My friend and frequent client, Los Angeles based interior designer Joe Nye, e-mailed yesterday to tell me he had forwarded my last blog entry about Christies premium rates to a number of his clients. Joe has always been a big booster of Chappell & McCullar, which we appreciate. Joe is one of those designers that antiques dealers love. When he’s shopping, he means business, and frequently has his clients in tow. He’s pretty specific about what he’s after and always has a budget. Not from Joe any of this ‘price isn’t an issue’ malarkey. I must say, as often as I’ve heard this from other designers, what it always signals to me is that the designer hasn’t had the guts to have a pricing discussion with their client, and expects me to.
Pricing is always an issue, and making certain to get your money’s worth. With his better heeled clients, I have often seen Joe discussing a range of pieces with them, carefully explaining that quality costs money, and, while the client might think the differences between best quality and run of the mill are pretty subtle, quality will always stand on its own, and declare itself time and again. Purchasing the best quality always represents the best value in the long run.
Interestingly, yesterday I also had an e-mail from another Los Angeles based interior designer, declining interest in a piece we had offered, as he thought it was pricier than what he was after. He cited auction sales prices of a lot less for pieces he considered similar. My experience to date has always been that, when a client, either collector or designer, says they can get the same thing for less somewhere else, either from another dealer or at auction, when I have an opportunity to see the purported ‘same thing’, it never is. Better quality? It never is that, either.
For anybody that will listen to us, Keith McCullar and I always say we treat our inventory as a fungible commodity. We price it according to what the same type of piece of the same quality has sold for, either at a dealer’s show room or at auction. Our pricing is never ‘keystoned’- automatically marked up based on some arbitrary multiple of what our acquisition cost is. Consequently, we price items to sell, and sell within two years. Nearly all of them do.
Price means nothing if what you are offering isn’t accurately described. We are maniacal about that, and nearly obsessive in trying to find exemplary quality. Not always flashy, but always good quality.
None of the above, however, universally describes the business models employed by a number of our fellow dealers or the auction houses. Have you read the disclaimers and rules of trading printed inside the front and back covers of nearly all auction house catalogs? And you still want to buy at auction? Yes, if the auction house makes some egregious error, they claim they’ll make things right for both buyer and seller. And perhaps they will, but not automatically. In fact, for any of the problems I have had over the years- items damaged by the auction house after purchase, items mis-catalogued- the list goes on and on- I have never, and I mean never received any financial redress from any auction house, even when they admitted they were at fault!
Unfortunately, some of our dealer fellas make matters much worse by what they do, and have had the effect of driving buyers to auction houses as a supposed safe harbor. One local San Francisco dealer, in business for a number of years and now retired, did an extensive business in ‘period’ English furniture. How many of his pieces have I seen, in mutual clients’ homes, or offered for sale to us by a client who no longer wanted the piece, and I have never, and I mean never seen one that was accurately described.
So, the question is begged- who do you trust? The auction houses? Perhaps within limits, but don’t assume automatically that you are getting value for money. If the piece is not as represented or is damaged, good luck in getting the auction house to make it right. Accurately described? Possibly, but only possibly.
Antiques dealers? Yes, within limits, but shop around and expect to get what you pay for. If one dealer’s Georgian table is $25,000 and the dealer around the corner is asking $50,000 for something similar, don’t assume the less expensive table represents better value. You might find the less expensive ‘Georgian’ table has significant alterations that make it barely a period piece of furniture at all. The table may in fact be worthless.
So, who do you trust? We’ve just put a links page on our website to answer that questions. To use the old aphorism, birds of a feather tend to flock together. An honest dealer will affiliate with and refer only other honest dealers. The auction houses? Their marketing budgets are large enough- they don’t need referrals from our website.