People talk about the Puces de Saint-Ouen as if they were one place. They are in fact a set of markets standing side by side, each with its own aisles, speciality and price level, which grew up next to one another over a century. If you are after twentieth-century furniture, the difference is practical: some markets are full of it, others have almost none. Here is how we go about it, as people who source there regularly.
When to go
The Puces are open to the public on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Friday is reserved for the trade. Opening hours vary from one market to the next and change with the seasons, which is why we do not print them here: check each market's own website before you set off.
Allow a day rather than an hour. The whole area covers about seven hectares and brings together a little over a thousand dealers, according to the markets' own association. Without a plan, you soon spend more time walking than looking.
Choosing your markets
Not every market deals in twentieth-century furniture. For design, these bearings are enough to plan a first visit.
- Paul Bert Serpette joins two markets that were long separate: Paul Bert, opened in 1946, with open-air aisles, and Serpette, opened in 1977, under cover. They are run together today. Twentieth-century decorative arts and design take up a large share of the stands, the dealers know their stock in detail, and prices reflect it.
- The Marché Dauphine, opened in 1991, is covered and spread over two levels under a glass roof. Design, industrial design and lighting sit alongside books, photography and vintage fashion. Price levels vary more, and the search takes longer.
- The Marché Biron, opened in 1925, shows classical antiques, Art Nouveau and Art Deco, through to design. It is a good place to train your eye on quality of workmanship.
- The Marché Vernaison, opened in 1920, is the oldest of the Puces markets. Its small, tightly packed stands mix bric-à-brac, curiosities and furniture of every period. You tend to come away with a find rather than with the thing you came for.
- The Marché Malassis, opened in 1989 at the entrance to the Puces, has around a hundred dealers on two levels. It leans towards antiques and design: furniture from the 1930s and 1940s, pieces from the fifties, furniture from the seventies.
The Marché de l'Usine handles large volumes and oversized pieces, but it is open to the trade only. There is no point turning up as a private buyer.
Checking a piece on the spot
Start by asking. A dealer who knows the piece will tell you its maker, its period and what has been redone. An evasive answer about origin is information too.
Then look at what copies badly: undersides, joints, edges, fixing points. A label is easy to reproduce; a joint much less so. On modular furniture, check that every element belongs to the same system and the same period. Sets assembled from parts of different origins are far more common than outright copies.
Finally, ask for a detailed invoice stating the description, maker, period, condition and any known restoration. That is the document you will need if the piece is ever appraised or resold.
Negotiating without closing the door
Haggling is accepted at the Puces. It works when the offer rests on something: a fault you have spotted, a restoration that will need doing and that you have costed, several pieces bought from one stand. A bare offer at half the asking price has the opposite effect, and in a market you will come back to, a soured relationship costs more than the discount you hoped for.
Bear in mind too that in the specialist markets, prices are those of an informed market. The gap with a gallery is mostly found on pieces the seller has not identified, which means knowing more about them than they do.
Think about delivery before you pay
Measure the piece, then the place it is going, including doors, stairwell and lift. A two-and-a-half-metre sideboard bought on a Sunday afternoon still has to be delivered and carried upstairs. Many dealers work with carriers who know the Puces well: ask for the price and the lead time before paying, not after.
One last point that is often missed: a purchase made in person does not carry the fourteen-day right of withdrawal, which only applies to distance sales. All the more reason to check everything before you pay.
Our stand at the Puces
Our showroom will open at the Marché Malassis, stand 112/113, 142 rue des Rosiers in Saint-Ouen. The date has not been set yet. Our page on the Puces de Saint-Ouen lets you ask to be told on the day we open. If you have a piece to sell rather than to buy, the sell a piece page explains how we work, and you can write to us from the contact page.
By
LAPIERRE MARKET
