We are seeing a good selection of French farmhouse tables in various fruit woods coming to market again. Most of our sources in England and France are “to-the-trade-only” sources.  They have antiques for sale that are more “fashionable” with trade at any given time and French farmhouse tables are coming back into circulation. Over the years that we have used antiques as accents in our home designs, we have observed and actually spoken to our dealers about their offerings of antique pieces.

There is an interesting phenomenon in the English and the European antiques trade most people may not know about: When there are items that are not as popular with the design trade, we have found that those particular types of antiques are not offered for sale by the trade because the vendors don’t have access to purchase them. 

Their sources for antiques don’t offer to sell them, those sources being the private owners of the antiques, because, unless there is general demand for a type of antique, the prices are depressed so the better pieces are not offered for sale.

farm table

French Farmhouse Table

So, when we have request by our clients for particular pieces that are not “popular” at a given time it makes those pieces very difficult to obtain. The vendors tell us that when particular items are not “in vogue,” prices go down and folks (owners) will not part with them.  When items become popular once again, those things come back to market….like French farmhouse tables.This explains why there are antiques available year after year: Owners hold on to them as the market prices allow them to justify selling their antiques.

Antiques trade is a part of our business that is very interesting and after 20 years buying antiques for our store, we have learned how it works and how to go with the flow of the trade.