The honest state of the market
"Brown furniture" — the mahogany and walnut dining suites, bedroom sets and breakfronts that filled good homes from the 1880s to the 1970s — has been in a long slump. Younger buyers live smaller, move often, and don't want a nine-foot breakfront. A Victorian dining table that cost real money in 1985 may bring a few hundred dollars today, and that is not the dealer being unkind; it is what the room will pay.
Meanwhile, other categories have never been stronger: painted and gilt Continental pieces, French and Italian provincial furniture, good mid-century design, small-scale case pieces, anything a decorator can put in a Naples living room and photograph. Chinese and Japanese pieces, campaign furniture, unusual forms and great original surfaces all sell well. The question is never "is it old?" It's "who wants it, and how badly?"
Period versus style
The single biggest source of disappointment. A "Chippendale" chair may be a period piece made in the 1770s, a centennial reproduction from the 1870s, or a 20th-century reproduction by Kittinger, Baker, Henredon or a hundred other makers — all in the same style. The period piece may be worth thousands; the 1970s reproduction, however well made, is a used chair with a good name. Labels help: a Baker or Kittinger label means quality reproduction; an 18th-century piece has no label, and shows its age in ways described below.
What a dealer looks at
- Construction. Hand-cut dovetails are slightly irregular; machine dovetails are perfectly even. Look inside a drawer. Hand-planed surfaces show faint scallops; circular saw marks mean after about 1850; band-saw marks later still. Screws with off-center slots and irregular threads are early; uniform machine screws are not.
- Secondary woods. The wood used where it doesn't show — drawer sides and bottoms, backboards, dust panels — tells origin. American pieces use pine, poplar, chestnut; English use oak and deal; Continental use pine, beech, walnut. A mahogany chest with poplar secondaries is American.
- Shrinkage and wear. Old wood shrinks across the grain: round tabletops go slightly oval, panels crack, drawer bottoms split. Wear is where hands and feet went for two centuries — the fronts of drawer rails, the stretchers of chairs — not uniform "distressing."
- Surface. Original finish, or an old one, is most of the value of an early piece. A refinished 18th-century chest can be worth a fraction of an untouched one. Never refinish before asking.
- Hardware. Replaced brasses are normal and forgivable; look for the extra holes and shadows they leave, which help date the piece.
- Form and proportion. Some things are simply well designed, and it shows across the room. Dealers buy with their eyes first.
- Maker and provenance. A signed, labeled or documented piece — a Herter Brothers cabinet, a Stickley label, a documented Charleston chest — changes the conversation entirely.
Condition — what matters and what doesn't
Honest wear is fine; it's expected. Old repairs done well are usually fine. What hurts: replaced feet or tops, veneer losses, active woodworm, water damage, sun-bleaching on one side, warped doors, later carving added to "improve" a plain piece, and — above all — a modern refinish with polyurethane. Florida's humidity and sun are hard on furniture; a piece that lived on a lanai has usually had a bad time.
What sells in Naples right now
- Painted, gilt and Continental pieces — commodes, consoles, mirrors, small tables.
- Anything with scale a condo can take: a good chest, a pair of side tables, a writing table, a small secretary.
- Upholstered seating with good frames — bergères, fauteuils, settees — which can be recovered.
- Mirrors, always.
- Mid-century pieces by known designers, in original condition.
- Chinese and Japanese cabinets, chests and tables.
Harder: enormous dining tables, breakfronts and armoires; heavy Victorian oak; "Mediterranean" and "Spanish" 1960s–70s sets; most bedroom suites; anything laminated.
How to find out about yours
- Photograph the whole piece from the front and side, in natural light.
- Photograph the inside of a drawer (sides and bottom), the back, and the underside.
- Photograph any label, stamp, signature or chalk marks.
- Note the honest condition — repairs, losses, refinishing you know of.
- Send it to a dealer who buys and sells furniture every day, and ask for a straight opinion. Ours is free, and if a piece belongs at auction rather than in our shop we'll say so. Free evaluations.
Then what?
If it's worth keeping, keep it and enjoy it — that's the best return there is. If it's worth selling, there are three honest routes: sell it to us outright, consign it for a higher but slower return, or place it at auction if it's the rare one. What we buy · consignment · auction placement. And if it's simply a good, well-made piece of used furniture, we'll tell you that too, and where it might find a home.