I was advised that my bashing the Duopoly auctioneers is a bit overdone.  Perhaps is it, but looking at the state of divergence between the decorative and fine arts markets, these auctioneers realize which one has reduces maintenance and storage costs which tend to be pretty high and fixed, for an easier way.  Now is a great opportunity for collectors but also dealers who see the hand writing on the wall; the private treaty format was conceived for these 800 pound gorillas to play the role of a dealer. The fine arts trade in a very crisp format that works well for the auction process. A huge inventory of bought-in art is…

Over the last 10 years there has been an amazing divergence in how the decorative and fine arts compare in growth and how they are marketed.  Fine art has become the playground of a younger as well as older generation while the decorative arts are treated as an appendage to the interior design trade.  With today’s ultra minimalism of less is more, the walls of any home offer the biggest and cleanest palate to start decorating.  How can you best complement that starting point? My business has had a long history of working with many incredible designers who created interiors for the rich and famous, both in real life and…

It is sometime in the late 1950s and Cecil Beaton comes knocking at the door, or rather in those days, just walking right in.  He probably was here to hopefully do the sets for a Broadway show or for whatever!  He knew Newel and loved being there to play.  And so it was at Newel in those times. The antiques business was a sideline enterprise compared to the rental side of the business.  Photographers of the best caliber rented from Newel for advertisements and fashion spreads.  At that time, the theater business was thriving and every Playbill noted in the credits, “furniture and furnishing from Newel Art Galleries”.  With an…

As this year draws to an end I can’t help but look back over the last decade, and realize how my business and its industry have evolved.  Ten years ago we lived in an emerging internet world, and the start of the decline in the traditional decorative arts.  A decade or so before, when the Japanese art speculation bubble burst, decorative arts were considered rock solid.  Are period decorative arts really and finally getting rediscovered, and how will the industry make adjustments to continue to grow? For me my first seminal experience in the industry was a decade ago, in 2001.  It was the year I completed the purchase of…

I had some “old” dealer friends email me that I hadn’t written a blog in a while.  I hate to make excuses, but there is a major project underway at Newel that took my focus away from writing (there were plenty of times I wished I could have written something).  This industry is potentially far stronger than how it has evolved under the methods of deception and conflicts of interest perpetrated by the Sotheby’s/Christie’s auctioneer duopoly.  Their business model is built on a real house of cards.   The only effective way to really change this industry from the auction centric thinking is to do what they do, but better.…

So much for the New York Times being an elitist paper, as Steven Kurutz writes of buying antiques on 1st Dib for an article in last Thursday’s Home section.  The writer reveals his ignorance of values with the excuse of having a beer budget.  Excuse me, but good luck finding a Picasso on Craig’s List.  Understanding how a marketplace works would be a good start and having a site where dealers post prices is a lot better than auctions, where you have to be duped into finding where the price to buy starts. I find that articles like Kurutz’s have a negative point of view about pricing for these objects.…

I enjoyed the study of macro economics in college, but real life experiences tend to clarify how much you really don’t know (and my oversight of micro economics).  It sounds a bit like being in the decorative arts business most of your life.  I always believed these objects would develop an economic asset model with a bid/ ask marketplace for valuation, trade, and liquidation.  If you build it, will they come? As a dealer in the decorative arts, the changes that have transpired in how the industry operates are a story of the fall of great dealers and collectors over the last centuries, to the auctions.  It happened pretty clearly…

With the latest round of stock market gyrations from the Great Recession aftermath, where can you put your money?   With assets measured in stability, the home investment was always considered rock solid.  Now, is it US 10 year bonds yielding 2.5%?  The idea of investing in decorative art items doesn’t sound like an impossible asset to use as a hedge to all the other options. It’s a funny thought that I actually don’t like to push decorative art objects as “investments” because I don’t like to speculate as much as know what I’m buying.  I can teach someone about an item but if they have a different idea of value,…

Elle Décor Magazine has been setting the new standard of success in the shelter magazine competition.  Their editorial style has attracted a hip and stylish following of readers and the work of designers who accommodate that sensibility.  The void of classical furniture and period decorative arts that are pre-1940s is startling.  Whatever happened to creative, dramatic interiors embellished with these interesting, functional, and well crafted items? If you want to understand why today’s decorators feature these stark, white walled and glass residences, go look at an old Architectural Digest from the 1970s.  What kind of stodgy, very old fashion rooms were featured?  The wall paper (heaven forbid) and boring brown…

Any family owned business run by the third generation, probably has had to evolve or have a format that is very predictable.  I would be ignorant if I didn’t think luck and timing never hurt either.  A fourth generation of family is lurking in my business; what must the possibilities of the decorative arts trade future be?   Reports that the antiques trade is rebounding is the biggest joke in the fine and decorative arts world.  You just can’t keep contemporary or 20th Century modern sculpture and fine art down.  As a fourth generation dealer focused on the decorative arts, you better have luck and timing, or a real business…