Where to Find Us

173 Dalston Lane, Hackney, London, E8 1AL

Contact Information

Tel : 02079 989 190

Email: info@properold.com

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Opening Hours

Opening hours:
Tuesday: By appointment
Wednesday: 11-5pm

Thursday: 11-5pm
Friday: 11-5 pm

Saturday: 11-5pm

Sunday: 11-5pm

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We purchase items, if you have any furniture or decorative pieces for sale, please don't hesitate to get in touch via email or telephone.

About us

My love of all things Antique and vintage was first ignited back home in South West Wales when myself, along with my brother were dragged by our mother [a very part time Antiques dealer] to every jumble sale and fete in a ten mile radius, we were always first in the queue!

We would take our buys to local Antique shops to try and sell them, most replies were thanks boys not today! It was a long learning curve.

Having no pocket money [commence the violins!] we quickly moved onto Victorian bottle dumps where we would occasionally find a gem, along with the odd cut finger.

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After moving to London in the early 1990’s to take up a ‘proper job’ I rediscovered Brick Lane, having first gone there in the late 1980’s where the fly pitchers early on a Sunday morning, would lay out their wares, including amongst other bargains, second hand tooth brushes..yes really! The area still had a Dickensian feel about it and you felt you could literally find anything, a Victorian Latticino Italian glass flask along with Silver topped walking canes being some of my early finds.

At the same time I started selling at Camden passage in Islington setting up my fly pitch at dawn, and then leaving in time [mostly] for my 9 to 5 ‘proper job’. I developed an interest in Glass and Silver, especially flatware, I found it fascinating that you could date a piece to the exact year, place of manufacture and identity the maker.

My knowledge was coming together.

The mid 1990’s onwards saw an explosion of Antique, Art Deco, and Decorative Arts fairs in the U.K. Along with my brother a keen ceramic collector we would stall out at many of these fairs, Alexander Palace, Chiswick Art Deco fair, Battersea Art Deco fair, Kensington Town hall Decorative Arts fair, to name but a few. This period is when I specialised in Whitefriars Glass, mostly pieces from the Textured range [1967] by Geoffrey Baxter, there was little information on this factory at the time, but I was lucky enough to attend the launch in Manchester in 1996 of the new publication ‘Whitefriars Glass: The art of James Powell & Sons’. I liken it to the first Sex Pistols gig where everyone likes to say they attended, but few in reality were there. The appreciation of the Midcentury furniture market which I would move into was still fairly niche among the general public, and the internet in its relative infancy was not the educative tool that it is now. As a dealer pre this period, your knowledge base was kept in your head [a novel concept now] and in the printed word, many times information was only available in ephemera from the period itself, and not at the click of a button. Ah the good old days! 

The mid 1990’s onwards saw an explosion of Antique, Art Deco, and Decorative Arts fairs, together with the rise of online auctions, which fundamentally changed the antiques and collectors world. Along with my brother a keen ceramic collector we would stall out at many of these fairs, Alexander Palace, Chiswick Art Deco fair, Battersea Art Deco fair, Kensington Town hall Decorative Arts fair, to name but a few. This period is when I specialised in Whitefriars Glass, mostly pieces from the Textured range [1967] by Geoffrey Baxter, there was little information on this factory at the time, but I was lucky enough to attend the launch in Manchester in 1996 of the new publication ‘Whitefriars Glass: The art of James Powell & Sons’. I liken it to the first Sex Pistols gig where everyone likes to say they attended, but few in reality were there. The appreciation of the Midcentury furniture market which I would move into was still fairly niche among the general public, and the internet in its relative infancy was not the educative tool that it is now. As a dealer pre this period, your knowledge base was kept in your head [a novel concept now] and in the printed word, many times information was only available in ephemera from the period itself, and not at the click of a button. Ah the good old days! 

Camden market was the next move in the late 90’s, where my appreciation of the Midcentury field came to fruition, with a select handful of knowledgeable dealers on hand to educate. Robin Day, Robert Heritage, Verner Panton & Alvar Aalto furniture etc being the mainstay. It is only with twenty five years hindsight that you appreciated the quality of furniture that was available in those times, G-Plan and Ercol was still frowned on by the purists.

 

Moving to Hackney in the early 2,000’s I was one of the first dealers to stall out at the newly reinstated Chatsworth Rd Market, I had two pitches where I sold a variety of Victorian and Midcentury pieces for three years. During this period [and still occasionally] I traded at the well established Sunbury Antiques fair at Kempton racecourse. This led on to me taking on a a premises which is known as the ‘Proper Old’ shop, seven years on I’m still plying my trade there, and still learning.  It’s like the old adage about the ‘Trade’ you need a lifetime to learn, and a lifetime to put your knowledge to use, but alas you don’t get both!

Camden market was the next move in the late 90’s, where my appreciation of the Midcentury field came to fruition, with a select handful of knowledgeable dealers on hand to educate. Robin Day, Robert Heritage, Verner Panton & Alvar Aalto furniture etc being the mainstay. It is only with twenty five years hindsight that you appreciated the quality of furniture that was available in those times, G-Plan and Ercol was still frowned on by the purists.

 

Moving to Hackney in the early 2,000’s I was one of the first dealers to stall out at the newly reinstated Chatsworth Rd Market, I had two pitches where I sold a variety of Victorian and Midcentury pieces for three years. During this period [and still occasionally] I traded at the well established Sunbury Antiques fair at Kempton racecourse. This led on to me taking on a a premises which is known as the ‘Proper Old’ shop, seven years on I’m still plying my trade there, and still learning.  It’s like the old adage about the ‘Trade’ you need a lifetime to learn, and a lifetime to put your knowledge to use, but alas you don’t get both!