The Antiquarian: how John Cornall takes an art critic’s approach to folk furniture

Warwick-based antique dealer John Cornall discovered his passion for Central European folk furniture in the 1990s, when he was invited to work for one summer as a tour leader on a friend’s campsite for children in the Czech Republic. On day trips to local towns, he would use his downtime to sneak off to junk shops, discovering an abundance of vibrantly painted vernacular designs that, thanks to the depressed market and export restrictions of the Soviet era, were now not only widely available but markedly undervalued. Having worked for much of the previous decade in London as a contemporary art critic, John knew there was something special going on here. “I saw genuine artistic quality in these pieces,” he says. “There was no doubt in my mind that they had to be bought and saved.”

That revelation led to the foundation of his business, John Cornall Antiques, which today offers a range of folk art and country furniture from around the globe, including regular new examples from Britain and Ireland. “In the beginning, my reputation for being a dealer in so-called Eastern European furniture – actually, it’s mostly Central European – was so entrenched in the minds of the trade that I quickly made a concerted effort to have a full cross-section of folk art and painted furniture in our stock,” he says. “As well as trying to offer the best European pieces I also wanted to offer the best primitive chairs and beautiful Irish and English painted country furniture as well as top drawer British primitive paintings. I wanted to show that good pieces are just good. I think this is what we do.”

The word “good” is, perhaps, an understatement here. Because John’s distinct eye for not just the good, but the disarming, striking and unusual is clear to see in each one of the unique items currently on his website, from a Transylvanian wedding box decorated with birds to an elaborately carved window frame sourced from a Russian country house. He’s always looking, he says, for “some indefinable quality of surface and symmetry that just hits you between the eyes as soon as you see it.” His ability to discover this so often is, he explains, a fortunate hangover from his art reviewing days, when he would try to follow the advice of greats such as Picasso and Antony Caro and try to look and “see without preconception”. “It’s impossible, of course,” he says. “But I got the idea. When it came later to looking at ‘antiques’ I would see things in this way, at colour, surface, overall composition, I would think ‘this is the best one, it has something, I’ll buy it’ – those were the criteria and still are.” Below he gives Inigo a crash course on folk and country furniture – which, he says, is seeing an uptick thanks to the interiors world’s more maximalist tendencies in recent years.

What to know:

The demand for painted folk furniture tends to vary with the current trends in interior design. It was very popular when first rediscovered in the 80s and 90s, then we had a period of a decade or more where things went very minimal and grey, and colourful folky pieces were hard to place. In the last year or so, as any avid reader of the glossy mags will know, there has been a new appreciation and interest in folk art and a re-introduction of colour into interior design schemes. If anything, the pandemic has increased this tendency – perhaps because people have wanted to buy into things that have soul and authenticity.

The English tradition is quite different to the European, largely owing to our religious history. European country furniture clung to the Baroque and Rococo right up until 1900 and the Secession. But the iconoclasts destroyed the colourful medieval church interiors of England in the 17th century, and the rest followed suit.  English and British country furniture came to favour purer and more restrained forms of the neo-classical – ‘plain English’. The most popular period for us now as far as country furniture is concerned is the late 18th/early 19th century, when pale blues, creams and greens were used, but there is so little original furniture of this kind that it’s not a good idea to get too hung up on it for your house planning. One of our bestselling lines in recent years has been our ‘commodes’ or chests of drawers. They have that plain styling and we refinish them in pastel shades.

What to look for:

Professional sportspeople talk about ‘getting in your own way’. It can be the same with art and antiques. Try to look with your eyes, like a child; if a piece has charm, it has charm. That said, Georgian painted country furniture has perennial appeal, and primitive British rustic furniture, chairs and tables, already highly prized, have seen a price uplift in the last year. In tandem with this, ultra-rustic furniture has been popular: pig benches, early looking furniture and decoration, plain and hewn. Also, in the course of the last year, there has been strong interest and appreciation of the amazing traditions of folk painted furniture from Europe and a willingness as never before to mix styles and be bold with colour.

What to avoid:

When it comes to things that are ‘primitive’ and simple but cost a lot of money, like a Lowry painting, or a Welsh primitive chair, there are bound to be fakes, so bear that in mind. I’d advise sticking to established dealers and paying the higher price. Generally, if the other piece was any good the specialist dealers would already have bought it. Otherwise, ask the sensible questions you would ask about anything. We all have to buy on photos nowadays, so check it is the original paint, and you are not buying something rotten, or wormy, or something with lots of replaced parts.

Images, top to bottom: a wide neo-classical pine commode in white; a selection of folk art, country furniture and antiques; a carved and painted marriage cupboard, southern Germany, 1809; a detail of the cupboard’s painted doors; an antique folk painted marriage box with birds, Transylvania, c. 1900–1950; a detail of the lid, featuring collaged images of silent movie stars, city views and more; a primitive lambing chair. All images courtesy of John Cornall Antiques. 

John Cornall Antiques