeL London.
