It is nice to be in a business that the Sotheby’s/Christie’s Duopoly does not particularly care about and even discourages having to deal in it.  Their thoughts on the decorative arts as it relates to antique furniture and accessories has clearly been exhibited by their lack of catalog sales, failure to promote the sector, onerous 2% surcharge for low-balling estimates to sell on behalf of a seller, and a profit taking 25% buyer’s premium on the price level of these goods. In an effort to go retail they have successfully destroyed the secondary dealer market in this segment of the industry, which had given a floor to pricing. What have…

When I was trying to relax this past Sunday morning, I picked up the latest edition of The Art Newspaper and was stunned when I came upon an article explaining how the new English Regulatory Reform Act of 2013 would exempt the auctioneer’s from being a party to a public sale.  At auction, the restrictions and disclosure of financial arrangements are only applicable to dealers who form a “ring” or limit the number of potential buyers, but not on the auctioneer’s side of a deal. I can’t image how proud I would feel if I were a member of the British trade.  First they blinked at challenging the auctioneer’s buyer’s…

The alchemy of knowledge and passion can usually result in a productive creation (not necessarily legal either). However, in the decorative arts as a dealer or collector, it now requires a new calculation of the supply/demand equation.  The reality of how goods surface on the market has drastically changed and with it is a radically different consumer, who has an expanded or minimal visual perspective of space.   Filling the space to suite a lifestyle will usually require some sense of taste and style.  Today, the buyer of antiques for the home has not changed much and has always been the largest application for their functionality.  The home will always…

If you take out of the equation, Mid-20th Century Modern, the traditional antiques dealer no longer exists or does so as a relic of the past.  Counting down the number of surviving dealers from just 20 years ago is a staggering thought.  The monumental shift in taste has made the antiques business a one pony show of 20th Century and modern.  Dealers in classical French, English, 17th, 18th, and 19th Century decorative arts might never appear again. Never is a strong term, but the role of a dealer must evolve into being more of a merchant than a curator.  No one ever accused Sotheby’s and Christie’s of being curators, but…

I had an interesting conversation with Mario Buatta, who recently published a book on his lifetime of designing interiors for clients who could afford the best and looked to a person who understood what that meant.  We reminisced about the skills today’s clients require from their interior designer, and what was offered by those of a prior generation.  Unfortunately, we will never see those individuals who understood the job requirements of teaching a client what they were going to purchase and how its value was measured in what is was and how it added aesthetic qualities to enhance a living space. Mario Buatta is a living relic (sorry Mario for…

I can safely say that I have attended many Fine and Decorative Arts fairs and events where you get to see a lot of good, great, and outstanding items.  My clarion call is, “One man’s treasure is another man’s trash.” However, I must premise this review by stating that I am a Decorative Arts guy and I love anything that extrudes some human creative skill.  Music, art, theater, even a great real estate deal or speculative investment product is all the byproduct of creative thinking. I digressed—a show is all about the goods and this one had contemporary works challenging and dominating classical antiques. Maybe I should quickly relieve myself…