Just at the moment, the English trade is in an uproar over some on-air claims by TV presenters about the extent of fakery in the art and antiques world. Naturally, particularly those in leadership positions in the various accrediting associations have taken issue with those claims, and rightly so. A favored client of mine who happens to be a senior jurist once put it this way- ‘If you don’t know your jewels, know your jeweler.’ Of course, for the novice or occasional buyer, the best advice they can ever be given is to shop with members of the accredited trade.
Frankly, though, unaccredited dealers are the overarching presence in the trade, and nothing in the world prevents whoever has the fancy, and the bank book, from opening a shop, or more likely, establishing a website, for the marketing of whatever it is they want, and, as long as they can get away with it, making outlandish claims. But this presumes a nefarious intent, and while that doubtless includes a given percentage in any line of endeavor, often those in the trade operate out of ignorance, to the detriment of those who choose to purchase from them. I am reminded of a dealer fairly close to home who often sold things that were, as they say in the trade, composed of antique elements. This gentleman honestly thought that, if a given percentage of an item was old wood, no matter what subsequently had been done to dolly up the piece, there was nothing wrong with representing it as an antique. We had another experience with this same dealer, wherein he pointed to a darkly stained hall bench that was not old, telling me that, if I found something similar for a given price, he would buy it from me. I said that I would, but anything I represented to him would be period. ‘But that’s period!’ he exclaimed, pointing to the piece the like of which he wanted from me. I could tell from the look on his face and the tone of his voice that he honestly felt that the bench in his shop darkened with lamp black, shellacked and waxed and distressed with rappings from a length of chain was the real deal.
A few years ago, all of us remember the scandal associated with an internationally famous dealer now amongst the heavenly chorus whose stock in trade was to a great extent things that were made up- extremely well, as it happened, fooling a lot of people for a long, long time. Surprisingly, despite the beauty and vaunted attributions of these pieces, none of them seemed to have much in the way of provenance. Hmm… I suppose this is an argument for caveat emptor, but I have to say that this same chap was a good friend to the design trade and his frequently generous discounts occluded the fact that what he had to sell was decidedly dodgy.
Unfortunately, the plethora of online trading that takes place that marks a revolution in retail that affects even the trade in art and antiques distances the good dealer from the good faith purchaser. What we’ve found, though, is the better online platforms now require more and more from participating dealers in terms of disclosure, and are less and less tolerant of those dealers who don’t deliver as advertised. Still and all, harking back to my friend the federal judge, nothing yet substitutes for, as he put it, knowing your jeweler.