How to Pack and Ship an Antique So It Arrives in One Piece
Published 2026-10-14 · Selling Antiques · Antique Partner
Quick answer: Double boxing, why newspaper is not padding, what carrier insurance actually covers on something old, and the packing mistakes that cause most breakages. A practical guide for anyone selling beyond their own county.
Selling Antiques
How to Pack and Ship an Antique So It Arrives in One Piece
By Nicolas · October 14, 2026 · 8 min read
A breakage costs you three times. You refund the money, you lose the piece, and you carry the review. Which makes packing the highest-value fifteen minutes in the whole transaction, and the part almost nobody practises.
The good news is that nearly all damage comes from a short list of avoidable mistakes, and the fix for most of them is the same:
nothing fragile should ever touch the outside of a box.
Double box, and mean it
One box is a container. Two boxes is packaging. The inner box holds the wrapped piece snugly; the outer box is at least three inches larger on every side, with that gap filled so the inner box cannot shift. FedEx asks for three inches of cushioning around the inner box, and UPS requires double boxing on fragile items over ten pounds.
The reason is simple physics. A parcel is not carried, it is dropped, thrown onto a belt and stacked under other parcels. In a single box the shock goes straight through the cardboard into the object. In a double box the outer wall crushes, the fill compresses, and the piece never feels the corner it landed on.
For anything genuinely fragile or valuable, this is not optional and it is not excessive. It is the difference between a claim and a delivery.
Wrap the object, then immobilise it
Two different jobs, and people do the first and skip the second.
Wrapping
protects the surface. Acid-free tissue against the piece itself, then bubble wrap with the bubbles facing inward, against the tissue. The tissue is what protects the surface; the bubbles do the cushioning. Every projecting part gets wrapped separately: handles, spouts, finials, feet. Those are what snap.
Immobilising
stops it moving. Once the wrapped piece is in the inner box, fill every void until you can shake the box and hear nothing. Silence is the test. If it rattles, it will break, and no amount of FRAGILE tape changes that.
Newspaper is not padding.
It compresses to nothing within a day of vibration and the ink transfers onto porous surfaces. Use foam, air pillows, proper packing paper or clean bubble wrap.
The pieces that need special handling
Item
What goes wrong, and what to do
Plates and shallow bowls
Shipped flat, they snap across the middle. Wrap each one and stand them
on edge
, like records, packed tight.
Anything with a lid
The lid chips the rim it sits on. Wrap and pack lids separately, never seated.
Framed pictures and mirrors
Tape a large X across the glass so a break holds together, then corner protectors and a flat mirror carton.
Clocks
Remove the pendulum and secure or remove the weights. A swinging pendulum in transit wrecks the movement.
Silver and metals
Tarnish-resistant cloth or acid-free tissue. Never bubble wrap directly against silver for long transits.
Insurance, and what it will not pay
Read this part before you need it. Carrier cover is narrower than most sellers assume, and antiques sit awkwardly inside it.
Declared value is not insurance.
It caps a claim, it does not guarantee one. Claims are routinely refused on the grounds of insufficient packing, which is precisely why double boxing matters commercially and not just physically.
Proving value is your job.
Photograph the piece before wrapping, photograph it wrapped, photograph it in the box, and keep the sale record. Without evidence of what it was and how it was packed, a claim is an argument you lose.
Some carriers exclude antiques outright
, or cap them low, and a few will not cover glass and ceramics at all. For a genuinely valuable piece, a specialist fine-art shipper costs more and is the cheaper option.
The short version
Double box with three inches of fill all round. Wrap projections separately, then fill until the box is silent. No newspaper. Plates on edge, lids off, pendulums out, an X of tape on glass. Photograph everything before it goes. And assume the claim will be refused for poor packing, because that is the one thing entirely within your control.
Rather sell it locally?
Nothing to pack. Find shops, malls and consignment near you.
Where to sell antiques locally