Add to Basket: five second-hand shopping accounts to follow

It’s hard not to make anything look nice against a background of Soane Britain’s ‘Seaweed Lace’ wallpaper, but regardless, Jack Laver Brister, aka Tradchap, has a remarkable eye. The Bruton-based antique dealer says his business account is “the more practical and less aesthetically pleasing selling page” in comparison to his personal one, but it’s still pretty tasty and has altogether more potential for your pocket money.

Expect lots of lovely Victorian furniture with the occasional Georgian gem, plus a decent stock of lighting and decorative bits. And curtains – lots of curtains. Jack’s proclivity for a classic Colefax & Fowler chintz finds expression in the generous drapes often for sale here and always shown hanging from the same doorway in his divine-looking Somerset home. We just want to know if it’s him inside, holding them up…

Selling both through its squares and in a by-appointment showroom in Camberwell, south-east London, @_ocu_lus_ is, in the main, mad about metal. It’s also got a bit of a thing for squiggles, wiggles and ripples – from a folky snake-shaped lamp base to haywire candelabras and the “writhing wriggles” of an extraordinary wrought-iron chair.

And while we come for the beautiful booty on offer, we definitely linger on the inspiration shots of yesteryear that pepper the page, by turns amusing, surprising and delighting and often with a slightly surreal edge: a half-naked Helmut Lang nuzzling a hen, Karl Lagerfeld eating a Big Mac, and Prince atop a Pegasus are, it transpires, precisely the things we never knew we needed to see.

Perfect English Stuff was founded in 2020 when three generations of the same family –Margery Byam Shaw, daughter Ros and her daughter Elizabeth Kemp – joined forces to share and sell their collected treasures. Linked by more than just blood, the three women shared an eagle eye for fine furniture, china and textiles. Sadly, in 2021 antique dealer Margery died after a short illness, but Ros, an interiors writer, and Elizabeth are carrying on the mantel marvellously.

They may not always be perfect (though who minds a tiny chip?) and they’re not always English either, but the team’s treasures invariably sell almost as soon as they go up online. Based in Devon, these “makers, menders, waste-haters, treasure-seekers and savers” will ship internationally and have recently launched a website too, though the majority of their dealing continues on Instagram.

How could we not mention Charlie Porter’s Pile of Tat (which, you might have guessed, is anything but)? Charlie started her online jumble shop in 2016, when she was working as a stylist at House & Garden magazine. As you can see, her stock is broad – featuring everything from battered toleware to Art Deco lampshades through vintage ashtrays and the occasional kitchen bit – and always beautiful. Tat’s never looked so good.

In its seven-year lifespan, Tat London has flourished into a newsletter, an online blog featuring interviews with the great and the good of the design world and, most recently, a jobs board (aspiring interior designers would do well to pay heed), making it something of a one-stop shop for inspiration. Just be sure to act quickly – Charlie’s choice items fly quickly.

Kate Price’s vintage art is mainly modern in flavour, but without the price tag of the Peter Lanyons and Mary Feddens it calls to mind. Every week she posts paintings that somehow look like they’d work in every single home, no matter its style. There’s no shortage of still lifes for those that like them, punctuated by portraits, often with a Bloomsburyish air – though much of Kate’s cache is Swedish rather than British. The landscapes she sells are rarer but no less lovely.

And, if buying a picture without seeing it in person makes you squeamish, you can always visit the gallery; as well as selling to the fastest finger first, Kate has a brick-and-mortar establishment in Harrogate.