CHESTER.- Bonhams will sell the Beedham Collection of early oak and works of art on 24th May at Chester, offering the most outstanding oak items to international collectors of this increasingly sought after furniture.

David Houlston, Bonhams vernacular furniture specialist in Chester, comments: “If you want to own a piece of oak furniture made during the reign of Henry VIII this is your chance, they don’t come along very often. The sale is put together from selected stock and personal items. The Beedham name has been a byword for excellence in the world of antique oak furniture furniture for over four decades. This sale offers a great opportunity to buy some outstanding works. Since the family first opened an antique shop at Ivy House Antiques in Baslow, a late 17th century farmhouse near Chatsworth in Derbyshire in 1974, their reputation has just grown.

At the forefront of the oak furniture business for many years they have brought their passion for oak, knowledge, expertise and signature style to help form individual collections and provide important items for curators of both national and international museums. They have exhibited regularly at Olympia Fine Art & Antiques Fairs since 1993, winning the prestigious BADA Stand of the Fair Award at Winter Olympia 2007. They are actively involved with vetting as both committee members and Chairmen. The name Beedham and fine oak furniture are synonymous”.

The reason for the sale is that oak experts, Herbert and Norma Beedham, are retiring. However, Beedham Antiques will very much continue under the direction of their son, Paul who will take the business into the 21st century, predominantly website based with a strong presence at very high-end antique fairs, taking the company into a new era.

This sale of English oak is notable for the relatively early date of the lots, hence the ‘1450-1750’ in the sale title. Prices range from £100 to £30,000.

The Beedham family have an unrivalled reputation appreciated by an educated international clientele seeking the highest quality items of oak furniture, with a strong emphasis on regional character, original condition and high, genuine colour and surface patination.

In 1978 Herbert, Norma and their son Paul bought Holme Hall in Bakewell, Derbyshire and during their time at Holme Hall from 1978 to 1995, the property’s natural sophistication helped put its own stamp on and further refined their taste and style. The house dictated what looked right, items of quality with exceptional features just looked the part. The business is now based in Hungerford, Berkshire.

The family travels thousands of miles annually sourcing only the very best pieces of furniture and works of art, with a highly discerning eye for quality, rarity and importance, allied to a personal demand for first class overall condition with proper colour and surface patination, that has not been ravaged by enthusiastic dealers or restorers attempts to ʻimprove or alterʼ the finish.

Their view on restoration is simple, repairs have to be done on some items to keep them functional and still useable. If this is done correctly with a high degree of skill and expertise there should be no stigma, what is of paramount importance to the family is that items so repaired should be correctly described and labeled as such.

Holme Hall is a high quality regional manor house completed in 1626; it was built incorporating an earlier Tudor house. Holme Hall was based on Robert Smythsonʼs designs for smaller Italianate villas on a square plan format, a model of house found in small numbers uniquely in Derbyshire and north Nottinghamshire, reflecting Smythsonʼs other commissions for patrons in the two counties. A significant other larger example being Tissington Hall, Tissington, near Ashbourne, built in 1619 and still the family seat of the Fitzherbertʼs.