Mark Howald, executive vice president of St. Louis auction house Ivey-Selkirk, says there’s a logic behind the simultaneous popularity of seemingly disparate styles.

“We’re seeing a move toward a minimalist look across all styles,” Howald said. Biedermeier, created in Germany and Austria from 1815 to 1848, and mid-century modern furniture are both architectural with clean lines.

Two other clean-lined styles that are popular now are English Regency and French Directoire, says Keitha Kaminski, director of Webster House Antiques.

Running her fingers along the carved front of a French Directoire cherry console, Kaminski said, “This is a country version of a piece that would have had lots of ormolu, lots of goop. This has the same soul and history but clean enough lines that you could put pretty contemporary things on it or next to it.”

“Everybody wants to have something like they remember their parents or their grandparents having,” said Judee Porter, co-owner of Cheep Antiques in Kansas City, Mo. The familial furnishings that each successive generation recalls (and wants to emulate or reject) change every 10 to 20 years, Porter said.

Mid-century modern, which most auction houses and dealers agree is the biggest trend at the moment, is something of a special case. Zesty Meyers, owner of R 20th Century in New York City, says the style is finally old enough to be taken seriously.

“Mid-century furniture is in demand for the first time since it was made,” he said.

EBay design director Shawn Henderson says within the “very hot” mid-century furniture category, the most popular designers based on searches and sales at the online auction site are Edward Wormley (for Dunbar), Paul McCobb and Harvey Probber.

Albert de Leon, owner of De Leon’s Furniture in Kansas City, Kan., says shifts in taste between simplicity and ornamentation reflect societal trends. During the materialistic ’80s, for example, ornamentation and gilding were in demand. Then in the ’90s the pendulum swung the other way, in favor of unadorned Mission furniture.

Today, some people are tired of the “tremendous simplicity” of Mission, and the more decorative Arts and Crafts style has come into favor, says Judith Miller, author of Collectibles Price Guide 2006 (Dorling Kindersley, $25).

Her newest book, Decorative Arts: Style and Design from Classical to Contemporary, is a weighty tome that offers examples of the styles, with pictures of rooms that show the overall look and pages devoted to examples of metalwork, furniture, glass, even plastic that are exemplary of each era’s distinct style.

Two other styles that feature clean forms with some ornamental flourishes are Federal (including Duncan Phyfe) and Chippendale. Both have seen a 200 percent to 300 percent increase in number of items sold in the last month compared with three months ago, Henderson said.

“Price also plays a tremendous role,” Miller says. “For example, people said old oak was completely out, so prices got really low, then people started noticing the good patternation [of the grain] and the good quality. Something is stylish and fun when it’s cheap.”

Trends in antiques are the same everywhere, says Miller, who is based in London. But purchasing behavior in Kansas City also reflects the Midwestern character, de Leon says.

Kansas Citians want historically significant styles that reflect refinement, education and cultural awareness. At the same time, their basic modesty and dislike of ostentation causes them to choose the simpler, less ornate pieces within any period.

Certain decades- or centuries-old furniture styles find themselves right at home in the 21st century. For example, city apartment dwellers and empty-nesters who are downsizing are snapping up small
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