the-saleroom.com, the UK’s leading live online bidding site, recorded a 120 per cent year-on-year increase in bidder numbers in 2009, revealing growing buyer confidence in purchasing art and antiques online.

In a year when recession and credit issues dominated the headlines, the-saleroom.com bucked the trend with revenues generated by the site increasing by 55 per cent year-on-year.

With a growing International presence, the-saleroom.com appears to have a winning formula.

The value of lots sold on the site has also grown by 87 per cent with the highest price paid online for a single lot sold being £88,000 for a collection of war medals.

49 per cent more sales were connected up to ATG Media’s live bidding platform in 2009 and the percentage of lots sold over the Internet increased from 9 to 15 per cent.

the-saleroom.com has succeeded in building a world-class live antiques bidding platform and has attracted auctioneers all over the world, with sales in China, New York, Rome and Paris coming online through the platform in the last 12 months.

Anne Somers, Chief Executive of ATG Media, commented: “the-saleroom.com opens up the world of Antiques to a much larger population and is a fast, simple, reliable way of purchasing something timeless and valuable.”

Launched in 2006 by ATG the-saleroom.com, is an online service, where bidders can view hundreds of catalogues and participate in live auctions using live audio and video links.

The website provides a complete range of online services for buyers and sellers of art and antiques at auction, including a leading UK facility for live online bidding.

The site publishes a wide range of catalogues for upcoming sales, giving full details of the sale contents and highlighting star lots in each catalogue.

Visit www.the-saleroom.com to browse and bid.

The intriguing art of Windsor chair-making evolved over 300 years ago and from the shaping of the seat to the steam bending of the arms and backs, each stage required a great deal of skill.

Today, as well as a huge range of hand-made cabinetry and tables, Batheaston Furniture Makers is one of the foremost reproducers of these beautiful chairs, proudly recreating the very best furniture for generations to come.

Batheaston is a family business renowned for producing the very best Windsor chairs.

Their story started back in 1971 in a small workshop in a village on the outskirts of Bath, and today their range also includes cabinetry and tables in both traditional and contemporary styles.

Never forgetting their roots, the Windsor chair remains the backbone of this thoroughly British business today.

Experience the beauty of native hardwoods, Oak, Ash, Sycamore and Cherry from sustainable woodlands, transposed into the heirlooms of the future by Batheaston’s talented local craftsmen.

Within the realm of Windsor chairs there is enormous variety from the design of the splat to the turning of the legs and so whatever your requirements Batheaston can make the seat to suit your tastes.

Visit the Batheaston website to view their ranges of beautiful traditional and contemporary furniture.

Tel: (01225) 811295

Dining at home is staging a revival and Lavender & Sage aims to lure us back into the kitchen, for some good old fashioned home cooking with an award* winning furniture collection called Fermier.

Solidly made from Portugese pinewood with a natural hand waxed finish, Fermier is classic and versatile and oozes style and quality.

The range includes kitchen table and dining chairs, double unit cupboard, chest of drawers, butchers block and jam cupboard..
All pieces are made with intricate detail and excellent craftsmanship – designed to ‘age’ gracefully and last for many years to come.

Three pieces, including the kitchen table. dining chair and kitchen cupboard, come with a unique zinc top; zinc is a hardwearing surface and the more you use it the better it looks.

The kitchen table £599,with two handy drawers, provides a great worktop for food preparation and will fit perfectly into any kitchen setting, complimented by the beautifully crafted dining chairs. £179.

The kitchen cupboard £625, offers a brilliant storage solution and can store away anything from glasses to crockery and wine bottles; it also features a deep groove where you can store your knives easily.
Furthermore there is a pull out chopping board, as well as two drawers and plenty of shelving space., making it a functional all in one work station.

Meanwhile the chest of drawers £515, is a great alternative with eight numbered drawers enabling easy organisation and ample storage for tea towels, cutlery and kitchen utensils.

To complete the range there is a butcher’s block £665 and a jam cupboard £375, both fitted with drawers and shelves providing extra storage space for busy kitchens.

With such a wonderful range of furniture available from Lavender & Sage, there’s no excuse not to get into the kitchen and enjoy making some delicious home-made food.

Fermier won the Gold Award in The Best Furniture category of House Beautiful Awards 2009.

To view the whole range of French decorative home accessories and furniture please visit the Lavender & Sage website.
Tel: (0845) 6010522

For more than 100 years, Grange has been making houses into family homes with furniture that is beautiful and practical.

Drawing on history and the pared-down elegance of traditional, provincial French furniture - particularly pieces from Provence - Grange has brought together a collection that is at once timeless and yet entirely right for today.

From innovative modular furniture that adapts to suit both space and purpose, through to witty signature pieces, the Grange range is authentic, usable and an absolute pleasure to live with.

Using traditional joinery techniques, sustainable materials and timeless design, the Grange collections capture the warmth of the classic French family house and translate it into furniture that is exquisite and perfectly suited to contemporary British life.

The company has retained its manufacturing base in the Monts du Lyonnais, where craftsmen stain, lacquer, wax and polish pieces by hand, giving Grange furniture its distinctive translucency, silkiness and satin-touch finish.

Pieces from the Grange collections have their roots in history, but many have been subtly adapted, to ensure they fit perfectly in today’s relaxed family home.

Ideas are reworked, but the essence of warm, relaxed living are retained and the furniture Grange produces todaym is infused with the same passion and creativity as was the case more than a century ago; each furniture piece is unique, thanks to the wide range of stain, sheens and sizes.

There are a number of new additions to the Grange collection, particularly notable is the Table basse Jacob featured here:

• The mix of natural wood and painted finish, ensure this piece is both playful and modern, but with a definite nod towards history.

• A truly stunning piece, made of solid lime and cherry wood, with four useful small drawers and a unique take on painted wood, this table is set to become an antique of the future. Priced at £1440.
  Dimensions are: W= 150cm H= 40cm and D= 105cm.

Visit the GRANGE website to view their distinctive collections and find out where to buy in the UK.

Tel: (0870) 755 6486

Calligaris, the contemporary Italian furniture brand has released its new products for Autumn/Winter 2009.

The Calligaris Tokyo Table (pictured here.) Boasting sleek curves, this dining table comes with a smoked grey or frosted black glass top on a wengé, walnut or glossy mahogany frame. It measures w:180cm x d:90cm x h:75cm. £1049.

Calligaris Giga metal chair. Available with a chromed or satin finished frame, and a choice of seats in white, wengé, walnut, cement orwhite cord.
It measures w:470 d:525 h:825mm; seat height: 450mm. £160.

Calligaris Round Astro Table. This architectural looking round table is available with a transparent or smoked grey glass top and a wengé or walnut stained beech support. It measures 140cm diameter x 75cm height. £681.

Mac&Mac specialises in contemporary European furniture, lighting and accessories, which are available to buy online and at their new showroom in East St, Farnham, Surrey.

Mac&Mac is the official Calligaris store in the UK, offering the largest collection of their elegant Italian living, dining and bedroom furniture.

There is also a large range of contemporary sofas, including the Contempo collection, Italian hand-finished sofas with a metropolitan character and striking leather sofas and chairs from the German company Koinor.

To view the striking collections, please visit the Mac & Mac website.

Tel: (01252) 71 77 71

At their Norfolk workshops, drawing on designs mainly from the 17th & 18th centuries, Bylaw Furniture Makers construct solid oak and fruitwood furniture, traditional wall panelling and staircases, employing time-honoured methods and skills.

Everything from the solid timber -hand planed oak and fruitwood, the skilfully hand cut dovetails, painstaking finishing and waxing, right through to the fitting of locally cast period brassware, goes towards creating an uncompromising finished product.

The detail in their traditional handmade furniture and four-poster beds truly does make the difference!

Bylaw enjoys a well-deserved reputation as being amongst the finest of traditional handmade furniture makers in the UK. They are particularly famous for four-poster beds:

• Featured here is the stunning Millennium Bed. The Millennium bed incorporates the best of English Renaissance fashion; the enriched arch panels depicting a plant theme, the formal strap work arabesques carved onto the frieze and the carved male (atlantes) and female (caryatids) figures seeming to support the vast decorative tester. W: 60″ x L: 78″ the bed stands 86″ high. Ref.04MMbedcut.

• Priced at: £17,250.

To view the gorgeous furniture collection please visit the Bylaw website.

Finding a dining table that fits your space and requirements can often be difficult; smaller tables don’t provide enough space for dinner parties, while larger tables can be an impractical use of space the rest of the time.

The beautiful Lyon French style, solid oak table pictured here, from Oak Furniture Warehouse is the perfect solution for versatile dining.

Lyon tables are available with or without the extensions and either with four, six or no chairs, to accommodate extensions.

Oak Furniture Warehouse has a collection of contemporary French style furniture, inspired and named after places in France that are sure to be the perfect multi-purpose addition to any dining room.

When ordering your dining table, make sure that you know the dimensions of the room for which it is intended and ensure that it will pass through doorways and staircases as necessary.
Oak Furniture Warehouse has a flat rate delivery service for the whole of the UK, including mainland Scotland and free delivery for orders over £500.

Prices:
Lyon Dining Table without extending leaves £1356.00.
Lyon Dining Table with two central extending leaves £1596.00.
With 4 Dijon Chairs £500.00.
With 6 Dijon Chairs £690.00.

Dimensions:
Length 1000mm.
Width 2200mm.
Height 760mm.
Visit the Oak Furniture Warehouise website to view their full collections and tempting current promotions:

Web: http://www.oakfurniturewarehouse.co.uk
Tel: (0844) 3511072

The dining room is at the heart of at home entertaining and Nathan Furniture’s Parisienne collection of teak living and dining furniture, introduces splashes of vibrancy, to inject luxury and style.

Within the range of 12 beautifully created pieces of quintessential French design, are accents of rich purple and pink hues adorning the luxurious velvet chair upholstery.

As seen on the Autumn/Winter 2009 collections by Christian Dior and Gucci, purple is a colour that history traditionally reserved for nobility and the rich - connotations that continue through to today.

By using purple velvet, Nathan give their furniture a feel of rediscovered sophisticated heirlooms, rescued and brought into 21st century homes.

The home is increasingly becoming a retreat for relaxing and entertaining, as people look for comfort and reassurance during these turbulent economic times.

Fuchsia pink provides a softer alternative to the grandness of purple; the velvet displays a diverse spectrum of pinks, providing a beautifully feminine and light touch to the deep tones of the teak. It works best as an accent colour, adorning curtains, feature walls and upholstery, immediately injecting cheerfulness into any space.

Fetaured here are the Gabrielle Dining Chair and Amelie Round Dining Table.

Andrew Cochrane, Managing Director of Nathan, commented, “The elegant and shapely designs of our Parisienne range, are enhanced by the strong femininity of the complimentary colours we have chosen. The pink and purple upholstery will inject life and finery into any home and provide a mood enhancing backdrop to dining and entertaining at home’.

Nathan is available in over 200 stores nationwide,

To view the Parisienne collection visit:

Web: http://www.nathanfurniture.co.uk
Tel: (0870) 160 0427.

The choice of dining room furniture at dwell, a leading UK contemporary furniture retailer, caters for everyone.

All the designs are exclusive to dwell and, with such a wide range of glass dining tables, extendable tables and other space-saving designs, you can still invite your friends around for supper, even if you don’t have a large kitchen or living room.

Featured here is a Round dining table with high backed seats:

• Walnut veneer, faux linen: 89% polyester, 8% cotton, 3% other fibres.
  Dimensions: Table H75cm: diameter120cm: seat H47cm: seat back H29cm .
  Priced at £695.

With dwell’s prices, you can afford to go ‘à la carte’ – and choose the table that suits your taste, as well as your home, perfectly.

There are lots of attractive reductions available online right now, for end of line and seasonally reduced products.

dwell products can be bought by phone, in store, or online at:

Web: http://www.dwell.co.uk
Tel: (08450 675 9090

Bespoke British furniture maker Restall Brown & Clennell has designed and handcrafted an exclusive collection of furniture pieces for Harrods, made from extremely rare Rio Rosewood.

The furniture maker has an extensive veneer store, housing existing stock of this much sought-after wood, which has a unique appearance.

From April 2009 they will be offering Harrods’ clients the opportunity to purchase a limited edition of beautifully crafted dining tables, cabinets and consoles plus occasional items.

Bespoke pieces can also be commissioned using these veneers and each piece will be created specifically for the client and individually numbered:

Rosewood two-door cabinet: This striking cabinet in our picture is designed with elliptical brass grill doors, backed with beautiful silk pleated panels, adding to the wood and gilt detailing. Price from £8,599.

Rosewood circular dining table: This classic piece extends to an oval table with two leaves, for even greater use and features double Tulipwood and Kingwood cross banding with fine gilt details. . Price from £13,659.

Rosewood credenza: This stunning piece is D-shaped with full height Tulipwood crossbanded panel doors, cross banded drawer tops and fronts. The credenza features open ends, inlaid Burr panels and feet highlighted with gilt. Price from £11,559.

Rosewood console: The console table adds interest to a hallway or dining room. The grain of the wood stands out wonderfully on the polished top, which has a banding of Tulipwood and Kingwood. Fluted legs are accentuated with gilt detailing. Price from £4,849.

Rosewood coffee table: A beautiful focal point, this sleek Tulipwood banded coffee table is highly polished, with a shaped lower shelf for storage of coffee table books and magazines. Price from £3,559.

Rosewood side/lamp table with inset glass top: This versatile table sits perfectly in a sitting or drawing room, featuring Tulipwood crossbanding and optional glass top. Price from £2,559.

Rosewood side table: Tulipwood banding surrounds the glass top of this striking side table. Price from £2,559.

For further details visit:
Web: http://www.rbc-furniture.co.uk