Furniture Trading Terminology

Learn how to talk like a professional furniture trader!

• As bought: As purchased - a phrase used to exonerate the vendor of any moral or legal responsibility with regard to the item he is selling (e.g. 'What is it?' 'Not sure, sir, but it's as bought.'). Often used by knockers. Auctioneers also use similar furniture trading terminology, 'As found' or 'With all faults'.

• Bought in: Bought by the auctioneer on behalf of the vendor, as the price bid was not considered sufficient. Normally not up to the predetermined reserve agreed by the seller and auctioneer.

• The Boys: The dealers regularly attending a local auction, sometimes members of a loosely organised ring; to 'take it away from the boys' at auction is to bid higher than the ring, thus cutting them out (e.g. 'The boys weren't happy' - the local ring were unable to buy any goods cheaply to re-auction amongst themselves).

• Breaker: A piece of furniture in which the wood is more valuable for use in repairs or re-manufacture than in its original form.

• Collector's piece: Originally furniture trading terminology to describe a fine piece that only a connoisseur would appreciate; often now debased to the sort of thing that only an eccentric enthusiast on the subject would want; normally overpriced, and often totally undesirable.

• Come right: A defensive expression used by a buyer of an item for which he has paid over the current market value, implying that it will in time prove a good investment or 'come right'.

• Commercial: 1. Not necessarily a fine or completely original piece, but readily saleable. 2. The description of a dealer's goods as 'commercial' is not furniture trading terminology of approbation and is often used by a specialist of another dealer who is more financially successful.

• Cost: The fictitiously large amount alleged to have been paid for a piece to justify the price being asked.

• Cut down: The conversion of a large piece into a smaller, more saleable, and usually more expensive, item.

• Desirable: Combining all or most of the good points normally associated with a piece of its type.

• Estimate: The price suggested by the auctioneer as the amount a lot is likely to fetch. Usually a tortuous compromise between the need to prove to the vendor the auctioneer's competence as a valuer and an effort to persuade as many potential buyers as possible to attend.

• Fit up: The interior fittings of a secretaire or bureau which, when closed, are not on view.

• Flashed up: Unnecessary and usually recent embellishment to turn a rather dull item into something with more immediate appeal. (See 'Improvement'.)

• Flea market: A collection of stalls where the variety of pieces sold is very considerable, often rubbish, and usually overpriced. Prices asked are normally subject to negotiation.

• Forward-buying: The purchase of goods, sometimes at top prices, with the expectation of the market rising in the future.

• Fresh: Unseen by dealers in the locality.

• Furnishing piece: An article which will sell more for its decorative or functional value than for its originality; often used for goods that are not quite 'right'.

• Goods: Furniture trading terminology for antiques.

• Growing roots: Used of items on sale, often in the someplace for a considerable period of time.

• Half age: Not nearly as old as it looks at first sight; applied particularly to furniture of eighteenth century and earlier designs.

• Hammer price: The auction price.

• Hawking: A possible vendor, usually private, taking goods from one shop to another, asking for offers, and usually claiming ignorance of the worth of the article for sale.

• Honest: A piece which is 'right', but simple in construction or decoration.

• Important: An all-embracing word often used by provincial auctioneers to describe a piece which they feel might have more potential than they understand (similarly magnificent, very fine, scarce, rare, superb, unusual, desirable, etc., etc.).

• Improvement: Work carried out to make the piece appear of better quality, or of an earlier or more desirable period, than is the case. Usually involving the addition of crossbanding, inlay, stringing, or brass embellishment.

• In the book: Not common in furniture trading terminology: an attempt to establish an immediate provenance for a piece otherwise hard to compliment by reference to standard works, or indeed any printed source. An attempt to confer immediate acceptance and respectability.

• Investment item: Used descriptively by a dealer of something for which he has paid too much.

• Knocker: One who calls on a private house uninvited and tries to buy goods, usually below current market value.

• Knocking down: At auction, the selling of an item.

• Knocking out: The selling of goods at very small profit, very quickly, with the object of (a) bringing in money quickly or (b) disposing of a piece for which one has paid too much.

• Leaving something in it: Underselling an item so there is (allegedly) a quick profit to be made by the buyer.

• Likely: An item that might prove on close examination to be better than at first glance; not usually a run-of-the-mill item.

• Looker: Furniture trading terminology for a serious buyer without the funds to acquire any goods.

• Lump: A piece of furniture but normally heavy; often late and rarely very desirable.

• Made-up: A piece constructed from old wood or materials - not necessarily with any intention of deception.

• Marquee: A large canvas structure which when erected above goods in a country area, preferably in the grounds of a large country house where an auction is taking place, enhances prices beyond all reason.

• Marriage: The joining together or assembling of two pieces which did not start out life together.

• Matched: Furniture trading terminology for similar items assembled into a nearly matching set.

• Messed around: 1. A piece which has been altered with a view to improving its value. 2. Badly restored.

• Non price: Much too much to pay for a reproduction, copy or marriage.

• Old English: Meaningless auctioneer's description of something that is wrong and which everybody with any knowledge (including the auctioneer) knows is wrong; usually applied to nineteenth century or later copies of oak furniture.

• Old friends: Ironic - pieces of whose company one has tired, either items that reappear regularly at auction or items in a shop that have hitherto failed to find a buyer.

• Period: An all-embracing word much beloved in the furniture trade, and normally used on its own, e.g. 'Is it period?' (i.e. 'Was it made at the time the design would suggest, and not later?').

• Provincial: 1. Pieces made outside the main fashionable production centres, usually less sophisticated but often desirable. 2. A pejorative word to describe ill-proportioned and often country-made furniture.

• Right: A piece which proves, on examination, to be of the period which at first sight it seemed to be, and in most important respects is original. Frequently trading terminology used by antique dealers. (See 'Wrong'.)

• Ring: A group of dealers who agree not to increase the price at auction by nominating one of their number to bid. A piece so bought is re-auctioned privately afterwards and the difference in value split as agreed between the participants. There may be several opposing rings at one auction. (Illegal under the Auctions Bidding Agreements)

• Rough: Damaged or in poor condition; unrestored.

• Runner: One who makes his living by transporting pieces between dealers with a view to making a margin from the prospective sales, usually selling from his vehicle.

• Shine: The effect of hard polishing over a short period of time. Not to be confused with patina.

• Shipping goods: Items regularly sent abroad, and not usually regarded as being of high quality; bought usually in bulk and often of undeterminate age and/or originality.

• Showing strength: Used particularly at auction of a dealer who is prominent in the bidding - sometimes with the object of being admitted to a 'ring'.

• Six plus two: Refers to a set of eight chairs, two of which have arms while the remainder do not.

• Skin: Furniture trading terminology for patination and polish; general appearance of surface.

• Sleeper: A piece which has been untouched for many years and is therefore more desirable than something recently restored.

• Solid: Made out of the solid wood as opposed to veneered.

• Speculative: May or may not have considerable value, normally the latter.

• Stalk: A pedestal table with missing top.

• Standing in: Being admitted to or joining a ring - either for one specific lot or an entire sale.

• Stolen: 1. Goods illegally obtained as generally understood. 2. A very cheap purchase (see 'Touch').

• Through the mill: Furniture trading terminology for restored, often extensively and sometimes badly.

• Touch: A cheap item with a good profit ('a useful touch': an even better profit might be envisaged).

• The Trade: Antique dealers collectively.

• Trade price: Cost of an item to a dealer, usually less than the marked ticket price (e.g. 'What's the trade on... ?').

• Trotting: 1. At auction, the artificial increase in bidding with the intention of raising the selling price (running up). 2. Also used by runners taking their goods from place to place in the hope of finding a buyer.

• Unseen: Bought without considered examination, often in the early hours with the aid of a touch.

• Wrong: Furniture trading terminology for: 1. Faked, or so heavily adapted from what the piece originally was that it now pretends to be what it is not. 2. An out-and-out fake. 3. A piece that although possibly desirable has had a considerable amount of restoration, addition or alteration.

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