notes

Partridge Fine Art, one of the cornerstones of the English antiques trade, has moved into receivership this week, with the receivers actively looking for a buyer. Its tragic existence over the course of the last decade saw it nearly fail, then rescued in an LBO financed largely by Christie’s, with the result that a fair amount of the company’s inventory was auctioned off in May, 2006. It has been tough sledding all along, with marketing efforts including increased fairs participation and adding jewelry to its product mix apparently not sufficiently profitable to offset the high cost of operating on Bond Street.

Sadly, it would not surprise me to see the demise of Partridge all together, with its premises taken over by yet another fashion retailer. Asprey, a near neighbor to Partridge Fine Art, might have met the same fate had it not been acquired by the Sultan of Brunei. Perhaps Partridge’s might find someone else whose pockets, or oil wells, are as deep.

We were pleased to have a dozen interior design professionals in the galleries this last Saturday, as part of a course taught annually by Diane Dorrans Saeks for the California College of the Arts. Diane and I chatted for the benefit of the attendees about English antiques and our own line of furniture, Contemporary Classics. Pleased to say, as well, the attendees seemed to enjoy the visit- or at least kept their yawns well stifled.

What Diane explicitly stressed was how important it is for design professionals to offer to their clients fine quality antiques in preference to even the best quality reproduction pieces. Clients must know that the reproduction pieces will be, her words ‘used furniture’ while the period pieces will always represent inherent value- if purchased from a dealer who offers value for money. And, she said, that dealer is probably the dealer whose primary market is not interior designers- but a dealer who trades primarily with collectors!

As often as I have had this discussion with the twenty or so devoted readers of my blog, and various and sundry others, it is cheering to fine someone of Diane’s stature making the point publically how important it is for designers to trade with accredited dealers who know their stuff. As Diane is, we are happy as well to provide designers with as much grounding in the antiques world as is necessary to assist them to do their jobs and properly serve their clients requirements.

In the current issue of Antiques Trade Gazette, columnist David Moss provides some outside the box thoughts about how to continue the fair that is an essential component of the international antiques and fine art trade. With fairs all over the world struggling, Moss’s suggestions, while specific to Grosvenor House, certainly have some implications for other fairs.

IRONICALLY, in its 75th and sadly final staging last month, the Grosvenor House Art & Antiques Fair reaffirmed its status as unquestionably the UK’s flagship antiques event.

And in a strange way its demise last week confirmed the respect and genuine affection in which it was held.

Talking to Grosvenor House exhibitors past and present it becomes apparent it is not just a hard but an impossible act to follow.
No existing fair can take on its mantle (the dealers to a man ruled out a move to Olympia). So the exhibitors are convinced they must do it for themselves, and one way or another reconstruct Grosvenor House to the same criteria of excellence but without the physical limitations of the Great Room in Park Lane or the financial constraints of working under a multi-national hotel group.

A new fair must be upmarket, strictly vetted and prestigious. But now there is the chance to combine all that with space and good design, the very reasons some top dealers left Grosvenor House for Olympia.

But the big, big question is where could such a new fair be held?

To emulate Grosvenor House it needs to be located in a central and upmarket area.

Another hotel is unlikely – the Great Room was the biggest space available and there was much comment every year on just how restricting it had become – while there is no exhibition hall sufficiently close to the West End to entice the coterie of clients who would only shop at Grosvenor House.

I recall when the Grosvenor House hotel was abandoned for a few years from 1980 due to the infamous chambermaids’ strike, it relocated to the Royal Academy’s Burlington House. However, these days the RA Summer Exhibition takes centre stage in June.

So we are back to a solution which has become ever more popular – the luxury tent. It might be imaginative to move Gillian Craig’s BADA fair in a tent in Chelsea to June and rebrand it under her continued leadership. I think that is an option.

But one event the antiques trade might learn from is Frieze, the cutting edge art fair that has made its home in Regent’s Park every October. Could the same be done in the same park for a more conservative fair in June? Yes it could.

By David Moss

Chappell & McCullar is pleased to be involved with this exciting event. English antiques and a lot more. We look forward to seeing you!

A special private study program created
and led by DIANE DORRANS SAEKS

Saturday, July 18, 2009
10am—5pm
Jackson Square, San Francisco

A one-day insider’s tour and lecture this popular program (now in its 10th year) provides a rare opportunity for participants to visit private design studios that are otherwise mostly inaccessible to the public. Often we read about the newest work by leading designers and admire their polish and perfection. We frequent galleries and appreciate the finesse of fine art and fine furniture design. Now you can meet real-world designers, view their studios, and learn what goes on behind the scenes.

I am looking forward to welcoming design enthusiasts for this exciting day. I have planned an exciting ‘insider’ day, visiting trend-setting antiques galleries, and meeting visionary dealers who will discuss latest directions in design, textiles, art, books, retail, and antiques. These leading galleries are all in Jackson Square in San Francisco.

We will start the day with refreshments at the gallery of Kathleen Taylor/The Lotus Collection—a favorite of top designers for her rare and antique textiles and her knowledge of the history, lore, and design of beautiful fabrics for interiors.

I am looking forward to welcoming you all to these treasure troves of antiques and art.

My goals for the day are to inspire designers and aspiring designers to see with fresh eyes, and to enable participants to gain knowledge essential to a creative and rewarding design practice.

Please note: All locations are on Jackson Street and on Hotaling Place between Sansome and Montgomery, and on Montomery Street, near Jackson Street. Please park in indicated lots, for the day. This is a walking tour, with very easy strolls from one location to the next.

• Pre-Registration is required. To Register: Call CCA’s Office of Special Programs at 510-594-3710.
• Registrants receive a schedule and map prior to class.
• Space is limited, so please register early to ensure your place in class. Cost: $130, plus $20 registration fee. Lunch is included. Payment: MasterCard or VISA.
• Refund requests must be made in writing and received by July 14. On or after July 14 there are no refunds but you could send a friend or colleague to attend in your place.

‘THE DESIGN AND STYLE SECRETS OF HISTORIC JACKSON SQUARE’
Internationally admired experts in fine antiques, art, rare historic European and ethnic textiles, contemporary design, Japanese sculpture and art, and a world of prized prints introduce us to this often mysterious and hidden world. They offer their insights on design trends, evaluating antiques, and new ways of working with and collecting antique fabrics, antiques, and art.

10am. Kathleen Taylor/The Lotus Collection
Kathleen Taylor has exhibited at the San Francisco Fall Antiques Show for many years, and is a favorite source for top designers such as Suzanne Tucker, Dorit Egli, Grant Gibson, and Paul Wiseman. As the leading source for museum-quality, decorative antique textiles in the United States, she offers the highest quality antique European, Asian, and ethnic textiles including tapestries and other wall hangings, pillows, table covers and general textiles. Taylor is also the United States representative for CB Parsua fine contemporary rugs, and we will learn more about this important collection.
445 Jackson St. Phone 398-8115

10.45am. Chappell & McCullar
This international gallery offers a fine and carefully curated selection of English antiques and Continental European antiques, as well as the contrast of Mid-Century Modern, and Contemporary furniture, along with antique mirrors, lighting, and ceramics. The company also produces its own English country house-inspired furniture.
441 Jackson Street. Phone 693-0882

11.30am. W. Graham Arader
This international print and rare map dealer (a favorite an antiques shows around the country) offers the world’s largest selection of the works of John James Audubon, Pierre-Joseph Redoute, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, as well as historically important maps, natural history engravings and watercolors, lithographs of the American West, Californiana, Hawaiiana and Western Americana.
434 and 432 Jackson St. Phone 986-0750

Lunch. Information to follow.

2.15pm. Foster-Gwin Antiques
Specializing in fine quality sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth-century Continental furniture and tapestries, and contemporary works of art. Foster-Gwin, a founding exhibitor at the San Francisco Fall Antiques Show, offers a collection carefully edited with an eye to outstanding design, originality, proportion, and color. The gallery is housed in its own historic mid-nineteenth century former stables located in Jackson Square, San Francisco’s oldest neighborhood and premier antiques destination. Foster-Gwin is a member of the Art and Antique Dealers League of America and The National Art and Antique Dealers Association.
38 Hotaling Place. Phone 397-4986

3pm. Daniel Stein Antiques
Founded in 1982 and located in the historic Jackson Square district of San Francisco, Daniel Stein Antiques specializes in eighteenth and nineteenth-century English and Continental furniture, accessories and works of art. Stein exhibits annually at the San Francisco Fall Antiques Show and the Los Angeles  Antiques Show.   Daniel Stein Antiques is a member of the Art and Antiques Dealers League of America,  Inc.;  the Confederation Internationale Des Negociants en Oeuvres D‘Art (CINOA);  and the Antique Dealers Association of California (ADAC). Mr. Stein is currently President of ADAC.
458 Jackson Street. Phone 956-5620

3.45pm. Japonesque
More than two decades ago, Koichi Hara opened the first Japonesque gallery, selling exclusive collections of Japanese sculptures, paintings, prints, ceramics, glass, and astonishing works of the imagination in wood and stone. Today, the gallery is an international destination for art lovers and connoisseurs who appreciate the subtle grace and elegance of Mr. Hara’s superb collections. His eye is considered one of the most discerning in the art world.
824 Montgomery. Phone 391-8860

4.30pm. Carrots
Interior design by Will Wick and Gabriella Sarlo. Décor and design review followed by an informal reception. This chic, trend-setting boutique, opened recently by sisters Melissa and Catie Grimm, offers a chic and highly individual collection of men’s and women’s fashions, with labels like Kaufman Franco, Vanessa Bruno, Acne, Proenza Schouler, PHI and Rick Owens Lilies. The sisters, knowledgeable about fashion, books, design, and travel, also offer books, and a superbly edited group of accessories for all seasons. (Carrots…it’s an insider wink-wink that acknowledges the family’s business. Grimmway Farms is the world’s largest grower, producer and shipper of carrots. Yum!)
Refreshments and relaxed wrap-up of the day. (Not sure if I can promise carrot juice.)
824 Montgomery St. Phone 834-9040

I look forward to seeing you!

A colleague in London has just told me the Grosvenor House Fair has been ‘scrapped’- his term- for the indefinite future. A profound disappointment as the fair, pardon the cliché, is the granddaddy of them all, and, in my opinion, the ne plus ultra of fairs featuring English antiques. One of the most pleasurable and looked forward to experiences in my life has been attendance at the Grosvenor House Fair.

However, it is attend that is all I ever did, to see what the big boy dealers in 18th  century furniture were doing. Buy? Well, that’s another matter, and that must have been the absent, and crucial, feature that, at bottom, militated the decision to cancel the fair. The primary reason cited was that the hotel owner could put the Grosvenor House Great Room, the fair’s venue, to more profitable use. Well they might, as it is unlikely the fair participants would be able to pay more in stand rental: it would hardly be surprising to find the fair organizer actually sought a reduction in facility rent from the hotel.

No question, both Olympia and Grosvenor had tough sledding this year, with the general economic malaise contributing to poor attendance and lackluster sales. As well, London Old Masters Week and the non-participation of a number of show stalwarts doubtless further functioned to siphon off would-be show attendees.

Ironically, the Grosvenor House fair got is start in 1934 in order to give the ailing antiques trade a shot in the arm during the Great Depression. It has become a casualty of the present economy along with a number of dealers who survived the 1930’s to meet their demise in the panic of 2008-2009. With the world wide economy at present manifesting what have quickly become known as green shoots, it might be hoped, for the antiques trade, that the scrapping of the Grosvenor House fair constitutes the darkness before the dawn.