Ross Burden’s home glistens with ancient polished silver and the sumptuous glow of honeyed mahogany buffed over the centuries to a high shine. Unlikely though it may seem, the celebrity chef and star of BBC2’s Ready Steady Cook collects antiques. Even more surprisingly, he buys them not from the established shops in Mayfair and Chelsea, but on eBay, the online auction site.

Burden jokes that the buzz of finding a Georgian card table amid the car-boot sale dross on the internet is “more addictive than crack cocaine”.

“A friend introduced me to eBay four years ago,” he says. “I work really strange hours in television, so I often sit at my computer looking for antiques in the middle of the night. I’ve found some fantastic bargains. My home is almost entirely furnished with eBay antiques.”

Burden, 35, has amassed a beautiful collection since arriving in Britain from New Zealand in 1990 with a backpack and high hopes of making his fortune. His early years in London were spent in shared furnished flats. When he settled into a permanent home in Hammersmith, west London, five years ago with just a desk, a bed and a stereo, he decided it was time to grow up and acquire some traditional furniture.

“The trouble was, there were no hand-me-downs from family, as they live thousands of miles away,” says the model-turned-presenter, who is writing a food book for publication this year and will open an Asian food hall in Notting Hill.

Now he lives surrounded by treasured pieces. At £120, the 1840s William IV card table with inlaid boxwood is, he believes, his greatest eBay bargain. The sleek, functional, Edwardian mahogany dumbwaiter cost £60 and the pair of turn-of-the-century Chinese tea tables were £300. A 1760 Georgian pot cupboard (£300) functions as a side table. On a perfect 1830s mahogany veneer chest of drawers (£400) sits a classic Edwardian gentleman’s dressing mirror (£45). A Georgian dining chair cost £30 and £100 to re-upholster.

As he pours coffee from an exquisite 1746 George II solid-silver coffee pot (£1,600) — “my birthday present to myself” — into delicate 1890s bone china cups, each accompanied by a tiny silver Georgian coffee spoon, Burden excitedly describes the bidding war for his latest acquisition.

The 1780s mahogany astragal glazed bookcase, which sits in the corner alcove as if it had been there for centuries, cost just £500. It is in immaculate condition, having arrived the previous month from Hertfordshire. The seller arranges transport, while the buyer pays: in this case, £40 to a shipping agent. “The quality of the manufacture is extraordinary,” says Burden. “Look at the brass locks. Open the doors, and there’s not a squeak.”

The doorbell rings. Another parcel arrives: a 1927 manuscript on Maori culture — another internet purchase, Maori artefacts being one of his hobbies. Burden, whose chiselled looks have made him something of a housewife’s heart-throb, blushes when I ask how much he has spent on eBay antiques. He believes it is in the region of £10,000.

He has put together an entire collection of solid-silver crested Georgian cutlery. It was bought piece by piece for nominal sums, much of it from America. It alone is now worth about £4,500.

Burden says that buying antiques online is easy as well as cheap. He believes the best strategy is to spend an hour each week searching and placing bids, as most items are sold on a cycle of 7-10 days. His top tip is to look at the ratings feedback of the seller on eBay, which rates successful sales and happy customers.

“I’ve been struck by how little antiques cost compared with contemporary models at Heal’s or Ikea,” he says, waving towards a lavish French 1860s sofa covered in faded yellow silk damask and straight off the set of a bodice-ripping drama.

“That cost £300. It’s a little bit nibbled around the edges and could do with re-covering, which will cost £200 or so, and then it will be worth more than £1,000. Imagine what you would get in Ikea for £200.”

Burden counsels against substantial restoration jobs; he once spent £600 to restore a 1770s gentleman’s stationery box bought for £40, complete with pen and secret drawer. “You can get a little carried away,” he admits.

An Edwardian mahogany plant stand cost £10 to buy and £12 to ship. “It wouldn’t set the Antiques Roadshow on fire, but it’s a lovely, simple, useable piece.”

A Sphinx gas lamp (£400), rewired for electricity, adds an eccentric touch. The walls are decorated with watercolours and prints of penguins, many bought on eBay for about £100. A fine pencil-and-chalk scene in the hall cost just £5.

Burden says he has had his fingers burnt only once using eBay, buying what was described as a “silvery box” with “funny marks” on the back. “It was my own fault. I was trying to be too clever.

“I thought, ‘Bloody hell, it’s a 1724 hallmarked solid-silver snuff box’. I got so excited — it would have been worth £800.” Burden paid about £60, and £30 in duty, and gained a worthless tin box.

He is surprisingly sanguine about the experience: “I’ve been amazed by the level of trust. Apart from that mishap, inspired by my own greed, I haven’t had a problem. I’ve even sent cash dollars to American sellers and always received the goods.”

Only one item mars Burden’s tasteful collection. He holds aloft a cheap, tarnished brass dish embossed with an image of St George — an eBay freebie, of sorts.

“It is horrid,” he says. “I’ve kept it just for the kitsch value. It just arrived in the post one day. I’m sure I wouldn’t have ordered it — it must simply have been sent to the wrong buyer. The worst of it was, I was with friends when I opened the parcel and they were appalled. It could ruin a person’s credibility.”

Silver surfing

Use key words to narrow your eBay search: “sofa” brings up more than 1,200 matches. Add “mahogany” and you find eight antiques — one a three-piece suite for a doll’s house

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