Working as a valuer can be a bit like working as a detective. While most things consigned for auction are instantly recognisable, others are not, and if there’s no paperwork to go with them, you have to rely on your knowledge and wits.

Most of you will have witnessed how experts start to go about deciphering the unknown from watching the Antiques Roadshow. The first thing they will do is look at the item to see if it has/had any apparent function. What is it made from? Are there any identifying marks, as there so often are with porcelain and silver, for instance? Is there a maker’s label? Is there any documentation, no matter how flimsy, that comes with it? Finally, how did it come to be in the consignor’s hands?

Piecing the story together is one of the most fascinating aspects of working in this wonderful business of ours. It can be frustrating but never boring. Sometimes, when you have unpacked all the clues, you find you have a real treasure in your hands.

No matter how long you work as a valuer and auctioneer, there is always another surprise around the corner. The latest was a strange brass instrument with a turning handle identified by a colleague at another auction house as a tobacco shredder.

One of the most successful and interesting dealers and collectors of modern times is the American Warner Dailey. Now in his seventies, he came to England in the early 1970s. His most important client was the businessman and philanthropist Malcom Forbes.

Warner has a never ending list of stories about his experiences, the common theme of which is the fact that he has always been entirely immersed in his passion for what and why people collect.

He started as 17-year-old, clearing out the attic of a wealthy family who lived nearby in Upstate New York. They went by the name Pierpont Morgan and his success in selling their cast-offs made them take notice of this precocious teenager. However, it was his canny foresight in appreciating the future collectable attraction of New England quilts that also set him on the road to riches. Touring round in a beaten up old car in the run-up to Halloween, he would offer 50 cents and a new blanket to protect the precious pumpkins from frost to any householder who would hand over their disregarded hand-stitched quilt covering the vegetable plot.

Warner made a small fortune as a result, but he would never have spotted the opportunity if had not been for his early and enduring passion for the art and craft of his fellow countrymen.

The beginning of September heralds the start of the new school year and the return to work for children and adults after the summer break. While the long hazy days of summer (we’ll draw a veil over the neverending rain at the beginning of August) fade over the horizon, in the auction world this is the time for a fresh start too.

It used to be that July and August were all but lost, as far as business was concerned, as the rest of the world headed for the beach or the airport, but with the internet and today’s global audience of bidders, the auction schedule in Fernhurst cannot afford to let up even for a minute. Of course it’s a double-edged sword; summer used to be the time for putting your feet up, reviewing the season and getting everything shipshape for September. Now, while September still means a reboot in the sales schedule, July and August have become as active as the rest of the year, with consignments flying in as the public understands that bids are no longer limited to the local town and a thirty-mile radius roundabout.

These days it is commonplace to have several hundred bidders from fifty or more countries register for a special oriental, Islamic Art or Fine Antique sale. The antique really has benefitted from the modern when it comes to technology… but spare a thought for me and my colleagues – we have yet to have our holidays!

Times change and tastes change with them; this is why so many people now confidently claim that brown furniture is dead as a market. I disagree. While some of the heavier monumental pieces in mahogany and other dark woods may struggle to find buyers these days, other lighter designs with clean lines and beautiful proportions can still command strong prices.

Craftsmanship has never been more valued, which in part explains the continuing success of Robert ‘Mouseman’ Thompson, whose Kilburn workshop turned out a wide range of lovingly carved utilitarian furniture, honed in the Arts and Crafts tradition, embellished with the artisan’s signature mouse.

The Edward Barnsley workshop near Petersfield still creates beautifully crafted works, while bidders will chase pieces by Ernest Gimson and Gordon Russell to the ends of the earth. Don’t even get me started on post-war Scandinavian design!

So what should we look for when trying to predict what will become the valuable antiques and collectables of tomorrow?

Whether it is furniture or any other discipline, I would argue that the same rules apply. To a greater or lesser degree the important factors are rarity, craftsmanship, materials, aesthetic appeal, condition, historic association, maker and condition. Of these, rarity is possibly the best indicator. Apply these measures and you may well start to spot tomorrow’s auction treasures today.