Antique Samovars between £0 and £0
A lidded copper vessel on a stand with a tap at its base, made to keep water hot at the table for tea.
What Is A Samovar?
The samovar proper is a Russian urn with an internal charcoal chimney, in general use from the eighteenth century. In Britain the same job was done by the tea or hot-water urn, heated by a hot iron billet or a spirit lamp. The two names are used interchangeably in the trade, and that is what you meet under this heading.
What dominates on Sellingantiques is the English copper urn of the Georgian-to-Victorian span. Copper appears in most titles, "urn" in over a third, and "tea urn" sits in the same title as "samovar" again and again. Roughly a third of titles say "english" outright. Not one says Russian.
Brass turns up in a sixth of titles, usually as the mounts, tap and handles on a copper body, and several pieces are titled "copper and brass" from the start. Above that group sit four silver-plated urns, including Sheffield plate and a George III example.
A smaller pocket is Continental: Dutch and English Georgian pewter coffee urns, a Dutch toleware coffee urn, and a Dutch pewter and bronze kraantjeskan dated to about 1750, the oldest thing in the samples. Two japanned "Pontypool Ware" tea urns and a pair of non-European water dispensers make up the tail.
Where Value Sits
Metal sets the broad band. Plain copper occupies the middle of the range and always has, being the body type most of these urns share. Plated, japanned and pewter examples cluster above it, the Pontypool ware and toleware pieces trading on painted decoration rather than on form.
After metal, it is completeness. Tap, lid, liner, stand and heater are what make an urn an urn, and dealers say so: "Complete", "Complete Samovar" and "with Original Fittings" are used as selling points in title after title. Size cuts both ways, with "large" and "huge" on some of the higher-asking copper, and "fine small" or "good small" Regency urns asked more than plain mid-sized ones.
A named retailer lifts a piece out of the crowd. Benetfink & Co, Fuller & Son of Dorking, Benham & Sons, Adams & Sons and Fortnum and Mason's all appear in titles, used as the distinguishing feature. Dealers' own wording follows the same curve, with "quality" and "fine quality" recurring on the copper and brass urns at the upper end.
Retail Price Guide 2026
Typical UK retail prices for samovars 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.
The top sale of the last year on Sellingantiques was a fine quality George III large copper samovar, sold in March 2026.
The Antique Samovars between £0 and £0 Glossary
- Tea urn
- The English form of the samovar, and the words are used for the same object. It turns up throughout, often alongside "samovar" in the very same line.
- Coffee urn
- The same vessel titled for coffee. On Sellingantiques it is mostly the Continental pewter and toleware pieces that carry this name.
- Fittings
- The tap, handles, lid finial and heater parts. "Original fittings" and "complete" are called out where the lot survives together.
- Bronzed copper
- Copper given a darkened, bronze-toned finish. Two Regency titles use the term.
- Pontypool ware
- Japanned tinplate or ironware with painted decoration, named in two Victorian tea urn titles and nowhere else in the category.
- Kraantjeskan
- A Dutch tap-jug or urn on a stand. One appears, in pewter and bronze.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are these actually Russian?
No. Not a single title in the archive says Russian, and no Russian-marked example turns up in the evidence.
The heading covers the English tea or hot-water urn, which did the same job by a different method: a hot iron billet or a spirit lamp instead of a charcoal chimney. The two names are traded as one.
What are most of them made of?
Copper. It appears in the majority of titles, usually as a plain body with brass mounts, tap and handles.
Beyond that there are four silver-plated urns, two japanned Pontypool ware urns, and a handful of Dutch pewter and toleware coffee urns.
How old are they?
The dated field runs from 1800 to 1920, with 24 of 58 listings carrying a clean year.
Much of the dating is broad rather than precise. "19th Century" is the largest bucket and "1800s" the next, while Regency, Georgian and Victorian are reign labels rather than dates. Treat any single year as the dealer's estimate unless they say otherwise.
How many come up for sale?
Around seven a year on Sellingantiques, spread across 21 different dealers.
That means most dealers who handle one handle only one, so the category is thinly supplied rather than steadily stocked.
Does anything unusual turn up under this heading?
Occasionally. A Japanese cloisonné enamel temple water dispenser with a dragon, 60cm tall and dated circa 1880, is the largest and highest-priced object in the archive, and it sits alone at the top.
At the other end, a Kashmir copper-and-bronze snake samovar is the only piece from the Indian subcontinent, and it sits at the very bottom of the range.
Why do listings say samovar and tea urn together?
Because dealers use both words for the same vessel, and buyers search on both.
There is a run of near-identical listings titled "Antique English Georgian/Victorian Copper Samovar", and "tea urn" recurs across the category, frequently in the same title as "samovar".