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.