Vintage view: Enduring charms of the brown elephant in the auction room.

It’s a curious thing that pieces so highly desired at one stage, can crash so far in just a couple of decades. 

Still, antiques are a market and prey to the fascinations of the current generation of buyers.

Those at the peak of their earning power in the 1970s and 1980s, tailoring their homes with interesting stuff, are now senior citizens, concentrating their energies on pressing matters like health insurance and wringing meaning out of those autumn years.