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Our Blog - Read up on antique furniture!
Rethinking Red House Furniture's Viral Marketing Strategy
When I was perusing my RSS headlines today, I noticed one from Furniture Today about Red House Furniture and their (in)famous viral marketing YouTube video (if you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it!). I was curious about what the writer had to say on the subject.
According to the article, Red House "ranks highly" in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages), presumably because of the video, but a quick look at any common search terms shows that they don't. Still, I'm sure they've gotten a great deal of attention as a result of the video, especially locally, and there is nothing quite like saturating your local market, particularly in the furniture industry, since many people want to see the item(s) in person before buying. Given our customer base, I'm not convinced that a viral YouTube video would be the right move for English Classics, but it certainly is funny to think about what we could cook up.
What I found most interesting in the article lay in the comments section. I was frankly surprised to see that anyone was apparently disgusted by the video. One person remarks, "Our forefathers must have been insane when they brought North Carolina into the Union," while another points to the video as "a prime example of what is wrong with the furniture industry." Now, every marketing strategy has its place, but Red House Furniture certainly doesn't seem to be selling top-dollar items, so I don't see the harm in appealing to their customers: people who have a sense of humor and who like to be entertained. If only every furniture store could find a way to turn a customer base into a happy, entertained audience, perhaps our ailing industry would find more success in the 21st century.
Scott Antique Market May 2010
It's that time of the month again: English Classics is exhibiting at the Scott Antique Market, the best-loved antique show in the Southeast. Located just outside of Atlanta on Jonesboro Road, the Scott Antique Market promises everything from Persian rugs to fine antiques, and now that the weather's warm, you may even want to consider picking up an old-fashioned ice cream cone. Come see Peter and our find selection of antique & reproduction English furniture, located in the South Building, spaces H9-H10!
English Classics Reinvented
Welcome to the new look of English Classics! We have completely re-built our site from the bottom up. Interested buyers can now make offers on our products in addition to purchasing them outright, and we have also instituted a new auction system, so be sure to keep up with our blog to find out when our first auction will take place. We have also created new RSS feeds for the blog and our products, so you can have the latest news and most recently arrived antiques delivered to your RSS reader of choice. Soon we will integrate shipping and payments directly in the site, so stay tuned for the latest in the continuing evolution of English Classics.
We hope you like what we've done with the place! We'd also love to receive feedback on the new site, so be sure to leave us a comment before exiting.
Site Re-Design Coming Soon
Long time no see! I know it's been a while since we posted anything, but we've been busy working on a new site re-design, so stay tuned for a new and beautiful English Classics—coming soon to cyberspaces near you.
Killer TV's and Responsible Furniture Use
A recent AP news article reported that TV and furniture-related injuries are on the rise. According to the article, about 14,700 furniture-related injuries occurred each year between 1990 and 2007—almost half due to TV sets, the most common article involved in the accidents—and resulted in about 300 deaths.
According to Furniture Today, part of the problem may be that people are moving their old, bulky TV's. But I think the problem is simpler than that. Flat screens are easy to knock over because they don't have the wide bases of the old tube and projection varieties. Plus, they often hang on the wall, which is an added risk, and because of their thin size, people are putting them in more precarious places than they used to. And of course, anyone who has been around children long enough (or remembers being one!) knows that they love to climb on things, and it seems likely to me that a child would try to climb up the front of a flat screen TV since, given enough time, a child will climb on everything they lay eyes on.
This situation reminds me of a time, several years back, when we came into some extremely heavy solid wood furniture (I'm talking several hundred pounds for a chest of drawers). At a show, we were on the brink of selling one of these gargantuan chests to a woman when she told us it was going in her young child's bedroom. We had to refuse the sale, because we knew that if the child tried climbing the chest, it could tip over, quickly rendering the ingredients for a New Guinea meat pie.
What's my point? As much as we try, we don't always make the most responsible decision when it comes to how we use our furniture (and our TV's). To me, the solution seems obvious, but that may be because I own two ferrets whose primary purpose for living is to find new ways to get into my stuff, including my oven, my recliner, and of course my wire-stuffed TV cabinet. I am always developing new ways to keep them out—and just like ferrets, the best way to keep children off of a TV would be to lock it up in a TV cabinet or linen press, which is what plenty of people do, in any case—e.g. our TV cabinet selection.
But you don't have to shop with us to avoid being one of those 14,700 homes per year that discover the perilous ingenuity of children. Televisions, other appliances, and topple-ready furniture—killer or otherwise—should just be kept locked away or out of reach from children, because, as with all things, otherwise they will eventually find a way to make a mess with it.
November Furniture Container
We got a new container packed full of gorgeous antiques a few weeks ago and we've been so busy that I'm only now just getting around to posting a few pictures here. We've got more furniture coming in next month, so this won't be all. Be sure to check the catalog section of this site for the most up-to-date items. In the meantime, enjoy!
The mahogany desk shown above on the left is actually French, so it is an uncommon item for us. The desktop actually slides out about a foot from its closed position, making this desk even more unique.
This mahogany beauty is a new model of desk for us, modeled after a particular style of formal furniture dating back to the 19th-century American West.
Continue reading...
Economic Recovery and the Furniture Industry
A recent article over at Furniture Today about economic recovery characterizes recent developments in the market (particularly at High Point) as an upswing. One quote from Kevin O'Connor, president of Samson Marketing and chairman of the High Point Market Authority, reads, "I think attendance probably was flat, but in this economy, I consider that pretty good." I would emphasize the words in this economy.
It is true that most of the opinions offered in the article are positive, but many are qualified with sentiments like the above: people are just glad that things don't look flat out apocalyptic these days, but I would argue that although things don't look as grim as they did back in the beginning of summer, the economy is still losing jobs on the whole (only at a slower pace), so the economy may not be necessarily on the upswing, just less fatal.
Besides, Fall tends to be the best season for furniture and antiques, since people want to stock their homes with new dining furniture and other domestic trophies before the relatives show up on Thanksgiving and Christmas. After that, things usually start to slow down again for most shows and dealers alike. Still, I hesitate to put a damper on the positive mood, so while I remain optimistic, and while we do seem to have weathered the worst of the storm, I foresee more hardship ahead before we resume pushing antiques by the container load as we saw back in 2007.
As for Atlanta, I think we'll keep our title for the East's biggest antique importer. But as every dealer, designer and investor knows, only time will tell.
Why Buy a Reproduction?
So you may be in the market for antique furniture, but there are often good reasons for buying a reproduction. My last post on reproductions prompted a conversation with a friend of mine about whether buying reproductions at all is a good idea when you can just go for antiques, especially since good, handmade reproductions can sometimes be more expensive than the real thing. So I decided to put together a list of the top three reasons for buying a reproduction instead of an antique:
1. You may want something flawless that looks new but is in an antique style. If it is an actual antique, you're probably looking at forking over a lot of dough. If you wanted an actual Georgian version of this walnut linen press, for instance, I would guess you would need at least $15-20k. A reproduction might set you back only $5k.
2. You may need something that is rare or practically impossible to find. Some dealers, like us for instance, can make anything you can dream up.
3. You may need a suite of matching or similar furniture; depending on what it is you need, this can be quite difficult. Most of the time when someone needs a group of items, they're looking to outfit an office. So you can get your desk, credenza, bookcase and filing cabinet in one place, with the same leather and wood types if you want—and have them all look antique.
Finding Quality Reproduction Furniture
This is a prime example of a quality reproduction.
For starters, the best way to find out about a piece is to simply ask the dealer. Ask where and when it is made, what it is made of (veneers, underlying materials, hardware metal). If it is finished, ask what kind of finish it is, and how to clean it. Ask what style it is in, whether it is handmade, and where and how the dealer acquired the piece. The answers to these questions will usually serve as good indicators of quality, and they might even get the dealer to lower the asking price.
Continue reading...
Antique Appraisals: Take Them with a Grain of Salt
I recently came across the following article about antique appraisals while digging around for furniture news, and I was surprised at the price tag put on the furniture discussed in the article.
Now let me lay out some disclaimers: I sell furniture, I don't appraise it (we don't do appraisals, in case you were wondering); the furniture I sell is mostly English (duh), not French; most of what comes into our shop is usually 19th century, not 18th; and I am sure that Ms. Durr is an absolutely capable professional.
So, that being said, I would be very surprised if Mrs. Francis gets half of the $64,000 of the estimated value. As the article itself indicates, it is difficult for individuals to sell furniture and even more so to sell it at its "worth," because of the Internet (hello, English Classics?) and the slow economy. Unless Francis gets serious about marketing this set, it probably won't sell, and usually such an effort is long and painstaking. This is why marketing is an entire industry in itself, and why, in fact, I am sitting in front of this monitor slapping away at the keys—not everybody can do it.
Mostly it comes down to time. Francis indicates that she is willing to wait, but even given several years, the odds that she will find a buyer without 1) professional help or 2) serious investment of her own time are pretty slim. These kinds of relatively rare, quality items tend to sell in very selective markets composed of high-end auctions, designers and big-shot retailers (e.g. Miami Circle). Other options include Ebay, consignment and a patient email campaign to retailers—none of which are likely to reap anything close to the $64k that Francis is hoping for. This is partly because the Internet is a market where people expect to pay less, and dealers aren't in the business for free.
In short, the furniture market is generally insulated from individuals seeking to dump their valuable antique furniture. Not that I wouldn't love to be surprised or proven wrong, but if you're looking into selling your own furniture or antiques, just keep in mind that a piece's "value" isn't necessarily its price, and for that matter is often just some abstract number that doesn't really mean much to anyone but insurance companies. Your best bet is to do some research and compare what you've got to what other people are selling. Either way, good luck!
Recent Posts
Post Categories
Antique Furniture
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Rothwell Style Four Seat Leather Chesterfield Sofa Couch
$3,530$2,825 -
Queen Anne Style Leather Arm Chair
$1,420$1,135 -
Directors Style Leather Swivel Desk Chair
$1,455$1,160 -
Captains Style Leather Swivel Desk Chair
$1,200$960 -
Gainsborough Style Swivel Leather Desk Chair
$1,305$1,040 -
Durham Style English Leather Four Seat Chesterfield Sofa
$3,530$2,825 -
Churchill Style Leather Three Seat Chesterfield Sofa Couch
$3,175$2,540 -
Lancaster Style Four Seat Leather Chesterfield Sofa
$3,530$2,825 -
Windsor Style Three Seat Leather Chesterfield Sofa
$3,175$2,540 -
$2,005$1,605
