Is Michael Winner Right?
7th January 2011
I confess I am a great fan of Michael Winner, I love his outrageous and contravertial views.
Usually, he writes about Hotels & Restaurants, and indeed in this article that was written for the December 19th issue of the Sunday Times.
In this piece he was reporting a visit to Marrakesh where he encountered the local 'antique' dealers and their shifty ways. Which brought him to the antiques trade in this country. I quote;
" In Britain I'd say at least 70% of 'antiques' in shops are wrong. They're either total fakes or messed about with new additions, which makes them not real antiques. Same applies to paintings. Dittop the salerooms. Many times I've caught out our big auctioneers. They dress beautifully but their morals are below those of a used-car dealer in Peckam."
Wonderful stuff, and I regret to say I find myself agreeing with him. Our trade is one of the oldest in the world, the trading of goods. Fakes are as old as antiques themselves.
The antiques trade is fascinating, full of great characters and huge amounts of knowledge. However there are those that knowingly sell items that are not 'right', there are other who sell wrong items through their lack of knowledge. Never has the motto caveat emptor been more apt.
We at H & H pride ourselves on our honesty and integrity, and our stock is guaranteed to be right, We will always tell you what restoration has been done to a piece. We are not the cheapest antiques shop but we certainly can guarantee that we are the best long term value.
