Welcome to our antiques blog, providing a bit of insight into the world of the antiques trade, with a focus on English antiques. The primary blogger will be Michael Chappell, with frequent contributions from Keith McCullar and our colleagues in London, Paris, and New York. As some of you know, we spend a lot of our time sourcing art work of all types for clients, so the occasional bits of interesting behind the scenes news about the art world will be an occasional feature of the blog.
What really caught my eye this week was the sale at auction in England of a mid Georgian lowboy, cataloged as late 19th century, but determined, and certainly confirmed by the fury of the bidding, to be mid 18th century. It sold for GBP18,000 plus auction premium, to an unnamed dealer in the English countryside. With its generous use of fine mahogany timbers, outline, and original handles in raffle leaf motif, it immediately reminded us of the secretaire chest we have, attributed to William Vile. This sort of auction price for a piece of unattributed brown furniture sort of flies in the face of what has become the received wisdom that no one wants this kind of thing. Don’t you believe it! Quality is always quality in English antiques- attributed or not. That the English antiques trade, and the American trade, has had some pretty tough sledding over the last few years has rather occluded the fact that prices continue to escalate. For our clients who only buy occasionally, this always comes as something of a shock. But at the same time, we as dealers have to be mindful that, as with the William Vile piece we have in inventory, when it is sold, we will have a devil of a time finding something of comparable quality to replace it.