We’ve been pleased to have the opportunity to assist one of our better clients in putting together a collection of Georgian seating furniture. An avid collector of English antiques and nearing the end of his business career, he has sought to replace reproduction pieces with the same models, but 18th century.

Amongst some collectors, the received wisdom is that period seating furniture is one or both of the following- fragile, and uncomfortable. I must say that we subscribed to these fallacies ourselves until we determined, and handling many score pieces over the years might teach one a thing or two, seating furniture is like any other class of goods- some survive in good condition, and some do not. Moreover, what makes for something particularly worthwhile is not just the ‘show’ frame, but the underframe, typically of softer wood, that can, with generations of upholstery tacks, be in deplorable condition. For any collector, and this is important, it is not what you see but the underframe that you don’t see that makes for comfortable and serviceable period seating furniture.

When discussing the facets of collecting this manner of goods with our seating collector client, we used for our exemplar a wonderful large mid 18th century sofa we had sold a couple of years ago.  Retentive as we are, we had photographed the piece extensively with the cover stripped off, to make manifest to any prospective purchaser, or an antiques show vetting committee, the original condition of the frame. Interestingly, we were so pleased with the condition of the piece with the cover taken off, we consequently had the sofa displayed in our galleries in this shape for a number of weeks. Keith and I would blithely describe the virtues of the piece and couldn’t understand that, far from sharing our enthusiasm, a fair number of visitors actually averted their gaze. What became clear to us is that seeing the naked frame for most people is the equivalent of interrupting the embalmer at work- one would rather not be too aware of the process, preferring to see, as it were, the finished product once it emerges from the back room.

We were pleased to see Howard Walwyn and Nigel Raffety, arguably the world’s best dealers in period clocks, and our near neighbors along London’s Kensington Church Street. They are in New York, with a stand at the International Fine Art and Antique Dealers Show, running through October 22 at the Park Avenue Armory.

As well as supreme horologists, Howard and Nigel are about as sunny in disposition as any dealers I know, a crowd given to, shall we say, complaining (actually, the term I was going to use starts with a ‘B’, but I have no wish to offend any of my gentler readers). Still, their assessment of the show was on a par with the sentiments expressed late last week in the New York Times, to the extent that hard times in the antiques trade are what some must just live through. Moreover, the important thing to remember is there will be a show and it will doubtless have some very good things in it. Raffety and Walwyn will not be the only dealer transiting the Atlantic, with redoubtable English antiques dealer Simon Phillips also making the trip from London.

Shopping the show is always a feast for the eyes, with collectors and designers from all over the country there to shop. Despite the year, plenty of people are nosing around, including one of the powerhouses of design, Michael Smith.

What will the show bring that might reflect green shoots for all the rest of us? We will know in the fullness of time. Will there be any bargains at the show? Well, frankly, yes- any time someone can get full value for one’s money, I count that as a good bargain. And the International Show is a venue offering absolutely the finest quality. Moreover, based on the sales of English furniture at auction in New York last week, with rampant auction fever resulting in a number of lots selling hugely over their high auction estimate, it appears more and more that an art and antiques dealer is absolutely the best place to make a good-value purchase.

My blog title is cribbed from an article by Malcolm Muggeridge in the December, 1966, issue of Playboy. For those of you who do not know me, I really did, in my salad days, read the magazine for the articles. For those of you who do know me, you will find this bit of intelligence hardly surprising.

‘Is my culture showing?’ was classic, midperiod Muggeridge- before his late in life conversion to Catholicism was his preferred topic of discussion- when well-formed, agnostic, generally contrarian opinions was what he was known for. That he was supremely well-informed on all matters was something that was hard to hide, as he could spout recondite bits of information, spun into prolix lines of reasoning that others found impossible to fault. In his vocation as journalist and professional pundit, he spent a career that spanned most of the last century pulverizing those whose opinions differed, and those who agreed with him, but did so less eloquently.

Not in the Muggeridge category by any means, but he always comes to mind when discussions about English furniture extend beyond ‘Isn’t it pretty?’ Not everyone is interested in discussions about the finer points of condition, or the thing I am guiltiest of, providing a context for 18th century English furniture within the history of material culture. While refining one’s eye for period pieces is enhanced, not doubt about it, with an understanding of why it was made and how it was intended to be used, few of our gallery visitors call on me to wax eloquent on the subject. Now I think about it, no one has, ever. Perhaps it is testimony to the general politeness and equanimity of our gallery visitors that, when they crank me up, they don’t quickly edge out the front door. Or, mercifully, it might be that Keith McCullar rapidly inserts himself into the discussion, and masterfully brings it down from the rarified into the, shall we say, intellectually accessible.

We continue to live in hope. As my devoted readers will know, part of my measurement of the health of the trade in English antiques is the demand for period dining tables. A working piece of furniture, period dining tables often have had pretty hard lives. Consequently, those that have survived in relatively good condition- original tops with nicely figured timbers all of a piece and not reshaped or repolished, original bases not badly dented and scuffed from generations of shoes kicking them- well, they cost the earth. As well they should.

And, in the last few hours, a number of good but not exceptional examples have sold at auction for plenty- and I do mean plenty. Of course, the auction purchase is at best a leap of faith for the buyer, whether dealer or collector, as one is never entirely certain of condition, and more importantly for the collector, how well it will articulate with the other pieces that will surround it and the décor into which it will ultimately be placed. No such thing as try before you buy from an auction house- all items are sold as is, where is.

Be that as it may, we are still encouraged because dining table sales wherever they occur bode well for the antiques trade, as the table is the first and most central item and the purchase of pendant items- wine coolers, cellarets, sideboards and side tables, and sets of dining chairs, soon follow. Did I mention we have a few of these items in our inventory?

We were pleased to find rather a sweet little 18th century Venetian view painting, a capriccio of the Grand Canal, centered by San Simeone Piccolo. Most people, I believe, would have something of a fondness for this rather top-heavy appearing church, with its elongated dome and classical portico overbuilt for its smallish site- a typical case of urban organicism, exacerbated no doubt by the demands of donors for Giovanni Scalfarotto to put all the architectural features possible on what is otherwise a rather small church. Even if quirkiness is not something always found endearing, its site, directly across from the railway station and consequently the first landmark one sees upon arrival in La Serenisima, renders it necessarily iconic. Interestingly, we have already sold the painting, and it is returned to Italy.

Possibly the painting, and possibly that it has been 3 years since we’ve been in Italy, has brought thoughts of the Grand Tour to the front of my consciousness. Between ourselves, I have suffered a continuous bout of not so low level anxiety since our last visit, as I failed to throw a coin into Fontana Trevi. I hope that my watching a DVD of ‘Three Coins in the Fountain’ every few weeks or so might function to compensate.

So now we’ve established that Keith and I are Italophiles. Our vocation as dealers in English antiques makes us, as well, Anglophiles. With the English milordi as arguably those by number and engagement who made the most of it, I write this by way of explaining my fascination with the notion of the Grand Tour. But, of course, a single line is inadequate explanation.

As it would have been for the young gentlemen whose experience of a lifetime, typically lasting two or three years, was the Grand Tour, with its ultimate destination Rome. Though fiercely anti-Catholic, an English aristocrat’s role within British world hegemony would result in ostensible affiliation not with the center of Catholicism but with the Roman Empire. This might have been part of the intellectual process of someone as thoughtful as Horace Walpole, but, as I think of it, his ability to simultaneously enjoy, in no order of preference, a warm climate, a picturesque environment, and his relationship with John Shute might have been the more compelling factors. In his dressing room at Strawberry Hill, during the gray days of the English winter, Walpole could have developed these more edifying tropes, using classical examples, in contrast to the studied Gothicism of his home, with which to compare then-contemporary British life, and committed them to writing. And he did.

For the moment, I am like Walpole, as memories of Italy are what I have to content myself with. Travel to and a gray November in England is what is pending for us.