Michael’s Blog

Nothing quite so portentous as my blog title implies, beyond my sister and brother-in-law hitting town to enjoy the incoming with Keith and me. Breaking from their teaching duties, and us from minding the store, we will enjoy our rib of beef and Yorkshire pudding on New Year’s Day. My readers may not all know this, but our London residence coincided for a number of years with my sister and her family living in Hertfordshire. As it happened, we were separated by only 40 minutes door to door, with a convenient train service and their proximity to the station. Consequently, one  thing we did with some regularity was enjoy a Sunday roast lunch, an enjoyment we hope to reprise day after tomorrow.

With just the four of us, the table will be a little less grand, although I will again haul out what heirloom silver and linen, as they are my sister’s heirlooms, too. A smaller Regency period dining table will be pressed into service but with contemporary upholstered dining chairs. Astoundingly, with my sister now in Pasadena, I see less of her than when she lived in England. Keith and I want all of us to be comfortable while having a good long visit.

Given a bit of luck, and a tot or three of champagne, our visit will hopefully avoid focus on what has been a challenging year for all of us, and challenging for my loyal readers who are doubtless sick to death of my complaining. Let’s then, all of us, look forward with optimism to the New Year and gleefully turn our backs on the memory of 2009.

With my parents on the train homeward and the dishwasher laboring, I’ve a brief opportunity to review the day’s events. And I can happily say that Christmas Day was gloriously uneventful. The roast duck was everything it should be- moist and flavorful on the inside, with crispy skin without. The braised cabbage was about the tastiest I’ve ever had, and all of this preceded by my favorite starter, potted shrimps. Mind you, these might have been improved with brown shrimps from Morecombe Bay, but what we had was pretty damn fine, to quote a transplanted Yorkshireman- he knows who he is. All of this was served upon a Regency period mahogany dining table, of course I had to work that in, with the iridescent timber of the table articulating perfectly with the silver cutlery and china service.

Frankly, getting out the serving pieces that hadn’t seen the light of day for a year, the Irish linen likewise hidden away, and employing them to add to the enjoyment of our yuletide feast was about as much fun as I’ve had in a long while. What happens, and maybe this is a side benefit of getting older, was that I could muse on the other times these items have been used, earlier Christmases, fabulous dinner parties that were events in themselves, and, as my silver and Irish linen are heirlooms, the enjoyment my grandparents and their friends got out of them. This may be overstating things, but I don’t think so, that objects, precious though inanimate, do become iconic in the possession of those who can feel their iconic properties.

And, of course, my own use adds to their spiritual energy. That’s by way of saying the more beloved objects are used, the more they are enjoyed. With all that, one of my wishes this holiday season is that next year sees the silver out of its canteen with much, much greater frequency, and the dining table functions not just as an adjunct of the dining room, but becomes as it should be the center of all-occasion conviviality.

What has cyber Monday wrought? Hard to know, exactly, with the crowds crowding Union Square belying any notion that people are staying at home and browsing online. We took a few hours off yesterday and did a bit of shopping, and found the suburban shopping centre that we had gifted with our custom every bit as busy as I can ever remember. That said, Christmas 2008 is still a part of my memory, and things were not so good. Trust me, things are better, even in our world of English antiques, with Keith and I delivering a Christmas purchase to one of our better clients this afternoon. Not a dining table or a breakfront, but maybe when the bonuses kick in early next year.

And well they might. We do see the occasional hedge fund type nosing around and know that bonuses will be paid. Although it has not been without a significant amount of weeping and gnashing of teeth, that does not completely occlude the overall performance of financial and commodities markets this year. Cash flow? Not so strong. Portfolio appreciation? Significant, and that’s what the bonus is paid on.

So, with all that, we are cautiously merry, or at least to the extent we went to brunch yesterday. It is Dungeness crab season along the northern California coast, and both of us enjoyed superb crab omelettes. No Bloody Marys or Ramos Fizzes- I said we are cautiously merry.

Gore Vidal tells a story on himself about his reaction when Truman Capote, as Vidal put it ‘rode on ahead and crossed the shining river’. Or died, for those literalists of you out there. As Vidal has it, he thought a moment, and then said ‘That’s a good career move for Tru.’ Classic Vidal, and I would expect no less from the man whose favorite aphorism is ‘It is not sufficient that I win- someone else must lose.’ I’m put in mind of these bits of sour humor as it appears, as pointed out in an email this morning, that judging from the content of this month’s entries my mood is more than a bit tart during the month of December, which mood, I’d wager, is universally shared by dealers in fine art and English antiques. A significant amount of sincere interest is always shown in our stock in trade during the last few weeks of the year- but the purchases are put off in favor of cash used in tax planning. How draconian all governmental jurisdictions must be, that people fearsomely manipulate their personal liquidity in preference to trading with us.

For those of you who visit us with some frequency, you’ll note we’ve changed our home page introduction. More than that, perhaps you have actually read the text, citing English antiques as classic design. With anything designated ‘classic’, these are objects that have moved from the currently fashionable to the always fashionable. So it goes, too, with Old Master paintings and drawings with some record setting prices realized this last week.

At last, Old Master paintings and drawings are emerging from the shadows, or should I say reemerging, the result of waning interest in contemporary art. These things do happen, with Old Master works repeatedly over the last several centuries becoming penumbral denizens, overshadowed by, in order, history paintings of the academic variety, sentimental paintings of the Victorian variety, Impressionism, Cubism, Abstract Expressionism, and, lately, Damien Hirst. Let’s revisit this discussion in 10 years time, and see how Hirst’s sectioned livestock in formaldehyde have held up, literally and critically.

Still, masterworks continue to assert themselves because they are just that- masterworks. The stages, each many years long, of artistic development that begin with rank apprentice to master make themselves exquisitely apparent in the deft modeling of figures and the precise application of paint.

In the encyclopedia of one-hit wonders, The Buggles can find themselves in the volume under ‘B’, with an exception, however, that forms a nice footnote in musical history- the video of their one hit, ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’ was, if memory serves, the very first ever shown on the infant MTV. Check my facts before you repeat this in seeking to amaze your friends and stupefy your enemies. The segue to English antiques and what follows is more the heart of the matter and, because all my own opinion, requires no fact checking.

As with The Buggles’ lyrically describing the waning fortunes of a radio performer  the result of the burgeoning popularity of TV, in the antiques and art trade we see antiques and fine art fairs that were for years wildly popular now in, shall we say, a state of flux. Fine art fairs, antiques fairs, modernism fairs, ceramics fairs, and on and on, all have had a struggle, with dealers finding it tough sledding, with spotty fair attendance, making either at-show or follow-on sales. Just as the radio star found his fortunes affected by changing technology, my earlier blogs have linked the trouble with fairs to the internet, with shopping online constituting an all-day, everyday virtual antiques fair. I am nothing if not opinionated.

And opinionated my analysis has been, because it fails to take into account the manifold, should I say myriad, or should I say nearly infinite factors associated with the present albeit slowly abating economic malaise. Everyone in the world who is a part of the money economy has been impacted, and I don’t just mean impacted in the sense that they have seen less money flowing through their hands. People have been frightened in a behavior altering way that no one I know has ever experienced, making it nigh unto impossible for clients to decide to purchase something they would really like to have. The flip side of this is, clients do not seem to want to say ‘no’, either. Optimistically, it seems to us that prospective buyers themselves wish to remain so, and not foreclose any notion that they might make a purchase when they are feeling sunnier about things.

‘Optimistic’ I say in calm reflection, but frustrating in the daily experience, as clients up in the air about purchases leave dealers there, too. Still, this is the time of year, every year, when people run out of money, for many prepaying expenses in December for tax purposes and deferring income into next year for the same reason. Design projects are on hiatus, as no one wants to be painting the living room during the time the family might just be assembled in it.

If we can, let’s enjoy the season. The fine and decorative art trade typically emerges phoenix-like from the ashes of the holidays. Ask me toward the end of next month if video has killed the radio star.

Without question, 2009 is a year we would like to put behind us. Not much during the course of it has not been a struggle. Oh, the taxing world of English antiques and the daily fisticuffs in the design industry. That said, we are still here, a bit older- perhaps Keith quite a bit older…

Focusing on the business of the day yesterday, I was caught up short, when, complaining that I had to interrupt whatever it was I was doing, doubtless something of great moment that I now cannot remember, to sign our holiday greeting cards. What gave me real pause, however, is our printed inscription, that in lieu of gifts to our friends, clients, and trading partners, we provide a donation to All About Care. The cocktail of drugs that has allowed some management of HIV only occludes the fact that the disease is still horribly with us and has a broader impact on families coping with the illness of a parent or child. All About Care provides outreach for this purpose entirely, with Camp Care for nearly 20 years now providing an annual retreat and spiritual respite for those whose lives continue to be disrupted.

I admire people who have patience and tenacity, and one of those who I have admired the longest is Cynthia Karraker, whose own personal response to HIV was to found All About Care and serve as its director ever since.  Her vision has seen beyond the immediate and individually personal consequences of the disease, with her outreach to those whose battles are auxiliary to those primarily afflicted- and it is these, women and children, whose plight is frequently ignored.

While we slog through to the end of the year, it is easy for me to wrap myself up in my own vicissitudes and fail to count my blessings. And, frankly, they are manifold. Between ourselves, my blessings include my relationship with Keith, despite his growing older as I write this. Consequently, I am humbled by the opportunity to extend a small portion of our blessings to All About Care.

We’ve completed upholstery on a number of soft furnishing for clients and, as we’ve worked through their completion, I can certainly attest, in the world of English antiques, it is not always what’s seen but often what one can’t that separates a good from a fine piece. The fancy show-frame portion- the mahogany legs, cresting rail, and arms- can sometimes mask an inner frame that has been much tinkered. Mind you, that the underframe has tack holes the result of innumerable reupholsterings, if it were not in worked over condition would be very much of a surprise.

What we also frequently find are the insertions of springs. With the introduction of spring metal in the early 19th century, some enterprising fellow determined that, in lieu of webbing and cane that would eventually sag, springs would provide a durable alternative. Sadly, seat rails had to be radically invaded to support the springs themselves. How often, in order to put an 18th century piece in shape, we have had to replace seat rails that would have been in good condition but for the well-meaning and misguided attention of an earlier upholsterer.

Yesterday’s blog entry prompted a few emails from loyal blogophiles who read my brief article about mirrors in California Homes. Frankly, as with a number of English antiques, a modern context has made us forget the impact that some pieces made in their own day and this certainly is the case with 18th and early 19th century mirrors.

The popularity of this form in the early 19th century says something about fashion, of course, but also about the technology that enabled something like this to be made. Indeed, it is still no easy matter, with the convexity of the glass and trimming it to a circular shape requiring no less precision now than 200 years ago. The typical placement for a convex mirror was in a position of prominence- above a fireplace mantle or in an entry foyer- reflecting as it would the totality of activity in a fairly public room. Mind you, I find peering into a convex mirror will unbalance me if carried on for more than a few seconds. Our bibulous ancestors who considered the downing of a pint of sherry as a mere refresher would certainly have had the same experience as one of their more temperate descendants.

As with a giltwood frame supporting expensive furnishing fabric, mirror glass was still sufficiently dear that it required a surround typologically worthy of it. The mirror in the caption has a frame not just gilded, but with a burnished water gilt outer and inner rim along with the interior beads, separated by a less bright non-burnished central rim. Perhaps not as well suited for seeing into, it clearly was meant to be seen.

What’s put me in mind of my blog title today is the December issue of World of Interiors. The magazine’s lead feature is a pictorial of some superb gilded English antiques offered by mostly London dealers. Frankly, I love gilding, and indeed all manner of decorated furniture. With the survival of so much mahogany from the 18th century, the common presumption is that it was all brown in the day. The Georgians loved color and the brown furniture of today was much, much brighter in color 2 or more centuries ago. However, arguably the greater proportion in most houses of the quality was painted and/or gilded furniture, carved from vernacular woods, mostly deal and beech. Surprisingly, given how mahogany gives itself to crisp carving, we have sometimes found considerable original gilding on top of mahogany.

Of course, the gilding itself in its original incarnation was meant for purposes of display. No consumption like the conspicuous variety, is there? It did serve a practical function, as well. With a number of rooms of state in use at times when the light levels were low, the gilding, sparkling and reflective, served to accentuate the furniture to which it was applied. What is not always apparent today was how varied was the gilding applied originally, with burnished water gilding picking out carved enrichments, with flat oil gilding forming a background. This would serve to enhance the relief carving of furniture that might not otherwise have been seen. Further, one forgets in the case of soft furnishings how expensive were the fabrics that covered them. The fabrics, until the very end of the century, were handed loomed of costly materials. Naturally, one would only apply exquisite furnishing fabrics to frames the show-portions of which would be of a quality commensurate with the fabrics they supported.