CHRISTMAS IS APPROACHING!

Yes, early September sees us start to do the autumn trade shows in search of Christmas stock. In fact, for most businesses this would be a bit late to buy for the festive season but we take the view that if you buy the right stuff, it has all year round appeal.

Whatever new lines we buy will have to fit with our existing ones and, of course, blend in with our vintage wares.

We’ve been listening (or should I say, eavesdropping) all year to our customers to see if there are any obvious items missing from our stock. We have a few ideas, so providing we can find the right suppliers Nest should be even more interesting this winter.

We’ve also just bought a really lovely continental display cabinet which we’re hoping we can use to display ‘precious things’. Quite what we mean by ‘precious things’ I’m not sure but it does give us more options. As long as it makes Nest more exciting to shop in, who cares?!

WHAT AN IDIOT....

What an idiot! That stoat that we spent months looking for was not a stoat - after much collective muttering we think it’s a mink.

yes, even I know that the pig in the picture is not stuffed...but it definitely is a pig...probably

I now have to update the ‘Matt’s guide to wildlife’ book. My original entry stating that you could tell a stoat from a weasel because it looked happy is now in ruins. Turns out minks look happy and are much bigger than stoats that are probably still happier than weasels and bigger but weasels still look angry and are still very small. Glad we sorted that one out!

No one mention pole cats.....

FREDDIE THE FOX

Okay...so I’m still buying stuffed animals, despite the looks I get from the shop staff.

I bought a really beautiful fox the other week. He’s in a sitting position with his big bushy tail wrapped around his feet. I decided at the time to take him back to the workshop for a little repair work so popped him in the back of the van along with my football gear. A few hours later, running late for football and having forgotten about the fox, I opened the van door and scared myself stupid! I also made some sort of reflex kung fu defensive move which I’m sure is now being re-run repeatedly on the sports centre CCTV.

So the staff will be very pleased that I got a dose of what they feel when I leave a new piece of taxidermy somewhere in the shop for them to find!

BUYING TRIPS...AND BACON BUTTIES

We’re out buying on and off for the next few weeks and have already dug up a few choice items.

Do you like the metal industrial look? Well, we blagged 12 old metal bedside cabinets from a Prague hospital. Totally the inlook at the moment! I have to say I’m keeping a couple for myself and we’ve already sold a few more to an interior designer to get in quick, if you’re interested...

We picked up a cracking 1950s table and chair combo. The table has a blue vinyl top with chrome edging, beach legs and the table sides have sort of space-age scoops cut out. The chairs (4) have matching blue plastic seat covers – it’s easily the best of its type we’ve seen for a long time.

A big old carpenters saw horse, which we were going to use as a display piece, has just sold as I write this blog in the shop so err.... can’t say much more about that!

We finally managed to find a stuffed stoat which had been requested by a customer. At least I hope it’s a stoat – it looks quite happy and has been displayed really well atop a dead rabbit it’s just caught – perhaps this is why it looks cheerful! Weasels always seem to look angry..and very small. I think this must be the difference.

What else? What else?

A really beautiful (well, once restored) Scottish dresser, more metal trunks, a big old enamel double grocers scale, loads of china, a couple of brass bells, American drinks crates, some beautiful blankets and the usual array of chairs, chests and cupboards.

We have at least 3 more buying trips coming up soon so provided I don’t pass out from bacon butty poisoning, we’ll keep you informed....

TELEVISION TALES

We were contacted by the BBC recently to see if we would be interested in taking part in one of their antique/bargain hunt type shows. I say ‘take part’ but what they wanted to do was send an ‘expert’ and a contestant into our shop to see if they could buy something to sell at profit at auction.

Now, I do occasionally watch these programs because we often feature in some sort of background capacity (we’re very often buying at antiques fairs when the film crews are there).

I have a slightly irritable view towards these shows because they have to hammer down the price paid to the dealer in order to make a profit at auction. We know several dealers and often see them being goaded on TV to basically give something away so that some gap-toothed expert can look good later. However, we also know a few dealers who actively resent the cameras and go out of their way to prevent them filming near their stand. The use of loud bells, whistles and ‘colourful’ language seems to work best!

Reality: us buying at a fair, in the rain...don't remember many TV cameras being around, that day!

I have to admit to driving the Nest van into camera shot during a ‘take’ because they were blocking the road. I got a very dirty look from the ‘expert’, but we are trying to earn a living at this – it’s not a daytime game show to us. Maybe this is why many dealers get wound up by the shows. I think they feel a few experts on a jolly doesn’t do their business any good.

We can always tell if someone watches these shows when they come into Nest. The tiresome and inevitable phrase “what’s the best on this”, coupled with the equally annoying “what’s the absolute death on that” ensures absolutely no movement on price from us.

Oh, well, I suspect that the BBC may not want to film at Nest because our only stipulation was no haggling – and what boring TV that would make!

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER (WELL, MONEY, ANYWAY)

Did you hear about the shop that sold an old Russian oil painting for 35 quid, only to be told by the art dealer buyer that it was worth a lot, lot more?! To be fair, we thought it was a bit boring and so did you, our customers, because it was on our wall for about 3 months before the art dealer bought it. So you can all share the blame! And it’s not the one in the photograph as we didn’t even think it was worth taking a picture...

Have we sold other items that were worth a lot more than we were asking? Difficult to know unless the buyer comes back and brags! We have a regular that never fails to mention the print he bought from us being valued at 7 times what he paid.

In our industry knowledge is everything and, to be honest, you can never know enough and will never know enough. Over the years we have adopted the philosophy that if we’ve made our money on the deal then we’re happy.

DAMP DRAWERS

All this rain we’ve had has made buying furniture a potentially tricky task. You may well appreciate that if wood gets damp or wet it tends to expand. On a 1930s oak cupboard, for example, tolerance to expansion is low which means that the door expands into the frame...i.e. it jams solid. The joints on chairs can expand and when you test them appear firm and strong – when they then dry out, however, all the legs fall apart – hopefully not when eating your dinner.

A few months ago we bought what I knew to be a batch of ‘damp’ furniture. Included was a chest of drawers, the bottom of which had jammed fast so I couldn’t inspect it. Well, the wood finally dried out and contracted enough to get the drawer out, this week. I say drawer – drawer front would be more accurate – there was no drawer behind it!

This is, of course, is the danger in buying furniture without fully inspecting it. We knew a dealer who bought an old bureau at auction. He was very quick to say what a bargain it was...but not so fast to mention that all the drawers had been cut out on the inside to hide a large stereo system.

If you do buy ‘damp’ furniture, do not, under any circumstances, try to dry it out too quickly – you will end up doing more damage. In fact, I should think more old furniture has been destroyed by exposure to central heating than exposure to moisture. Georgian and Victorian furniture was all built before hermetically sealed, centrally heated houses. Shrinkage, resulting in wood splits, joint popping and veneer buckling is all very common.

We recently bought an early Victorian chest in which the wood had shrunk so much on the sides that the internal frame had started to push through the front, popping the veneer up as it went. If the chest had been in a damper house, it would be in much better shape!

Of course, you could just buy all your furniture from Nest, where we’ve already checked it over and done all the hard work...

Err...anyway, not really sure where this blog was going, but I think you should check your drawers for unwanted moisture – a rule we should all live by!