Buying vintage design furniture in Saint-Étienne
We buy vintage design furniture in Saint-Étienne, 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 Saint-Étienne produced
Saint-Étienne is the only French member of the UNESCO Creative Cities network for design, and it has hosted the Biennale Internationale Design since 1998. A few kilometres away, Firminy-Vert is the largest ensemble Le Corbusier designed in Europe. It includes a UNESCO-listed cultural centre, an unité d'habitation, a stadium and the church of Saint-Pierre, completed in 2006 to his plans by José Oubrerie.
What we find there
The city's industrial past (arms, bicycles, ribbons, Manufrance) left behind work and workshop furniture, and its more recent design history has produced a well-informed public. It is one of the few cities where the seller tells us the designer's name before we even ask.
What we look for first
- We look for office and workshop furniture from the fifties to the seventies, often French, if it is signed or attributable to an identifiable maker.
- Collectors' pieces kept by knowledgeable owners interest us too.
- We look closely at anything from a flat in Firminy-Vert, since an address there is enough to date the furniture.
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 Saint-Étienne, 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 520 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 Saint-Étienne.
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 industrial and workshop furniture fall within your scope?
- Partly. We take workshop and office furniture when it is signed or attributable to an identifiable maker. Anonymous industrial furniture has a broad market of its own, but it is outside our speciality. The line is not always clear, and photographs of the marks and joints are what settle it.
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.