Apologies to Monty Python, but hope that my blog title puts you in mind of the best of Python, specifically the dead parrot sketch and the lumberjack song.
A sidebar, I was astonished to find my nephew and gallery assistant Jack Tremper did not know of either. Keith and I will have to bear this in mind when writing his annual performance evaluation.
Not so clever as John Cleese, Michael Palin, et al, but they won’t mind my cribbing their tagline and applying it to the October just concluded. What is it about that month? Financially, everything comes crashing down, and even when it doesn’t, it is nonetheless something everyone braces for, and purchases of English antiques, and everything else under the sun, are postponed. Surprising to hear some positive preliminary retail sales numbers. Interestingly, for us sales barely came together for the month, with the majority of them with invoices signed in the last few days of the last week. We were, as a consequence, able to purchase Halloween candy. Since we haven’t had anyone actually trick or treat in the last five years, our purchase was clearly because we were at last feeling sunnier about things. Mind you, ‘sunnier’, not ‘euphoric’, and consequently our candy came from the grocery store, not Godiva.
Our sense is that November is off to something completely different, and a good start for all of us, and that might manifest itself for Chappell & McCullar into a couple of dining table sales- and chairs, and sideboards, and breakfronts- in advance of the holidays. We hope so, anyway- I would really like to have turkey for Thanksgiving and not leftover Halloween candy.