Misselling?

[MattW]

This table is being advertised on salvo web currently:

It is described as:

A super quality antique mahogany coffee table. This antique coffee table dates from around 1840. The top is one solid piece of mahogany with a rounded 'breadboard' edge. The legs are decoratively turned and reeded. In great condition. Dimensions: 158cm wide x 82cm deep x 49cm high.

To my non-expert eyes that looks like a console or side table that has been cut down by removing c.25cm off each of the legs. If that is right, what do people think of its description - caveat emptor, or plain wrong?

 

[worms]

Hmmm. Interesting question. Looks very strange, so I would guess you are probably correct about the legs. I suppose for the average buyer the question would be whether it is genuinely old, rather than whether it is genuinely a coffee table. So I would side with the caveat emptor argument. If anyone is daft enough to buy it, thinking it is something other than what it really is, then that is their look out. I would think that to be misselling, then the seller would have to know that they are not giving a true representation of the article and unless the current owners are experts or brandished the saw themselves, they could probably claim no knowledge.

I guess you could also take each of the adjectives in turn and find that they are all true, it is just that together they don't add up.

 

[Schoolmarm]

This part is not true though.

"A super quality antique mahogany coffee table. This antique coffee table dates from around 1840"

 

[Flyfisher]

As I know very little about antiques the only questions I would be asking are 1) do I like it enough to buy and 2) how much am I prepared to pay for it.

On that basis I don't really think it's possible for such an item to be 'missold' - it is what it is. However, once you stray into the territory of what it's 'worth' in the wider context then there is a whole load of things to consider. Collectability, maker, provenance and even who bothers to actually bid for the thing can all have huge impact on the 'market value' and is a slippery slope that's all a bit baffling, to me anyway.

 

[JoceAndChris]

I think that's all a bit off for salvo web - if it's Ebay I don't really expect great understanding of antiques from a private seller, but I'd have hoped for better from that website.

Whoever's done that to the table has killed its proportions- poor thing.

Isn't "antique coffee table" a bit of a contradiction in terms anyway? I was under the impression low, large tables piled with books and stale mugs was very much a feature of 20th century living.

 

[Nigel Watts]

In 1840 the nearest thing to a modern coffee table probably looked something like this:

It would be placed behind a low sofa.

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Most definitely NOT a coffee table . I think that some 'sellers' are trying to appeal to 'buyers' by taking the new vogue for shabby chic too far.I encountered similar tactics at an antiques centre yesterday. I would far rather see pieces offered as 'made up from--' or 'decorative--' or 'in the style of'---. Nothing wrong in that.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

How much are they offering the amputee for?

(It has been made hideous, but someone will buy it)

 

[worms]

This part is not true though.

"A super quality antique mahogany coffee table. This antique coffee table dates from around 1840"

Super? Well, that is qualitative judgement.
Quality? Everything has quality, it probably is well-made.
antique? Well, no-one has questioned that it does date from around 1840.
coffee table? It can clearly be used for that function.

So I stand by my comment that

you could also take each of the adjectives in turn and find that they are all true, it is just that together they don't add up

 

[Schoolmarm]

Whatever.

 

[Lime]

This antique coffee table dates from around 1840

This reminds me of the Georgian letter box that I was once offered.

....No such animal.

 

[Nigel Watts]

This reminds me of the Georgian letter box that I was once offered.

....No such animal.

George V? George VI?

 

[biffvernon]

Dunno about 1840 but it was definitely made on a Friday afternoon.

 

[Penners]

This antique coffee table dates from around 1840

This reminds me of the Georgian letter box that I was once offered.

....No such animal.

Oh no! Are you telling me that my Tudor TV cabinet might not be genuine? :shock:

That table is a butchered bitser, if ever I saw one. The legs have definitely had the finial ends hacked off, and I'm prepared to bet that the frame and the top aren't even distant cousins.

 

[robgil]

i can just see a group of early victorians sitting around that drinking mugs of coffee and eating chocolate hob nobs while watching jeremy kyle on their genuine 1840 flat screen.

 

[jocelyn plummer]

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Penners]

Don't be ridiculous.

No Victorian would be seen dead watching Jeremy Kyle (whoever he is).