One of a pair of Howard & Sons armchairs – £13,000 at Bristol Auction Rooms.
Throughout the furniture depression, late Victorian and Edwardian chairs and sofas produced by the London firm of upholsterers Howard & Sons maintained their prices.
So much so that even in the grim years around 2011 they were worth the attention of fraudsters who often employed the dodgy car dealers’ ‘cut and shunt’ technique of making one good-looking piece from two wrecks.