Antiques buyers follow the trends, too

KANSAS CITY, MO. -- Trends in antique furniture circle in and out of favor like painted ponies on a vintage carousel.

Biedermeier and midcentury modern are riding high, while Mission and French Empire are fading.

Mark Howald, executive vice president of St. Louis auction house Ivey-Selkirk, sees logic behind the simultaneous popularity of seemingly disparate styles.

"We're seeing a move toward a minimalist look across all styles," Howald said. Biedermeier, created in Germany and Austria from 1815 to 1848, and midcentury modern furniture are both architectural with clean lines.

Two other clean-lined styles that are popular now are English Regency and French Directoire, says Keitha Kaminski, director of Webster House Antiques.

Running her fingers along the carved front of a French Directoire cherry console, Kaminski said, "This is a country version of a piece that would have had lots of ormolu [imitation gold leaf], lots of goop. This has the same soul and history but clean enough lines that you could put pretty contemporary things on it or next to it."

Several factors drive the endless cycling of various periods in and out of fashion.

Generational change

"Everybody wants to have something like they remember their parents or their grandparents having," said Judee Porter, co-owner of Cheep Antiques in Kansas City, Mo. The familial furnishings that each successive generation recalls (and wants to emulate or reject) change every 10 to 20 years, Porter said.

Midcentury modern, which most auction houses and dealers agree is the biggest trend at the moment, is something of a special case. Zesty Meyers, owner of R 20th Century in New York City, says the style is finally old enough to be taken seriously.

"Midcentury furniture is in demand for the first time since it was made," he said.

EBay design director Shawn Henderson says within the "very hot" midcentury furniture category, the most popular designers based on searches and sales at the online auction site are Edward Wormley (for Dunbar), Paul McCobb and Harvey Probber.

ZEITGEIST. Albert de Leon, owner of De Leon's Furniture in Kansas City, Kan., says shifts in taste between simplicity and ornamentation reflect societal trends. During the materialistic '80s, for example, ornamentation and gilding were in demand. Then in the '90s the pendulum swung the other way, in favor of unadorned Mission furniture.

Today, people are tired of the "tremendous simplicity" of Mission, and the more decorative Arts and Crafts style has come into favor, says Judith Miller, author of "Collectibles Price Guide 2006."

Two other styles that feature clean forms with some ornamental flourishes are Federal (including Duncan Phyfe) and Chippendale. Both have seen a 200 percent to 300 percent increase in number of items sold in the last month compared with three months ago, Henderson said.

"Price also plays a tremendous role," Miller says. "For example, people said old oak was completely out, so prices got really low, then people started noticing the good patternation [of the grain] and the good quality. Something is stylish and fun when it's cheap."

HOME STYLES. Certain decades- or centuries-old furniture styles find themselves right at home in the 21st century. For example, city apartment dwellers and empty-nesters who are downsizing are snapping up smallish-scale Duncan Phyfe pieces at Cheep Antiques, Porter says.

She has also noticed a trend of people who are building ultra-contemporary homes buying German art nouveau consoles and buffets, whose sleek lines mimic those of the house.

Originally at home in Craftsman bungalows, Arts and Crafts pieces look "very striking" in lofts because of their strong delineation, Miller says.

And the most massive Jacobean, Regency and Empire furniture turns out to be the only thing that can really fill the space in some super-sized new homes.

But no matter what style is currently the rage, two criteria trump all others with young buyers and collectors, experts say.

First, a piece has to be "useful, useful, useful," Kaminski said. "People used to buy an antique and just sit back and look at it. Nobody could touch it. Not anymore."

Second, quality is key, says Meyers of R 20th Century: "Whatever is best of any movement is most collectible."