Author: Michael Chappell

The redoubtable Brian Haughton sent out an email blast today, the formal announcement of his new fair ‘Art Antiques London’, scheduled for 9 to 16 June. The venue will be a marquee in Kensington Gardens, opposite the Royal Albert Hall. Time will tell, for Haughton and the 60 dealers he promises in attendance, what this venue will bring. It has worked for decades for the Proms, so who knows?

Although an exhibitor list is not yet forthcoming, one presumes a good selection of English antiques. What is not apparent yet is the competition for those dealers amongst the newly reorganized Olympia fair, and what might still emerge as a son of Grosvenor House, its organization still being talked over amidst the former Grosvenor House grandees. For myself, visiting the fairs on my own and with clients, two running simultaneously was all I could hope to take in. More than that- it can be too much of a good thing. Moreover, not all London dealers participate in even the local fairs. Antiques shoppers, whether they be other dealers, collectors, or interior designers appear finite in number and those from abroad also wish to take in some of the non-exhibiting London and countryside galleries and salesrooms. Their time, patience, shoe leather, and money is finite, too. It remains to be seen what the new bevy of fairs will offer, besides good quality dealers, that will make the upcoming London antiques season stand out. Lacking an extravaganza that attracts a goodly number of new buyers, the fairs may find they’ve done not much more than dilute the fairs’ effect, with the same number of punters spread around more venues.

Our holidays are usually of the busman’s variety- visits to antiques fairs, stately homes, and other sites of cultural interest, with a heavy emphasis on the fine and decorative arts. It’s what we do…

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Still, popular culture sometimes sneaks in front and center, and this time, it is ‘A Christmas Carol’, released in cinemas last week. The linkage with English antiques is more than just the effect of them in computer animated 3-D. The graphics derive from actual pieces, including (wait for it)- a pair of George III period paktong candlesticks from our own vaunted galleries.  I can’t say we have yet gone to see the movie, and the loan of a pair of candlesticks hardly qualified us to stand on the red carpet with Jim Carrey. Perhaps one of my loyal cadre of blogophiles will let me know if the candlesticks are prominent.

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.

My last couple of entries, musing about the fate of antiques fairs, has sparked a couple of emails, suggesting that, as antiques don’t seem popular with young adults, more must be done to educate them. With few exceptions, most fairs now have some sort of early evening event for so-called ‘young collectors’, usually involving those under 40- that is young, isn’t it?- whose affiliation with a local fine arts museum auxiliary entitles them thereby to be admitted sometimes gratis to the fair, and have a free glass of wine. Actually, we have been at some fairs where young collectors’ nights have attracted as many as two handfuls of attendees.

Sorry for being snide, but, as you will gather, our own experience, certainly in terms of selling English antiques in a young collectors venue has not met with any particular success. When told of a scheduled young collectors event, a dealer of my acquaintance sighed and said, ‘Oh yes- the young and the cheque-less.’ Now that’s snide, albeit clever. An irony, my quoted punster deals in midcentury modern furniture, the erstwhile darling of the young collector.

We hear that, you know, that antiques are out of fashion, that the young have no appreciation of the fine arts, that contemporary is where it’s at. Tell this to a dealer in any contemporary material- he’ll take some exception, and sing the blues, too.

The fact is, in our experience, collectors segue from wannabes to actuals at their own pace and in their own good time- regardless of any manifest effort toward education a dealer may make. We get this all the time from gallery visitors, how much they value our expertise, how educational it is to look at our gallery offerings. Does a sale automatically follow on from these compliments about our being a fulsome didactic resource? Not so far. Or should I say, ‘Not yet.’ I mean no irony here, as I do think that there is some seed planting that all of us do, or should be doing, to allow people to develop their own aesthetic that may then ultimately result in a few purchases.

Some blurb or other on the morning TV news about a decline in consumer confidence for the month of October. For those of us in the art and antiques trade, this comes as no surprise. Although we have billed out what Keith terms ‘little money’ over the course of the last few weeks, no big invoices, but we remain hopeful. We have had discussions with some of our better colleagues about why they are doing fairs just now, mindful of poor performance of the same shows this time last year and considering the present state of the economy. One colleague wondered aloud thereupon why then he is subjecting himself to additional financial exposure by doing the same show this year. Well, that is a question.

While promotion is key to a show’s success, one must still be mindful of what Keynes considered a central component of any economic cycle, ‘animal instincts’, which, frankly, is a grittier synonym for ‘consumer confidence’. No one can really point to anything that affects it, but, ultimately, it is this that will make conditions change- one way or the other. Apparently one can apply statistical measures to animal instincts, but this doesn’t make them any more predictable.

However, fairs do go on, and sort of paraphrasing Knute Rockne, in a poor season, one always says one was at least building character. While of course those remaining few of us in the English antiques trade are mostly trying to figure out how to cover the overhead, Keith and I yet make a point in engaging in some strategic thinking- changes in market conditions, appropriate pricing, and changes in fashion and aesthetics, all of which we need to factor into our business to make it always appear fresh and viable. We are, of course, still a going concern. Nothing spells disaster for a business than that its appearance starts to match the (dismal) outlook of the owner.

And this is what is always necessary for an antiques and art fair, even in tough times. Constant reinvention is called for, to give the fair a fresh look. Mind you, not an entirely new look. A couple of years ago, one prominent fair rather abandoned its focus on antiques, and, since it had dropped its dateline to allow midcentury modern furniture in, went overboard in redesigning the show in using 20th century design as its theme. An aesthetic disaster which resulted in the show wisely returning to something more traditional the following year.