For the past couple of years we have owned a house in Ramsgate, Kent. It came modernised but empty, posing the question of how to furnish it. My answer to that question, with all due regard to the finer points of interior decoration, was: cheaply. We have three young boys. That is a lot of bouncing, wrestling and tumbling for furniture to take.

Our first thoughts turned to Ikea. Aesthetically, we live in the age of Ikea, its crisp, spare look having combined with television makeover shows to impose a uniformity of taste throughout much of Britain. You see it in country houses owned by multi-millionaires as well as little Ramsgate houses like our own. But before we headed off to the out-of-town shed, we decided to explore local auction rooms and antique shops. We were astonished: Ikea came out looking rather expensive.

For, as anyone in the antiques trade will tell you, “brown furniture” — the serviceable oak, walnut and mahogany pieces once cherished by well-off families — is out. Until 1997 it seemed their cost at auction would go on rising for ever. Then Cool Britannia swept all before it. You don’t need ribbon-backed mahogany dining chairs in a converted loft. Queen Anne bureaux don’t suit computers. The desire now is for furniture that can sit happily with contemporary art — art deco, 1950s or modern. Serious collectors still bid for museum-quality pieces at Christie’s, and the prices they pay have stayed high. But ordinary good quality furniture with a bit of age about it can hardly be given away. Dining tables that would have carried estimates of £10,000 a few years ago are now being knocked out for £600.

Bottom-feeders like me have found all sorts of bargains floating down to us from above. The other day I bought a William IV writing table for £70. It is sound of limb if somewhat bashed: not a collector’s item by any means, but just right for my study. My Lloyd Loom writing chair came, many years ago, from a recycling centre (cost: 50p). I painted it, and it gave good service until the back split. In need of a successor, I turned to eBay. Of the 960 chairs being offered that day I selected an Edwardian piece with arms and a carved panel to the back, decorated with narrow bands of inlaid satinwood stringing. The “Buy It Now” price on eBay was £120. Since the time was about to run out I offered £60 and got it.

As a comparison for this article, I bought for £110 the Patrik chair from Ikea, a straight, functional office chair, upholstered in grey and with a swivel base. Craftsmanship? I had to supply much of that myself — once I’d puzzled over the instructions and found a screwdriver, that is. As well as being height-adjustble, it is meant to recline — but despite the best efforts of myself, my eldest son and the Sunday Times photographer, we couldn’t get it to budge.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not a furniture snob. Ikea’s offerings are often stylishly designed. But old furniture has not only come to seem exceptionally good value, it tends to be more robust than the Ikea equivalent. Our Ramsgate dining table, stamped by the famous Edwardian firm of Waring & Gillow, is indestructible. Solid oak, inches thick, there is a joy in the material — wood that comes from a tree, not pressed together from factory shavings and veneered.

At auction, old sofas are practically given away. We bought quite a pretty three-seater, not vastly old — probably 1970s — but nicely made, for £25. Admittedly, its baggy covering made it look hideous, so that was soon replaced — re-covering cost £150 in a cheerful blue ticking. The result is surprisingly effective, and the total cost was still well below Ikea prices; there was nothing comparable there for much under £350.

Just before Easter, we purchased a three-seat Edwardian Chesterfield via eBay from a dealer in Herefordshire. With delivery, the cost was £225. The construction is enormously strong, the seats are sprung, and the padding is horsehair. I could not see a three-seater at Ikea for less than £295.

You needn’t take my word for it. Dealers and auctioneers do not trumpet the low prices at which furniture is sold, but even Nick McElhatton of Christie’s in South Kensington says there are “a huge number of Georgian and Victorian chests-of-drawers and bureaux that are incredibly good value”.

In a green world, solidly made, enduring pieces of second-hand furniture represent “the ultimate in recycling”, in the words of Mark Dodgson, deputy secretary general of the British Antique Dealers’ Association. “But bizarrely, Victorian chests-of-drawers with bun feet are now cheaper than bits of tat that fall apart in five seconds.”

The comparative price index published by the Antique Collectors’ Club shows that, whereas house prices, the stock market and even the cost of a Mars bar have risen inexorably over the past five years, antique furniture has slumped. “It is now evident that much is going dirt cheap at auction,” comments the club’s John Andrews. Early Victorian and Edwardian furniture “has lost 40% since 2001”.

But old furniture is a market, and like any other market it must reach a point when it is so cheap that new investors pile in. Clever buyers will discover a contemporary way of displaying fine old pieces, made of lovely materials and assembled with skill by craftsmen, and prices will start to rise again. I suspect that time is coming soon. In the mean time, McElhatton is looking for an oval Georgian table to go in his otherwise modern kitchen extension. As he puts it: “Good design is always desirable, and will always work with other pieces of good design.”

Clive Aslet is editor-at-large of Country Life

Rebecca Tanquery is away

• Check local newspapers for auctions that deal with house clearances. Some lots go for as little as £2. For more upmarket furniture, try the National Association of Valuers and Auctioneers, www.nava.org.uk, and the Society of Fine Art Auctioneers and Valuers, 01483 225 891, www.sofaa.org

  nTo find antique dealers, contact British Antique Dealers’ Association, 020 7589 4128, www.bada.org, or London and Provinicial Antiques Dealers’ Association, (020 7823 3511, www.lapada.co.uk

  nAlexander Paul Antiques, 01404 851 298, www.alexanderpaulantiques.com, offers a Home View service, where you can try before you buy if you live in London or the southeast

  nBuild up a good relationship with dealers and auctioneers. They travel widely and have good contacts, which can help get what you want at the price you want

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