Michael’s Blog

It is the new year, the stock markets are in, shall we say, a state of flux, and housing starts are at a low ebb. With all this, we still find we are able to make the occasional sale. In fact, we delivered a nice piece of goods to a wonderful home in southern California just last weekend and had a chance to visit with the homeowner, an astonishing businesswoman with a sense of optimism tempered with a practicality acquired, no doubt, through the school of hard knocks. Even though she’s a veteran of the rough and tumble of business, she is certainly one of the kindest people I’ve met recently, and generous with her wisdom.

Her home is magnificent and in the three years since its acquisition, she’s done some great things to it, without altering its original design integrity. Actually, she’s almost entirely reversed the damage done by the previous owner, whose garish lack of taste resulted in an interior scheme she characterized as ‘early Christmas tree lights’. She, however, is a business woman through and through, whose homes, to date, have been merchandise she has bought and sold. She does, however, like the home she’s in presently, as well she should, and is happy to stay. Herein, then, is the valuable bit of market intelligence she has communicated to us- she is happy to stay in her home during the present real estate nadir, and, while not looking for the next project, she can focus, then, on the home’s perfection- patiently looking for and finding just the right pieces of furniture and artwork. She has slowed the pace down from what was formerly always moving to a frenzied completion, with an eye for immediate sale.

In the last several years- certainly from 2002 through 2005- a number of our interior design clients were working on projects at a pace that one would expect if they were trying to complete an interior design show house- which, in fact, they were, as many of their clients were expecting to cash in on a sale once the project looked remotely complete. No designer I’ve ever met enjoys working under such pressure to complete. Creativity can’t be rushed, and inspired design, informed by a collaboration between the designer and the client takes months, if not years, to accomplish. What, then, I think we will see from the present market slowdown will be an efflorescence of fine design, the kind of design that can only take place when the designer has the time to get to know the client, really understand the project, and also has the opportunity to fully utilize the resources that the marchands mercier make available.

We sold a late 18th century sideboard the last week of 2007. Actually, sideboards were a hot item for us this past year, including a small piece that was purchased by a Paris-based collector for his apartment in the Marais. Now that I think about it, last week’s sale was to a Parisian, too- this time an interior designer, working on a project in Los Angeles. 

Frankly, our business in 2007 is much improved over 2006. We sold plenty of good quality Georgian pieces that, as with the sideboards, no one seemed too interested in in 2006- or the last half of 2005, for that matter. But we also sold a goodly amount of mid century furniture in 2007 and had some favorable notice taken of the contemporary furniture line we’ve developed. 

While not suggesting that English sideboards are suddenly in vogue amongst the style-cognoscenti of France, and, though not planning on cornering the market for good quality Georgian sideboards any time soon, neither will I abandon this piece of basic dealer gear. Trying not to read too much into the sideboard phenomenon, the implications of the recent sales, and the happily now distant dearth of sales,  are worth considering.

Our core business remains quality 18th century English furniture and, as we  don’t wish to confuse our clients- both collector and interior designer- we would shrink from any abrupt change in what we do. We have worked hard to establish ourselves as a resource for our specific material. Our clients don’t buy from us all the time, but when they are ready, we want to be available to them with the quality stock in trade that they have come to expect.

With all that, we don’t want to be unresponsive to changes in clients’ demands, either. Where so much of our business is now driven by interior designers, it is imperative that we be seen as a resource for quality pieces, regardless of period. Although I have no wish to do the designer’s job for them, we also want to make certain that, within the environment of our own galleries, at least, we subtly suggest how these pieces fit together- how, for example, the Printz sideboard of the 1930’s visually articulates with the George II walnut chair back settee of the 1730’s.

This balancing act, frankly, is the dilemma, with the sideboard as the trope. How long can a shop like ours stay the same, and  how risky is it to make a change? That’s an open question, and don’t, my ten devoted readers, expect to find a simple answer here. What is abundantly clear, though, is that Style will cycle quickly, and with the internet as the communications vector, traditional English can, as we’ve seen lately, easily find its way into a French aesthetic.