Antiques Moving — Specialist Care for Period Pieces

Sussex has more antiques than almost anywhere else in the UK — a legacy of country-house collections, decades of dealing in Lewes, Petworth and Rye, and a generation of London buyers who’ve retired to the south coast with their furniture. Moving antiques is not the same as moving general household contents: the wood is old and brittle, the joinery is original (and irreplaceable), the veneer is fragile, the gilt is delicate, and the value is rarely insurable through a standard household policy. Our antiques moving service uses specialist crews, archival materials and a climate-aware transit chain to move your pieces with the same care a museum would.

Why antiques need specialist handling

• Old wood doesn’t behave like new wood. Veneer can lift, joints can shrink and re-glue weakly, marquetry can chip. A pad-wrap that’s fine for a modern oak table can damage an 1810 Regency commode.
• Original hardware is irreplaceable. The brass handles, the cast hinges, the lock plates — if a hinge bends or a handle gets knocked off, you can’t simply order a replacement. We label and bag every detached piece of original hardware in its own envelope.
• Gilt and lacquer are delicate. Skin oils mark gilt. Pressure marks bruise lacquer. Our crew wears cotton or nitrile gloves when handling gilt frames, ormolu, gilt-bronze mounts, japanned furniture and lacquerware.
• Humidity matters. Period furniture stored in a stable Sussex home for 100 years can crack within weeks of a move to a warmer or drier environment. We acclimate transit conditions and recommend a settled period at the new property before any heating change.
• Insurance values are often understated. A standard household policy caps single-item liability at £1,500–£3,000. A Georgian secretaire desk can be worth ten times that. We always recommend all-risks all-value transit cover for antiques.

How we move antiques — the technical detail

1. Survey and inventory. Each antique is photographed, measured, condition-reported and (where applicable) cross-referenced to your insurance schedule.
2. Pre-pack inspection. The senior crew member confirms there’s nothing loose, every hardware item is recorded, and any detachable parts (shelves, keys, finials) are tagged.
3. In-situ wrapping. Acid-free tissue first, then heavy blanket, then secured with cotton tape (not parcel tape on the wood). Gilt and lacquer pieces are sandwiched in tissue rather than blanket-wrapped to avoid pressure marks.
4. Crating for the most fragile. Some pieces get a custom timber crate rather than a pad-wrap — particularly veneered or marquetry-heavy pieces, anything with hanging glass, and anything going overseas.
5. Loading. Antiques go on the lorry first and unload last (so they’re never moved by anything stacked on top). Heavy items go bottom, lighter ones top. Mirrors and glass strap to the bulkhead vertically.
6. Climate during transit. Our lorries have insulated cargo areas. For long-distance or overseas moves we use humidity packs and (when relevant) refrigerated containers.
7. Delivery. Antiques unload last from the lorry, are unwrapped only in their final position, and are checked off the inventory in front of you. Hardware envelopes handed over.

Selling, valuation and onward consignment

For estate clearance or downsizing, customers often combine an antiques move with selective sale or auction consignment. We don’t value pieces ourselves (we’re movers, not dealers), but we work day-to-day with the Sussex auction houses (Gorringe’s in Lewes, Bellmans in Wisborough Green, Toovey’s in Washington, Burstow & Hewett in Battle) and can transport directly to whichever house you choose. Provenance and condition documentation transferred on delivery.