An Antique Dealer's Blog: Looking at English Furniture
5/27/2005
It is too nice a day here to pay attention to interior related things.
I regret that, of course. Summer is a great time to buy antiques.
Dealers tend to be eager to do deals, but when aren't they? It is also
a great time to get rid of the second rate. You won't miss that set of
dining chairs that are always breaking or that 19th century gilded
mirror if you just stick them in your car and hand them over to the
local dealer or auctioneer. You will be on the patio, in the pool or
someplace exotic and those things will be a distant memory by the time
you return. Of course, when you free up space you are making
opportunities to buy something better.
Never let a beautiful day get you down. There is plenty out there to smile about.
Never let a beautiful day get you down. There is plenty out there to smile about.
5/26/2005
"English furniture is so rich and it only gets better with age." These
are the words of a restorer friend who has been in the business since
1966. He continued to say, "I don't understand how a wealthy person
could not at least give English furniture a look when deciding on a
style of decoration."
Naturally, I concurred with his statements. But it takes time to understand this stuff. It takes a desire to understand it as well. I have spent over thirty years learning about it and I still feel there is more to know. Of course, living with antiques is different than dealing in antiques..., somewhat. To be a dealer you have to want to see your inventory every day. Owning great furniture requires that you look at it. It doesn't allow you not to. If you can't live with that, you shouldn't buy English furniture. The stuff may not be art, but it has presence.
Don't take my word for it, however. Try it yourself.
Naturally, I concurred with his statements. But it takes time to understand this stuff. It takes a desire to understand it as well. I have spent over thirty years learning about it and I still feel there is more to know. Of course, living with antiques is different than dealing in antiques..., somewhat. To be a dealer you have to want to see your inventory every day. Owning great furniture requires that you look at it. It doesn't allow you not to. If you can't live with that, you shouldn't buy English furniture. The stuff may not be art, but it has presence.
Don't take my word for it, however. Try it yourself.
5/25/2005
Wardrobes, like Davenport desks and polescreens, are impossible to
sell. Every dealer regrets that impulse that causes them to buy one.
And yet some dealers thrive on them. The point is that this business is
intensely personal and very private. Dealers don't want you to know
anything about their inventory other than it is for sale. For a time in
the 1980's, dealers could be seen bidding at auction, but no more.
Nobody wants their purchases scrutinized.
Partridge Fine Arts has reduced the value of their inventory by ten million pounds, down from twenty-eight to eighteen million. Perhaps the greatest dealers in the 20th century, the firm used to be prominent in the sale rooms, sitting right up front buying the best things that they could. John Partridge says that the value of his inventory has diminished. I don't think so. I think that they haven't changed with the times.
Partridge Fine Arts has reduced the value of their inventory by ten million pounds, down from twenty-eight to eighteen million. Perhaps the greatest dealers in the 20th century, the firm used to be prominent in the sale rooms, sitting right up front buying the best things that they could. John Partridge says that the value of his inventory has diminished. I don't think so. I think that they haven't changed with the times.
5/24/2005
A crisis of small proportions, but if the "G" in my title is
capitalized, shouldn't the "t" also be capitalized? I look for guidance.
Not Rio, exactly, but Palm Beach. I try to remember Rio and I do, in a way. Rio was a room that fit my bed and that was it. The beaches were endless and packed with people. It was July and mid-winter weather was eighty degrees. The water was cool but very refreshing and like all the other beachs I visited on that trip in Tahiti, Green Island, Bali and Sri Lanka, someone needed rescuing. The botanical garden was like a stage set with royal palms parading the entrance. A beautiful city that somehow felt like it was set apart.
But Palm Beach is special, too. Insouciance, perhaps, or just a lazy feel. It is a place of languor and wealth and where there is wealth, there is English furniture. I shall return.
Not Rio, exactly, but Palm Beach. I try to remember Rio and I do, in a way. Rio was a room that fit my bed and that was it. The beaches were endless and packed with people. It was July and mid-winter weather was eighty degrees. The water was cool but very refreshing and like all the other beachs I visited on that trip in Tahiti, Green Island, Bali and Sri Lanka, someone needed rescuing. The botanical garden was like a stage set with royal palms parading the entrance. A beautiful city that somehow felt like it was set apart.
But Palm Beach is special, too. Insouciance, perhaps, or just a lazy feel. It is a place of languor and wealth and where there is wealth, there is English furniture. I shall return.
5/20/2005
My niece Cecil, the last of six nieces who range in age from 36 to 22,
is graduating from college this weekend (well done Cecil!). My daughter
is going to be a junior at the University of Wisconsin next year. When
I started in this business, late Regency furniture was not even a
century and a half old. Time passes on and it requires an open attitude
to a number of things such as design but also value. What things cost
is an inevitable spiral upwards unless you buy the mediocre. Keeping an
open mind is the important thing, however, no matter what else changes.
5/19/2005
The English furniture business is poised for its annual bash in June. There is
the Olympia Fair and there is Grosvenor House. Olympia opens on June 9,
I believe and Grosvenor House the next week on the 15th. A good time
will be had by all, I hope.
The English furniture market in London has been desultory for the last three to four years. There are numerous alleged causes for this from the strength of the British currency, the lack of traveling by potential buyers, a stylistic shift away from 18th and early 19th century English furniture, the auction house dominance of the retail trade, the role of the Internet which has diminished the incentive to actually visit shops and the very high prices that good English furniture costs these days. All of these reasons may play a role and yet the two fairs are almost always hugely successful. That is because furniture, of all the decorative arts, needs to be seen by the buyer. These two fairs attract most of the buyers in the field and there is ample choice. Seeing English furniture is believing English furniture.
The English furniture market in London has been desultory for the last three to four years. There are numerous alleged causes for this from the strength of the British currency, the lack of traveling by potential buyers, a stylistic shift away from 18th and early 19th century English furniture, the auction house dominance of the retail trade, the role of the Internet which has diminished the incentive to actually visit shops and the very high prices that good English furniture costs these days. All of these reasons may play a role and yet the two fairs are almost always hugely successful. That is because furniture, of all the decorative arts, needs to be seen by the buyer. These two fairs attract most of the buyers in the field and there is ample choice. Seeing English furniture is believing English furniture.
5/18/2005
There are times when the world seems completely insane. War and
politics are two obvious culprits and so are country house sales. I am
alluding to the sale at Easton Neston, of course, Sotheby's
extravaganza in Northamptonshire. The prices there will be blindingly
high and for no (apparent) aesthetic reason. Sotheby's, and Christie's
for that matter, are old hands at getting the media out in force to see
a little of England's gilded splendor. I went to view
the sale on media day and the Sotheby's PR crew were doing a
bang up job for the people wielding cameras and video
equipment. It was less a circus and more a controlled happening.
The house is beautiful with a ridiculously long staircase that requires a Sherpa for the trek, a good plasterwork dining room and sensational grounds. The furniture is not much to speak about but what is there will probably sell very well. I was extremely pleased to see the house as it sits beautifully and is quite small by country house standards. I am sorry that the National Trust or the nation or some preservation organization did not go after it, but they probably have their hands full already. Alas, another one bites the dust.
The house is beautiful with a ridiculously long staircase that requires a Sherpa for the trek, a good plasterwork dining room and sensational grounds. The furniture is not much to speak about but what is there will probably sell very well. I was extremely pleased to see the house as it sits beautifully and is quite small by country house standards. I am sorry that the National Trust or the nation or some preservation organization did not go after it, but they probably have their hands full already. Alas, another one bites the dust.
5/17/2005
Not having written anything for awhile, I find that I am shy to open up
on any topic, let alone antiques. (I do admire the hype for Easton
Neston, however, which I visited last week.) There is most definitely a
rhythm to this tune and I don't have it. I will try again tomorrow.
5/6/2005
Easton Neston
One of the great pleasures of being in the antiques business is going to country house sales. Easton Neston, a house designed by Hawksmoor in Northamtonshire is having some of its contents sold by Sotheby's on the 17th through the 19th of May. It is a beautiful house that I have long wanted to see and I will be able to wander around it turning furniture upside down, a pleasant activity at any time. See you there!
One of the great pleasures of being in the antiques business is going to country house sales. Easton Neston, a house designed by Hawksmoor in Northamtonshire is having some of its contents sold by Sotheby's on the 17th through the 19th of May. It is a beautiful house that I have long wanted to see and I will be able to wander around it turning furniture upside down, a pleasant activity at any time. See you there!
4/29/2005
Hyping Hype
Hype, when it is successful, is good marketing and when it isn't, it is more like hectoring. How many Super Bowls were as good as advertised? One aspect of hype is to overcome inherent understanding which Malcolm Gladwell describes in his book "Blink" as the adaptive unconscious--the ability to make decisions, often the correct ones, in a very short time, i.e. seconds. Hype is that persuasion that can trample the adaptive unconscious.
Of course, English furniture is subject to hype. The auction houses do it best, but everyone has to hype their product in order to be noticed. It seems shrill and unnecessary at times, but it works.
The taste for art and antiques, like the clothes you wear, the books you like to read and the food you eat, is personal. Does the adaptive unconscious necessarily make tasteful decisions or do we need hype to help us define our tastes?
Hype, when it is successful, is good marketing and when it isn't, it is more like hectoring. How many Super Bowls were as good as advertised? One aspect of hype is to overcome inherent understanding which Malcolm Gladwell describes in his book "Blink" as the adaptive unconscious--the ability to make decisions, often the correct ones, in a very short time, i.e. seconds. Hype is that persuasion that can trample the adaptive unconscious.
Of course, English furniture is subject to hype. The auction houses do it best, but everyone has to hype their product in order to be noticed. It seems shrill and unnecessary at times, but it works.
The taste for art and antiques, like the clothes you wear, the books you like to read and the food you eat, is personal. Does the adaptive unconscious necessarily make tasteful decisions or do we need hype to help us define our tastes?
4/27/2005
Radio Days
I was listening to a radio program discussing the painter Jean Michel Basquiat's pasintings and one of the interviewees talked about how Basquiat's paintings had stood the test of time. I am intrigued by the phrase, "stood the test of time".
The decorative arts are measured differently than fine art. A chair that doesn't work as a chair has a fundamental problem--it not only doesn't stand the test of time, it does not get sold in the first place. Eighteenth century furniture had to function and be aesthetically pleasing. There was little margin for error. An uncomfortable or unsightly chair was not worth making.
I like Basquiat's work. I always have. What I don't like is the inevitable hype that accompanies any retrospective of an artist, alive or dead. Perhaps that is why I like the decorative arts so much. Hype can't hide the lack of comfort or poor proportions or just plain bad craftsmanship.
I was listening to a radio program discussing the painter Jean Michel Basquiat's pasintings and one of the interviewees talked about how Basquiat's paintings had stood the test of time. I am intrigued by the phrase, "stood the test of time".
The decorative arts are measured differently than fine art. A chair that doesn't work as a chair has a fundamental problem--it not only doesn't stand the test of time, it does not get sold in the first place. Eighteenth century furniture had to function and be aesthetically pleasing. There was little margin for error. An uncomfortable or unsightly chair was not worth making.
I like Basquiat's work. I always have. What I don't like is the inevitable hype that accompanies any retrospective of an artist, alive or dead. Perhaps that is why I like the decorative arts so much. Hype can't hide the lack of comfort or poor proportions or just plain bad craftsmanship.
4/26/2005
Incompetence
Auction houses offer the essential service of telephone bidding for clients who cannot personally attend an auction. It is a service, like most of their services, whish has a caveat meaning that if they don't get in touch with you, it is too bad.
Like taxi drivers whose bad driving makes all taxis culpable, one poorly run auction house tars the rest. Some auction houses are very well organized and others are not. I might add that I have known small auction houses that service their clients very well and large well established ones that just cna't do anything right.
I am on this subject because an auction house missed a bid of mine. How would you feel if it was your item that didn't have all the bidders on it that were possible? Snafus happen, but in the last year I have had three bids lost out of approximately twenty I have left in place. If I was a consignor, I would be concerned.
Auction houses offer the essential service of telephone bidding for clients who cannot personally attend an auction. It is a service, like most of their services, whish has a caveat meaning that if they don't get in touch with you, it is too bad.
Like taxi drivers whose bad driving makes all taxis culpable, one poorly run auction house tars the rest. Some auction houses are very well organized and others are not. I might add that I have known small auction houses that service their clients very well and large well established ones that just cna't do anything right.
I am on this subject because an auction house missed a bid of mine. How would you feel if it was your item that didn't have all the bidders on it that were possible? Snafus happen, but in the last year I have had three bids lost out of approximately twenty I have left in place. If I was a consignor, I would be concerned.
4/22/2005
Experts
There are a lot of experts out there--advisers, academics,collectors, museum personnel, restorers, decorators, auction experts. When you put your money behind an object is when you are an expert.
There are a lot of experts out there--advisers, academics,collectors, museum personnel, restorers, decorators, auction experts. When you put your money behind an object is when you are an expert.
4/21/2005
Auctions
You might get the impression that I am agaisnt all auctions by what I have been writing. Not at all. Auctions are important to my business. They disseminate goods, publicize the busainess in general and can demonstrate what the market is willing to pay for items. My complaint is to do with the inherent conflict of offering expertise to buyers when it is their job, first and foremost, to sell. I certainly buy at auction, sometimes for less than I would have paid an owner and if you consider that the ultimate charge to the buyer is thirty percent, ten percent to the owner and twenty percent to the buyer, the owner is paying a great deal for the privilege of selling at auction. I would hasten to add that I like most of the auction world people although I think they have a simplified view of what dealing is about.
Pierre Trudeau, the former prime minister of Canada, said that being next to the United States was a bit like sleeping with an elephant. The antqiues trade has the same problem with auction houses.
You might get the impression that I am agaisnt all auctions by what I have been writing. Not at all. Auctions are important to my business. They disseminate goods, publicize the busainess in general and can demonstrate what the market is willing to pay for items. My complaint is to do with the inherent conflict of offering expertise to buyers when it is their job, first and foremost, to sell. I certainly buy at auction, sometimes for less than I would have paid an owner and if you consider that the ultimate charge to the buyer is thirty percent, ten percent to the owner and twenty percent to the buyer, the owner is paying a great deal for the privilege of selling at auction. I would hasten to add that I like most of the auction world people although I think they have a simplified view of what dealing is about.
Pierre Trudeau, the former prime minister of Canada, said that being next to the United States was a bit like sleeping with an elephant. The antqiues trade has the same problem with auction houses.
4/20/2005
Auctions
I was talking to someone who was in the securities market for over thirty years and discussing what I felt was the inherent conflict of the auction market, i.e. who exactly does the auction house serve, the buyer or the seller? My interlocutor said, both, without any hesitation. He said they did it in the financial markets all the time. Maybe it can work in the financial markets, but furniture is something else in my opinion. The furniture market is an illiquid market and the point of an auction is to turn furniture into cash for the consignor. You have to be working for the consignor in this construct. What if, however, the auction expert touts an item as the best when that is not the case? What if a piece is mistakenly catalogued and it goes unnoticed? The auctions have a caveat in their catalogue to protect themselves in these cases. How can they possibly be serving the buyer?
A Chinese 12 panel coromandel screen (Lot 136) sold in the Christie's sale last Friday. It was at a dealer's shop for over eight years and he never had one enquiry about it. He was selling it for less than $40,000, It was bid to $75,000 and cost the new buyer $90,000 after paying the twenty percent commission to Christie's. A rosewood canterbury (Lot 164) in the same sale sold for $12,000, $14,400 after the commission. It had been reduced in height. I sold a rosewood canterbury with a maker's label for $12,000 just two months ago. I had it at the Winter Antiques Show and qualitatively, it was far superior to the one in the auction.
I was talking to someone who was in the securities market for over thirty years and discussing what I felt was the inherent conflict of the auction market, i.e. who exactly does the auction house serve, the buyer or the seller? My interlocutor said, both, without any hesitation. He said they did it in the financial markets all the time. Maybe it can work in the financial markets, but furniture is something else in my opinion. The furniture market is an illiquid market and the point of an auction is to turn furniture into cash for the consignor. You have to be working for the consignor in this construct. What if, however, the auction expert touts an item as the best when that is not the case? What if a piece is mistakenly catalogued and it goes unnoticed? The auctions have a caveat in their catalogue to protect themselves in these cases. How can they possibly be serving the buyer?
A Chinese 12 panel coromandel screen (Lot 136) sold in the Christie's sale last Friday. It was at a dealer's shop for over eight years and he never had one enquiry about it. He was selling it for less than $40,000, It was bid to $75,000 and cost the new buyer $90,000 after paying the twenty percent commission to Christie's. A rosewood canterbury (Lot 164) in the same sale sold for $12,000, $14,400 after the commission. It had been reduced in height. I sold a rosewood canterbury with a maker's label for $12,000 just two months ago. I had it at the Winter Antiques Show and qualitatively, it was far superior to the one in the auction.
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