The House Clearance Treasure Hunt

Opening, one hour in the house

If I gave you one hour in a typical British home, where would you start? Most people answer: the sitting room, the antiques room, the display cabinet. That isn't where I'd begin.

Introduction

One of the biggest misconceptions in antiques is that valuable items are on display. Often they aren't. The most valuable objects I've encountered have frequently been hidden, forgotten, inherited or simply misplaced.

This lesson is about where I look first, room by room.

Room 1, The main bedroom

The most underrated room in the house.

What I look for first:

Small, valuable, easily hidden in drawers, dressing tables and bedside cabinets, and almost always overlooked by inheritors focused on the obvious "antiques" downstairs.

Room 2, The spare bedroom

Often the resting place of inherited contents. Forgotten drawers. Old shoeboxes. Stored collections from a previous generation. Huge opportunities, and frequently the last place a family thinks to look properly.

Room 3, The study

My favourite room. Why? Because collectors collect, and collectors store things together. Pens, coins, medals, documents, pocket watches, reference books, exhibition catalogues. The study tells you what the previous owner cared about.

Room 4, The loft

The mythical location, but not for the reasons people think. Most lofts don't contain a Van Gogh. They contain militaria, regimental boxes, packed-away collections and family papers. Anything fragile or temperature-sensitive will have suffered. Anything robust, medals, coins, metalware, often survives beautifully.

Room 5, The garage

The most overlooked room of all. Look for vintage tools, enamel signs, binoculars, railway items and militaria. The garage is where men of an earlier generation quietly stored the things they cared about, and the family rarely understands what's out there.

Room 6, The hallway cupboard

The wildcard. Many families use these as the dumping ground for inherited boxes, family keepsakes, old jewellery and "I'll deal with it later" items. Often the most surprising room in the house.

Room 7, The dining room

The obvious one, but still worth doing properly. Silver, cutlery canteens, presentation pieces, trophies, hallmarked salvers. The traditional silver-room categories.

Room 8, The desk drawer rule

Always open the desk drawer.

One of my personal rules. Small valuable objects, sovereigns, pens, watches, jewellery, foreign coins, presentation medals, end up in desk drawers because that's where people put things they don't quite know what to do with. The desk drawer almost always rewards the dealer who opens it.

Things people throw away by mistake

Not because people are careless, because they simply don't recognise what they're holding. Tarnished silver looks like scrap. Old medals look like junk metal. A bag of "foreign coins" can contain gold sovereigns. Slow down before any bin bag leaves a house clearance.

What I look for first, a checklist

The biggest surprise

Value often hides in small things. The largest object in the room is rarely the most valuable.

It's almost a rule of the trade. The enormous Victorian wardrobe is worth a fraction of the small velvet box on top of it.

Final thoughts from our experts

People often imagine treasure hunting involves discovering something extraordinary. In reality it usually involves noticing something ordinary that everyone else overlooked. That's the real skill, and once you develop it, you never quite look at a house the same way again.