Steven Swann Antiques

As many of you sit around for your Sunday roast: this is my dining room table after my little smalls sale on Friday. I still need to get it cleared.

As an antique dealer, it very often looks much like this. This is how I use this space.

Occasionally we'll eat at the table, but more often than not it's a temporary storage area, a packaging area, and sometimes a bit of a museum where I can enjoy some of the things I've collected whilst drinking my coffee in the morning.

Sometimes we'll sit around it having conversations and putting the world to rights.

But most often, it's as you see it now.

Do rooms always have to be used according to their namesake?

My bedroom is often a drying room. My toilet washes all manner of things. I used to brew b**r in my kitchen, although I suppose that one sort of works.

I wonder how many other people's rooms aren't quite being used for what they were intended for.

Steven x

Two things...

Thought I'd give the old "hold the thing just in the shot" photo trend a go...

Look at those bloody knees - I mean barley twists 😅

Is this not the finest Victorian corner whatnot you've ever seen? Look at those feet - of the whatnot 👌

Let me know that you know it is smart... 👇

Steven x

A fine late Vicky-early Eddy mahogany chest of drawers - two short above two full drawers, each fitted with cast brass pulls.

Panneled sides and a simple plinth base. A straightforward example of the period, with useful proportions for a bedroom or dressing room.

Hope you like.

Steven x

A cool, mellow and very useful early 20th-century oak bookcase with twin glazed and panelled doors enclosing the upper shelves, above a lower storage cupboard. Ithas a high-quality panelled back and stands on substantial ogee bracket feet.

A practical combination of open display and enclosed storage, quality 🤌

Steven x

Back again...

These stools actually sold a while ago, but after a rather extraordinary month-long adventure with parcel.forceworldwide, they've somehow found their way back to me.

ParcelForce failed to deliver them to the correct address, stating that it was the wrong address, despite the customer confirming it was correct and the Royal Mail postcode finder confirming the same. They then, rather impressively, kept hold of the stools for around a month before eventually returning them to me.

I've sent hundreds of pieces with ParcelForce without anything remotely like this happening, so I'm putting it down to one particularly unfortunate cock-up rather than a reason to abandon them entirely...

That said, I would quite like my £15 delivery cost back. I've put a claim in, although the hoops required to make a claim for such a relatively small amount make it somewhat economically questionable. I'm certainly not attempting to claim for the three phone calls and considerable amount of time I've already spent trying to sort it out.

Anyway, somewhat unexpectedly, these are back up for grabs. 🤌

Steven x

I've been sitting on this for so long that I forgot I had it... A Victorian cold-painted cast-steel Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom, featuring the Imperial State Crown. The form and crown indicate a pre-1901 example, before the modern version of the Royal Arms was introduced.

An interesting decorative piece with clear institutional and historic character, suitable for wall display or as part of a larger collection.

Steven x