Antique Bellows between £0 and £0
A pair of hinged wooden boards joined by a leather gusset, squeezed by hand to push air through a metal nozzle and raise a fire in the grate.
What Are Antique Bellows?
Two shaped boards, a leather gusset between them, a valve, a metal nozzle and a pair of handles. Domestic hearths across Europe have used them for centuries, and they were made in quantity as fireside furnishings from the 18th century onward. Larger foot-worked versions served smiths' and workshop fires.
The version you'll meet on Sellingantiques is the wooden hand bellows, described in the title as a "pair" or a "set" - both mean one object, named for its two boards. Oak and elm between them account for eighteen of the fifty-eight titles, making native hardwoods the default. Carving turns up throughout, from folk art work to Green Man heads.
A distinct minority, eight titles, are the geared "mechanical" sort: a cased blower in mahogany or walnut with brass, worked by a crank rather than by squeezing. Several are given as George III. Alongside these sits a steady run of decorated polite-timber examples, inlaid mahogany, pen-work, lacquer, painted work and French chinoiserie.
Dating runs from 1700 to 1920, though it's loose more often than precise. "19th Century" alone covers twenty-three listings, so read a title like that as a century-wide estimate rather than a decade. Named periods appear sparingly. Occasionally the form leaves the hearth altogether: a blacksmith's foot bellows, a maritime foghorn, a bellows-shaped snuff box, a coffee table.
Where The Range Sits
Carving does most of the lifting. A plain small pair in oak or elm anchors the bottom of the range; depth and subject take a piece upward, and figural work goes furthest. Green Man heads recur, a long-handled pair carries a carved guildhall scene, and an Italian walnut set in the Renaissance style sits at the very top of what has sold.
Materials sort the field next. Oak and elm are the everyday timbers; mahogany and walnut with brass mounts sit above them, and they turn up mainly on the decorated and mechanical examples. Applied decoration works the same way, with inlay, pen-work, lacquer, painted grounds and chinoiserie all named in titles as the selling point rather than a footnote.
Mechanism is its own axis. The eight geared mechanical bellows cluster in the upper half of the range, above plain squeeze types. Scale counts too: dealers write "large" and "long handled" into titles instead of leaving them to the description, which tells you both are treated as a distinction worth paying for.
Retail Price Guide 2026
Typical UK retail prices for bellows between £0 and £0, calculated from the Sellingantiques database of over a million retail prices indexed since 2003. This retail price guide relies exclusively on Sellingantiques data; no external sources or auction records are used, so the figures do not describe the wider market.
Once each and no more: a blacksmith's foot bellows, a maritime bellows foghorn, an Irish peat bellows, a bellows-shaped snuff box, and a coffee table made from a bellows.
The Antique Bellows between £0 and £0 Glossary
- Pair of bellows
- The normal way a single bellows is described, from its two boards. A pair is one object, not two.
- Set of bellows
- The same thing again. Set and pair are used interchangeably across these titles.
- Gusset
- The leather sides joining the two boards, forming the air chamber that fills and empties.
- Nozzle
- The metal spout at the front that directs the air at the fire.
- Mechanical bellows
- A cased, geared blower turned by a crank instead of squeezed, typically mahogany or walnut with brass.
- Green Man
- A foliate carved face, a motif that recurs on the carved oak examples.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are bellows called a pair?
Because of the two hinged boards. The trade names the object by its parts, so "a pair of bellows" is one item you could pick up in one hand.
Seventeen of the fifty-eight titles use the word. "Set" appears too and means exactly the same.
What wood are they usually made from?
Oak and elm dominate. Between them they account for eighteen titles, which makes native hardwood the default for the plainer hand bellows.
Mahogany and walnut appear as well, but they cluster on the decorated pieces and the mechanical ones, generally paired with brass.
How do mechanical bellows differ?
They're worked by a crank rather than by squeezing. The gearing sits inside a wooden case, usually mahogany or walnut, with brass fittings.
Eight titles use the word mechanical, several of them described as George III. They sit in the upper half of the range.
What period do most examples date from?
The dated field spans 1700 to 1920, with twenty-two of the fifty-eight listings carrying a clean year.
"19th Century" on its own covers twenty-three listings, so that phrase means somewhere across the century rather than a fixed decade. A late Renaissance set and a late 17th or early 18th century oak pair are the earliest sampled, and both are isolated.
Georgian, Victorian and Regency labels are used sparingly.
Are non-fireside bellows ever listed?
Now and then. A blacksmith's foot bellows, a maritime bellows foghorn and an Irish brass-and-mahogany peat bellows have each turned up once.
The shape has also been borrowed for other objects, including a treen snuff box and a coffee table.
How often do bellows come up for sale?
About six a year on Sellingantiques, so it's a small but steady category.
Thirty-two different dealers have listed one, which means handling them one at a time is the norm rather than stocking them in numbers.