All of us have seen the news headlines about the massive year end bonuses nearly everyone in the financial services industry will receive. For those of us in the antiques and fine art trade, we hope this has a significant trickle down effect. In fact, we are already getting inquiries from all around the world, realizing that Mumbai, in this age of globalization, is as much a money centre as New York or London.

Although this blog isn’t really meant to be an open letter to those who are considering, now that they have the money, to invest in antiques, but, of course, that’s my business, and hopefully anyone who reads my blog will consider what’s written here- and not think it is too much an out in out commercial for our enterprise. The fact is, antiques continue to be an astonishingly good investment. Notice I said ‘antiques’ and not ‘art and antiques’. The fact is, fine art tends to be more driven by fashion than antiques- witness, at long last, the recent recovery of impressionist art after being in the doldrums for nearly 15 years. I’ve recently read Meryle Secrest’s biography of that redoubtable art dealer Joseph Duveen. In the early years of the last century, Duveen was selling Gainsboroughs to American collectors for prices that have almost never been realized in the 100 years since!

What’s less well known is that Duveen was also selling the Fricks and the Huntingtons magnificent 18th century furniture to enhance the settings of the artwork that took pride of place. While the Gainsboroughs and Raeburns might not have fared all that well, one has only to look at the recent Maurice Segoura sale to see that the Roussel commode Henry Clay Frick may have groaned when he paid Duveen $1,500 for it, would now cost the best part of $1 million. That’s a pretty good ROI in any man’s language.

Last night, all the decorative and fine art dealers in Jackson Square held an open night, offering hospitality to their best clients. We were ecstatic to have in excess of 300 people through our galleries between the hours of 5 and 8 PM. What was even more pleasant was to see the numbers of new faces, people who, presumably, don’t know the Jackson Square venue, and took the time to come down and browse.

That’s what’s important in marketing not only our individual shops, but the venues themselves- the opportunity to browse, particularly for the new collector. So often, even people who normally are the furthest removed from shy, become shrinking violets when faced with the intimidating world of art and antiques connoisseurship. The auction houses have tapped in to something here, marketing as they do to younger collectors who, when browsing or buying over the internet, can maintain anonymity and avoid thereby the sort of gaffes all of us have faced in our collecting lives. I wish we could all remember that, for instance, None of us were born knowing the difference between flame and fiddle back mahogany, or who Thomas Chippendale was. It’s should be easy to understand why it is much more comfortable, then, for our new buyers to go into the galleries knowing they aren’t going to be pounced on by a dealer eager to sell something, who asks penetrating questions about areas of collecting interest in an inadvertently intimidating attempt to be engaging.

No- going into the gallery when the door is already wide open and there are 20 or 30 people inside makes the otherwise hesitant visitor more willing to take the plunge. Ironically, one of our colleagues on the street complained that there were too many people in his gallery, such that he was concerned about theft. Surprisingly, he was also disappointed there were so many younger people. Crazy, isn’t it? I hope we have masses of people at any time, and the younger the better. As it is, it has appeared over the course of the last year that all our mature collectors have retired permanently to Florida on limited, fixed incomes. It doesn’t take too much intellect to realize that we need to be constantly adding to our base of collectors, and the younger they start, the longer they will be our clients.

Any of my blog readers have any comments about open days?

My friend Jane Furse has forwarded an article from the October 28 edition of The Spectator detailing the woes of the dealer in period decorative arts. The author, well-known arts journalist Susan Moore, entitles it ‘Crisis of confidence’, and relates how a number of dealers, trying to respond to changing purchasing patterns, are abandoning their traditional stock in trade, trying to blend in, with different levels of success, mid century and contemporary fine and decorative arts. Moore cites the success of mid century material at the Biennale, contrasted, sadly, with the less than stellar performance of fine 18th century material, the traditional mainstay of the fair.

Sadly, this sort of experience is repeated over and over, with the just completed International Fair in New York and the Olympia Fair in London also reporting disappointing results amongst period dealers.

The point of Susan Moore’s article, rather than just weeping into a towel about the fate of the antiques business, is to point out that patterns of purchasing change, and, whilst the mid century market is hot, that won’t last forever. In fact, one of my better colleagues had told me a story that illustrates this fact very well. A young couple of his acquaintance, well-heeled from success as hedge fund managers, had had their home decorated by a well-known designer, in the height of modern eclectic style. The designer had included a pair of black Donghia armchairs on either side of a Bagues cocktail table, both fronting an Arbus designed sofa. Above all of this was one from Alber’s series ‘Homage to the Square’. While the couple had paid the designer a lot of money for services, not to mention the cost of the objects, they were now a bit bored with the look. Not that they didn’t like the objects, but, for them, they had no resonance, no personal association, because, of course, a designer had selected them.

I suppose the moral to all of this is, we are in the midst of a changing of the guard in the collecting community, with the younger collectors in the acquisitive phase, under the hegemony of the interior designer. Certainly, in our galleries, we have seen in our brief tenure the business become dominated by designers, where formerly it was almost exclusively the collector with whom we dealt. Fortunately, beginning collectors are wetting their feet, albeit with the assistance of the interior designer. However, the aridity of having someone put together a collection for you will soon enough be replaced by the collector deciding, for his soul’s own good, to take collecting into their own hands. I suppose that’s really the underlying message of Susan Moore’s article: antiques dealers, don’t lose heart- the new generation of collectors is quickly emerging and they will find you.

It was reported last week that a number of non-executive directors at Mallett’s resigned, apparently over a disagreement with management about ‘strategy’. Although managing director Lanto Synge demurred when asked whether the company’s financial performance was behind these departures, there can be little question that ‘strategy’ can be better read as ‘how are we going to begin to make money?’ Indeed, the opening nearly 2 years ago of a branch on Madison Avenue in New York has sapped the business, and it is reported that Bourdon House, the former Mayfair residence of the Dukes of Westminster, into which Mallett’s had expanded from their Bond Street galleries, is for sale.

Certainly, over the course of its nearly 150 year history, Mallett’s has emerged amongst antiques dealers as the ne plus ultra, against which any other quality dealer measures itself. But the quality Mallett’s sells is also the furthest thing imaginable from inexpensive. We have been astounded at what the company’s retail pricing for pieces is, and amazed at the depth of their purse in being able to make expensive auction purchases, then keep the pieces in reserve for a number of years before offering them for sale.

Still, no matter how well capitalized a business is, and no matter how glamorous owning an equity share of Mallett’s might be, there has to be an eventual payoff for investors. I noted a few weeks ago about the debacle of the dealers on Mount Street. Now, with Mallett’s and their neighbor Partridge’s trying to fight their way out of the same dark forest, who can say what the antiques scene on Bond Street will look like in a few years?

The dust is settling and the people have spoken. the Democrats will control the House and the Senate, with the effect of at least moderating the course of the ship of state.

What we now hope for, in our own little sphere, is some calm in the art and antiques trade, and some optimism on the part of buyers- a thing that has been lacking over the course of this year. In fact, we have seen an ever greater tendency on the part of buyers to lose heart when it came time to make the decision to purchase. Not that they weren’t interested in pieces- we found that, at the point the decision had to be made, our clients were chickening out. No other phrase to describe it- not that they didn’t want it, or the price was beyond what they found reasonable or could afford- they simply chickened out and lost heart. We have heard this over and over from our colleagues around the world, with dealers in New York, London, and Paris likewise effected.

What has contributed to this broad based malaise, this lack of certainty, and underlying fear that makes people hang on to their money when they would otherwise rather invest in a fine quality artwork or antique? This has mystified us, certainly, given the basically strong economy- strong financial markets, low inflation, low interest rates. The answer is obvious- the tragedy of Iraq, something we see in all the media all day long. This has always been seen as the President’s war, hasn’t it? But now, few people are willing to indulge the President’s specious ideology of defeating terrorism. It is astonishing how debilitating this whim of the President has been for the citizens of this country, how it has eroded our prestige around the world, with the effect that it has driven down any sense of optimism about the future. All any of us can see is a long term struggle in Iraq, with the the Americans as an invading army creating, rather than destroying, a crucible for terrorism.

Were the elections, then, a referendum on the war? No question about it. My hope is that the mood of pessimism is replaced by a mood of optimism- that Congress can now reasonably overcome the President’s xenophobic hatred manifesting itself as a fear of terrorism.