NEED help with history behind this GOODALLS Manchester Buffet / Sideboard

I picked up this piece for a friend and don't know anything about it other than the plaque inside says GOODALLS FURNISHERS & DECORATORS MANCHESTER. I was stunned by it's beauty. I did read that Edward Goodall was a cabinet maker etc from 1850 -1954. The two mirrors are beveled and the middle one is a convex mirror, the hardware is stunning too. Can someone tell me the style, the approximate year you think it was made, anything about the hardware and mirrors and I'm assuming this piece is valuable as I did a search and found 2 other Goodall small pieces that were valued over $7,000, and this piece is much larger and looks older than the ones I googled, but if anybody might be able to guess approximate value that would be neat. I'm dying to find out more about it to share with my friend who bought it for a very very reasonable price.

 

I really know nothing about this piece of yours, other than to say it looks to be in WONDERFUL condition, and all of your images of it are also WONDERFUL!!!! BEST of LUCK with it!!!! OTHERS WILL eventually be along with, hopefully, more information for you!! Tagging a couple of them for you!!! @James Conrad, @Ghopper1924, @verybrad and any others in the know!! It's just beautiful!!!!!

 

thanks I think it is one of the nicest pieces I've come across for sale and got a steal of a deal!

 

Edward Goodall was a cabinet maker from 1850 to 1954? That's one old cabinet maker!

This buffet looks to be oak ca. 1890-1900, with attenuated classical elements as one would expect, as well as a slight French feel. The mirrors and hardware are indeed first class, especially the drawer pulls. I'm not in England, as I assume you are, so can't speak to the value. I will say that although intuitively you might expect a larger piece like this one to be worth more, for the past couple of decades it has turned into the opposite, with zero demand from millennials who favored experiences over possessions creating a market where big pieces have little value.

However, it appears that with maturity comes the purchases of houses, and, eventually one hopes, high quality possessions to put in them. The worm is turning, however slowly. Around 1990 your piece would have been worth several thousand dollars; now it is less than $1,000 in my part of the U.S., as beautiful as it is. Let's hope that within 5 years values begin to climb again.

 

Agree completely with the above. Nice art nouveau influence in the drawer pulls. They don't necessarily fit with the styling of the cabinet, but I find this often true with British furniture from this period and I expect they are original.

My quick search brought up a couple on 1st Dibs. First off, 1st Dibs is notoriously overpriced, and you just can't take their asking prices as a reliable indicator of value. Second, those two pieces have distinct arts and crafts styling, which is more valuable in today's market.

I can't speak to British market values but suspect they are not all that out of line with what Ghopper quotes above. Perhaps a couple of our members from the UK can speak better to value.

 

I believe the date range of 1850-1954 came from the Dictionary of British and Irish Furniture Makers, as transcribed on this website: https://bifmo.history.ac.uk/entry/goodall-edward-e-goodall-co-goodall-lamb-heighway-1850-1954

The date range refers to when the company was in business.

I just tried to determine when that label might have been used. The only reference I've found to it that gives a true date (not an estimate) was to an account statement dated 1936, described at https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/553a15d4-205a-4db4-8b04-85f95b2fb4ec

In looking at the company history, it appears that it's possible the phrase on the label might have been used at various times through the company's history and that it is not the name of the company itself. I was hoping that it would be the company name and would help more specifically date the piece.

GHopper24 and verybrad are knowledgeable about the time frames for furniture manufacture, @S Glanz .