Furniture - General

Antique furniture, a form of decorative art, is considered valuable from both a practical and artistic standpoint. Buyers often collect and care for period pieces as long-term investments and prized, beautiful, or historically important possessions.

The antique furniture market includes an array of types, designs, historical eras, and styles. Broadly speaking, the most popularly collected items are American, European (especially English), and Asian. Within each of these categories are historic periods marked by stylistic movements, each with their own modern-day admirers looking to expand their coveted collections.

Following the 2008 economic crisis, antique furniture collecting has been on an upswing. Interest in museum-quality antique furniture lags behind that of the lively art market due to a number of commercial, personal, and cultural influences, so prices are generally on the lower end of the scale, but exceptional collector pieces can still sell for top dollar.

As is the case in any other investment market, that of antique furniture fluctuates based on taste and consumer demand, sometimes regardless of the maker’s renown. While the desire for mid-century modern pieces is quelling, 1980s American craft furniture, for example, is gaining interest. This kind of ebb and flow is common every 30 or so years, often correlating with changing generations of new buyers.