Toronto - In general, larger pieces of furniture in the upper end of the antique market are not so much in demand or as expensive as the smaller items because they require too much space in the smaller houses and apartments of today.

    Those who have large homes with many grand and spacious rooms are able to find suitable antiques without the "buyer" competition for these larger pieces.

    Large bookcases, massive desks and large slant top desks, do not cost the same money as scaled down versions of the same pieces.

    In the case of slant top desks, the writing top is so high that the ordinary chair will not allow one to write comfortably, and as a result they invariably bring less money.

    In every type of furniture there are certain characteristics of the design and construction that are considered good, and the presence of these characteristics makes the piece more valuable.

    Some of them may seem incomprehensible, but they are important price wise. For instance, in a washstand two drawers are better than one. If they fit closer together and are not too deep that is an asset as well.

    In the high end of antique furniture, which is often called city furniture, as opposed to country furniture, the more elaborate pieces usually bring the higher prices, where just the opposite is true with country pieces where simple straight unadorned lines are the most expensive and sought after.

    In the case of very large chests of drawers, the movement of inventory is not as great as for medium-sized chests of drawers. However, if the piece has strong style and design characteristics and is in a good state of repair, it will always sell better regardless of size.

     Comfort can sometimes be at odds with size, particularly when it comes to chairs. A chair, if it is too small, can be uncomfortable, and often structurally weak. On the other hand, a chair which is too large can dwarf the person sitting in it, and give them a feeling of being lost within its very size.

    A chair may be made of the best materials, creatively designed and constructed, but most of all it must be comfortable.

     The main objective of the chair maker must be comfort, for the customer usually always sizes up his or her potential purchase by saying, "How comfortable is it?" Over the years I have seen hundreds of customers apply that principal to the buying of chairs. Are they right? Of course they are...