Buying vintage design furniture in Marseille
We buy vintage design furniture in Marseille, or take it on consignment, just as we do across France. We value it from photographs within 24 to 48 hours, then arrange collection.
What Marseille produced
Marseille is home to one of the buildings that mattered most to twentieth-century furniture: Le Corbusier's Unité d'habitation on boulevard Michelet, completed in 1952 and a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2016. The Cité Radieuse set a way of furnishing, with built-in storage, a kitchen designed by Charlotte Perriand and volumes worked out to the centimetre.
What we find there
Marseille flats from the fifties to the seventies were furnished in the same spirit, with everything made to fit. The dry climate is kind to furniture, but southern light fades fabrics and lacquer, so we look at the structure first and the colour second. On the office side, Euroméditerranée and La Joliette refit their premises regularly.
What we look for first
- Anything from the Cité Radieuse or another unité d'habitation comes first: the address alone documents the piece's history.
- Seventies interiors have often kept their Ligne Roset sofas, Pierre Paulin pieces or Italian lighting.
- Garden and terrace furniture from the same years often ends up forgotten in a cellar, though it has a real market.
How it works
Photographs
Send us overall views, the marks, any wear and the dimensions. You can attach the photographs straight to the form at the foot of the page.
Valuation within 24 to 48 h
We value from photographs wherever the piece is, so distance makes no difference to how quickly we reply. The valuation comes with an offer of outright purchase or consignment.
Collection
In Marseille, we arrange collection, and on an outright purchase we pay for it. A specialist carrier or one of our own runs handles it, and you have nothing to pack or dismantle. The 775 km or so from Paris go into our calculation, and we confirm the timing with the offer.
Payment
On an outright purchase, we pay by bank transfer on the day of signature, within 48 working hours at the latest, and never in cash above legal thresholds. On consignment, you remain the owner until the sale, and we take a commission agreed in advance.
We can also come and value in person, usually from five pieces or for a configuration of real value. We work from Paris and Auxerre, and we have no establishment in Marseille.
What we buy
- USM Haller, every year and colour
- Ligne Roset, including the Togo collection
- Cassina, original editions and documented reissues
- Knoll, American and European editions
- Castiglioni, Charlotte Perriand, Jean Prouvé, Vico Magistretti
- Italian mid-century from the fifties to the seventies, Scandinavian and Nordic modular systems
We leave aside mass reissues made after 2000, copies and pieces that cannot be identified, pieces too damaged to restore, and furniture with no design interest.
The detailed scope, brand by brandPrivate owner or professional
Private owner
For a move, an estate or a collection that is changing, the valuation is free and without obligation, even for a single piece.
Selling as a private ownerProfessional
An office fleet at the end of its cycle, a dealer lot, a notarial estate, an end of lease or the refurbishment of a public venue: we sort from an inventory, invoicing is done properly and we commit to a date.
Professional disposalsFrequently asked
- Does the southern climate damage vintage pieces?
- It damages them in a different way. Dry air is easy on timber, glued joints and foam, which suffer far more in a damp cellar. Sunlight, on the other hand, fades fabrics, yellows pale lacquer and dries out leather. So send us a photograph of the sunniest side first.
Offer us a piece
Attach your photographs here, because the accuracy of the valuation depends on them. We reply within 24 to 48 working hours.