Buying Antiques In France
Find inspiration with our curated list and add a French provincial touch to your life. French antiques and vintage knick-knacks can instantly transform your home from a dull space into a classy and ever-so-elegant dwelling.
buying antiques in france
With Etsy, you can find everything you will ever need! Browse its selection of independent vendors for French antiques, and vintage gems to satisfy your cravings. Shabbyfrenchvintage sells all manner of goods, from Art Deco Café au Lait dishes and hand-painted porcelain jugs to embossed aluminum serving trays and crystal champagne buckets.
Olivier Fleury Inc., based in Florida, is undoubtedly your best address on Ruby Lane when it comes to French Antiques in the USA. Faded Rose Antiques LLC, based in Texas, also import from Europe. Their shop on Ruby Lane is a great source for French and other European antiques. Antiques & Uncommon Treasures Inc., based in California, is another interesting vendor specializing in French and European antiques.
Dedicated to professional antique dealers, Proantic was established in 2009. Their mission is to provide antique dealers with a platform where their customers can browse and buy fine antiques with the utmost confidence that what they are purchasing is genuine.
For a quirky and eclectic mix of French antiques and retro goodies, The Hoarde is the perfect website to visit. The site is easy to navigate and you can filter your search by dealer or category. The Hoarde is a relatively new platform.
If you want a French antique dealer that you can rely on, we suggest that you turn your attention to Chez Pluie Provence, a France-based online resource. The brainchild of Susannah and Hugh Cameron, two avid Francophiles who call a small village in Provence their home, Chezpluie.com offers discerning international clients with direct access to locally sourced antiques.
Over the past 5 years, Chez Pluie has become the primary antique source for many American interior decorators, antique dealers, and private collectors. Their partners are a select group of French antique proprietors who source the finest wares on offer. This includes reputable experts and antique dealers from Paris to Lyon, world-renowned Isle-Sur-La-Sorgue, Carpentras, and Avignon. Unlike traditional importers who are limited to one or two trips to France each year, this French company continually refreshes its range of antiques for sale, while keeping its focus on quality and authenticity.
A lovely way to spend time in the South is looking for an antique or brocante treasure to take home. Small antique stores, bustling weekly markets, and groups of antique dealers selling together, this is our favorite pick of addresses. What would you like to find..? Read on to discover where to visit for buying antiques in France, particularly the glorious South!
This beautiful high-end brocante takes place every Saturday of the year, in a sandy square. Vendors set up for business before 7 a.m and stay until around lunchtime. Aim to arrive around 8 a.m, enjoy the morning and take your time. Stop for coffee and even have lunch at the fair. A 100% authentic place for buying antiques in the South of France.
Around 10 antique and brocante dealers grouped together for easy shopping. You can park directly outside the warehouse and enjoy the wide variety of goods, from antique tableware and paintings to vintage clothes and handbags. A well-known name between aficionados and dealers who specialize in buying antiques in France.
A must-read article for buying antique furniture in France and shipping the items back to the USA. These 18 points are crucial to ensure your French antique furniture is delivered safely and timely to the USA. This guideline applies to both individuals and professionals wanting to transport anything from a small carton via air express through to a shipping container with ocean freight.
For antiques, the best form of insurance is packaging. Professional packaging will cost a little more upfront, but it is by far the most effective way to reach the end goal of enjoying antique furniture in the home. Read more about packaging in the next two sections.
The lowest-cost shipping providers typically use minimal packaging, such as single-layer cartons and reused materials that are not fit-for-purpose. This is also the most common factor for breakages in transport. Unlike manufactured goods, antiques are irreplaceable, so quality packaging is essential.
It is important to note that antiques older than 100 years of age can be imported into the USA free of duties. Nonetheless, this section is relevant if a shipment contains any new items, and it is important to decide upfront who covers the import taxes and duties. Either:
Oooh la la! An antiques buying trip to Paris with French-speaking experts leading the way and taking care of your every need? If this is your idea of heaven, join our group of enthusiastic women who are passionate about interior design and love the hunt as much as the catch.
We can't stress enough how important it is to be prepared for the unexpected. Because our deposits are non-refundable, please protect yourself by buying travel insurance at the time of booking in the event you must cancel your accommodation and forfeit funds. We recommend Travelex or American Express.
When we decide on our travel dates, we will always give notice to our regular sources and let them know our arrival dates. We plan our trips and try to coordinate with antiques fairs and auctions that are taking place in the region.
However, nowadays you see many more people buying / selling in yard sales than you did before. With the economic crisis hitting France, garage sales offer a solution for people who are no longer able to afford new things, or a good way to make some cash with things you no longer need.
Our trip really was a combined family visit-antiques hunt, I admit that most of the time I forgot to take photos as I was running through stalls and shops like a madwoman with great efficiency, basically wondering if I could gather enough funds to charter my own ship to send all my gorgeous finds home! So. much. to. love. But more later about that.
On the other hand, if you own a vintage or antique shop and aim to resell, there may be import restrictions you need to check out, including paying duties which are likely to be 5 percent of the purchase value. Even buying items online attracts this import fee, as many buyers have found out to their dismay since the start of 2021.
There are positive developments for the sector too. The UK government is assessing opportunities to cut much of the red tape associated with antiques and art dealing that had been enacted and imposed by Brussels when the UK was an EU member. That prospect, combined with the low import duties, is making the UK a magnet for EU antiques dealers. In other words, they are bringing their stock to the UK, setting up shop and using it as a base from which to sell to the rest of the world.
Since 1 January 2021, works of art, collectors' items and antiques imported into mainland Great Britain from EU states have been subject to import VAT at 5%. This applies whether imported privately or by VAT-registered businesses and also reflects the position in respect of imports from the rest of the world.
To qualify for the 5% VAT rate on antiques you may need to establish that your item was manufactured, in its current form, more than 100 years before the date of importation, by providing satisfactory documentary evidence.
It is possible for a trade importer to delay or avoid import VAT if Temporary Admission (TA) relief is granted in respect of the goods at the time of entry. To qualify for TA there are a number of options available to a trade importer. They must either give HM Revenue & Customs security equal in value to the 5% VAT due on goods imported or have in place a Customs Comprehensive Guarantee (CCG). Dealers in works of art and antiques with a clean track record with HMRC may be granted a guarantee waiver for the CCG.
There has been a huge amount of opportunity over the last year for our industry. At Vintage French we have responded by ensuring our buying and logistics processes have been efficient, keeping everyone safe but ensure the wheels continue rolling.
I think that artisanal pieces will be the antiques of the future. I think that future generations, as with our own, will be inspired by hand made, practical pieces that have been designed with consideration and executed with skill that are relevant in their own homes.
Laurent Gouon drives through the French countryside with his truck packed high with treasures after a successful day of hunting for one-of-a-kind French antiques to accompany him on the 4,500-mile journey back to Birmingham, Alabama.
Lolo French Antiques et More is located in the Lakeview Design District downtown at 3101 Third Ave. S., Birmingham, AL 35233. Hours are Monday through Friday, 10 a.m to 5 p.m.; Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, call (205) 323-6033 or visit lolofrenchantiques.com. And sign up for their newsletter to receive periodic info about new items and more.
You can sell antiques online from your own store built with a platform like Shopify, on third-party marketplaces like Amazon and eBay, on niche websites like Etsy and Bonanza, and on social media, and via wholesale.
To price antiques, total all of the costs associated with acquiring the item and bringing it to market, set your profit margin on top of those expenses, and list your prices. You can change prices over time to increase sales or profit margins.
The list of French antique vendors below has been curated by me and reflect my favorite type of French antiques listed in alphabetical order. They sell items that represent that rustic element that I love so much. They sell items like:
I fist came across Chloe at Boxwood Avenue when I included a photo of her home in a post I wrote previously. Her online shop features mostly neautral, earthy antiques like dough bowls, demijohns, antique ceramics, and zinc items. 041b061a72