My friend Jane Furse has forwarded an article from the October 28 edition of The Spectator detailing the woes of the dealer in period decorative arts. The author, well-known arts journalist Susan Moore, entitles it ‘Crisis of confidence’, and relates how a number of dealers, trying to respond to changing purchasing patterns, are abandoning their traditional stock in trade, trying to blend in, with different levels of success, mid century and contemporary fine and decorative arts. Moore cites the success of mid century material at the Biennale, contrasted, sadly, with the less than stellar performance of fine 18th century material, the traditional mainstay of the fair.
Sadly, this sort of experience is repeated over and over, with the just completed International Fair in New York and the Olympia Fair in London also reporting disappointing results amongst period dealers.
The point of Susan Moore’s article, rather than just weeping into a towel about the fate of the antiques business, is to point out that patterns of purchasing change, and, whilst the mid century market is hot, that won’t last forever. In fact, one of my better colleagues had told me a story that illustrates this fact very well. A young couple of his acquaintance, well-heeled from success as hedge fund managers, had had their home decorated by a well-known designer, in the height of modern eclectic style. The designer had included a pair of black Donghia armchairs on either side of a Bagues cocktail table, both fronting an Arbus designed sofa. Above all of this was one from Alber’s series ‘Homage to the Square’. While the couple had paid the designer a lot of money for services, not to mention the cost of the objects, they were now a bit bored with the look. Not that they didn’t like the objects, but, for them, they had no resonance, no personal association, because, of course, a designer had selected them.
I suppose the moral to all of this is, we are in the midst of a changing of the guard in the collecting community, with the younger collectors in the acquisitive phase, under the hegemony of the interior designer. Certainly, in our galleries, we have seen in our brief tenure the business become dominated by designers, where formerly it was almost exclusively the collector with whom we dealt. Fortunately, beginning collectors are wetting their feet, albeit with the assistance of the interior designer. However, the aridity of having someone put together a collection for you will soon enough be replaced by the collector deciding, for his soul’s own good, to take collecting into their own hands. I suppose that’s really the underlying message of Susan Moore’s article: antiques dealers, don’t lose heart- the new generation of collectors is quickly emerging and they will find you.