Old topics are reintroduced in this blog, without the taint of cliché, since they are, well, topical. Canonicity is one of these topics.
Times being the way they are, we are asked from time to time- and with near 100% frequency by new clients- what items will be worth if resale should be necessary. We used to get this question a lot when we first opened- July 2002 it was- not exactly hot on the heels of the bursting of the dot.com bubble, but still close enough for discomfort. Chappell & McCullar missed out on the glory years of selling English antiques to the dot.commers, who, apparently, had huge amounts of money from the sales of shares in their ephemeral businesses.
The subsequent generation of big spenders, those in the last five years, have spent money on contemporary art, and, witness its recent performance in the salesrooms, prices have dropped like a rock- along with mid-century modern furniture. But, interestingly, Old Masters have held their own, and 2008 saw some records set for English antiques.
This, of course, is how the existence of a canon in the fine and decorative arts manifests itself. When others fade from popularity, objects that have consistently maintained their appeal declare themselves, no longer occluded by the fleetingly popular.
The fading interest in contemporary material has coincided with the fading fortunes of those who made it popular- and are now trying to dump what they paid a high price for. It’s funny- with the return in popularity of traditional investments (read ‘those where you can actually determine how the money is made’), traditional decorative material is what we find is now the receiving the most interest.