Keith, Jack and I were pleased to attend the private preview of the upcoming sale of remaining material from Antonio’s Antiques. Our lamented friend and colleague, 
Antonio Mariani, died two years ago, and this sale, scheduled this Tuesday at Bonham’s and Butterfield’s in San Francisco.
For over 40 years, Antonio conducted a lively trade, and, with a number of his antiques pieces of the, shall we say, overscale variety, he consequently courted a fair number of interior designers working in some consciously overscale houses.
But, knowing Antonio, the type of pieces that were his stock in trade correctly matched the type of man he was- decided overscale. Granted, people had strong opinions about Antonio, but the man had strong opinions himself. Moreover, one never had to guess about his opinions- he was not shy about sharing them.
With all that, Keith and I enjoyed Antonio and we considered him an excellent trading partner. We are glad to hear that, although the antiques side of the business will be scaled back, the restoration side of the business, arguably Antonio’s first love, will carry on.
