We began our annual summer sale a week ago, something we instituted in the summer of 2006, in order to stimulate sales activity, of course, and to rouse our clients and also our neighbors from their summer torpor.  While it seems to have worked with our clients, our antiques dealer-neighbors would rather, it seems, curse the darkness than, by way of linking with our sale, light one candle. Perverse, isn’t it?

I don’t know that there is anything particularly special about Keith and me, but we are believers in self-actualization. ‘Practitioners’ would be a better word, because we are given, when confronted with a difficulty, to give something a try rather than terminally intellectualize why solutions won’t work. Mind you, we are both of us rather reflective people, so don’t proceed headlong without a bit of thought, but, in the main, we do what we think is best, without seeking the good opinion of others. This is said with our summer sale in mind, which our neighbors have delighted in telling us for several years now will not work. Proof of the pudding, as the saying goes. I would personally communicate this to our neighbors- if I really cared what they thought.

Still, our desire to stimulate sales and drive traffic to Chappell & McCullar broadly reflects ours sales culture. Our annual summer sale is just one manifestation of our confirmed belief that it is imperative to stay in front of our existing clients- both interior designers and private collectors. As witness, as well, our commitment to do antiques shows, it is essential to not only make certain that when the client decides to buy, it is Chappell & McCullar that is considered first. Also, not all our clients buy all the time. We must at all times, therefore, add new clients.

What you may surmise from this is that we are fairly aggressive when it comes to marketing. There are those who believe that we needn’t be as,  given our selection of one of a kind type items, clients will seek us out. Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door, eh? Malarkey. Build a better mousetrap but fail to market and promote it and you will end up selling your better mousetrap prototype for peanuts to the guy who will clean up, because he knows how to promote and sell it.

When I hear our dealer colleagues crying about lack of foot traffic and lack of sales, I never hear them discussing internet inquiries and site hits. Astonishingly, a surprising number of even good dealers don’t maintain any sort of on-line sales platform. When it costs $20 to park one’s car in my neighborhood, and probably $75 to fill the car with gas in the first place, mightn’t one realize that the hoped-for gallery visitor is focusing their interests by conducting a web browse before actually venturing out?

Certainly, some other people whose forte is online marketing have cottoned on to the two factors just outlined- the comfortability with shopping for decorative arts online and, second, the antiques dealers who are not great online marketers. This confluence has stimulated the development of group dealer sites, offering a variety of items on one platform. What’s happened, however, is that the one site of several years ago has spawned imitators, and the sites themselves have become, shall we say, overburdened. They now offer so much material from so many different dealers, including jewelry and in some cases luxury homes for sale, that the sites have diluted their former focus as well as becoming difficult to navigate. As important as ease of navigation, though, is the  ability to properly showcase the best material, something we try hard to do on our website, providing thereby a bit of stimulus, as well as a preview, for the site browser who needs an extra visual nudge to become an actual as well as a virtual visitor.

As difficult as it has become to navigate some multi-dealer sites, Christie’s has even so mimicked the notion in their efforts to market directly to buyers. Teched-up, if not actually sexed-up, the site can be customized by the browser to allow a variety of specialized functions, including bidding. Still, Christie’s site has been transformed from one that was fairly simple that loaded quickly, to something complicated that loads so slowly that, horror of horror, one frequently will lose patience and close it.

I’m least of all a gearhead and don’t have the ability to critique online marketing with any degree of facility. However, frankly, that’s the point- simple, effective online marketing that is accessible by the non-gearhead has to be part of the dealer’s bag of tricks. The antiques and art buying public is still out there, in spite of our neighbors’ summertime complaints, and I would opine that the buying, through all avenues real and virtual, is greater than ever. What I believe the complaining dealer should realize is that he has probably fallen some considerable distance behind the technical curve.

We zoned out yesterday afternoon and watched a made for HBO movie on cable, ‘Bernard and Doris.’ Based on the last years of the life of Doris Duke and detailing her relationship with butler Bernard Lafferty, it was Keith’s choice. He often seeks, particularly on a Sunday afternoon, entertainments that he terms ‘mindless’, by which he means completely escapist.  However, with Susan Sarandon and Ralph Fiennes in the eponymous roles, I presumed the movie must have had something going for it. It did, as it happened- camp performances that must have been great fun for the stars to do, and some terrific interiors. I would recommend it.

Unfortunately, what’s not in the film, although it’s frequently mentioned, is Doris Duke’s home in Honolulu, Shangri-la. From what I’ve understood, this vaguely Middle Eastern villa complex was constructed during a phase of one of Miss Duke’s many enthusiasms- in this case, actually, a confluence of several- Moorish art and architecture, Hawaiian vacations, and surfing, particularly when it involved the developed physique of dusky surfers. How many enthusiasms is that? In any event, the outcome was an interesting architectural confection.

Interesting, but not really very successful. One of the magnificent inherent features of Hawaii is the beauty of its landscape. As it happens, my time living there in the late 1970’s spoiled me for a view in every place I’ve lived since. It is difficult not to wax eloquent about the view of the Ko’olaus that I had from my very first apartment, to the view of the West Maui Mountains from my house in Pukalani, a quarter of the way up Haleakala on Maui. My last permanent Hawaiian abode was on the ocean, with a view from Hilo Bay up to the northwest along the Hamakua Coast. Everywhere, extraordinary natural beauty.

It is a disappointment therefore, that Miss Duke didn’t take much advantage of the fantastic natural setting that her Black Point home affords. Although one can certainly hear the waves crashing along the rocky shoreline, there is precious little opportunity to see them unless one exits the house and enters the garden. Shangri-la, in terms of dwelling space, is largely a series of enclosed rooms- inward looking, with a surprising lack of vistas. I wonder why that is? Built in 1937 under the guidance of architect Marion Sims Wyeth, one wonders how much better the setting could have been used to advantage by Vladimir Ossipoff. His Boettcher house was built in nearby Kailua at exactly the same time, with its vistas all facing the ocean. As I think about it, the only significant ocean vista from Shangri-la is an oblique one obtained from the living room.

It is odd, now I think about it, how many, and how frequently, dwelling spaces of the period in Hawaii, even hotels where the natural landscape would be a selling feature, take little or no advantage of their sites. Continuing to use Honolulu as an example, our favorite home away from home the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, as originally constructed, made very little use of its site in providing views to the ocean and Diamond Head. Even today, the makai rooms in the original section of the hotel all have smallish windows that provide only a letterbox view of the ocean, and, at best, an oblique view of that most famous feature of the Honolulu landscape, Diamond Head. What’s interesting about the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, and makes it similar to Shangri-la, is that it is likewise designed in an ‘alien’ architectural style. Its hispano-moorish architecture shows a clear stylistic link with its down the beach near-neighbor, Shangri-la.  Unfortunately, both show an indifference toward not only the natural setting, but any notion of an Hawaiian aesthetic. Val Ossipoff grappled with these issues during the entire tenure of his career, achieving some considerable, and enduring, success. While his Boettcher House and several homes in Kahala, particularly at Puu Panini, no more than a literal stone’s throw from Shangri-la, are as fresh and vital in appearance today as when they were built, Miss Duke’s residence is, visually, no more than an anachronistic survivor. I would venture to say it is, in the main, interesting largely because of the woman who built it.

In reviewing yesterday’s entry, I realize some of the information imparted, in an effort to simplify, is really occlusive. My error, an egregious one, was in contextually linking George III and Thomas Chippendale. The impression one would get thereby is that ‘Chippendale’ and ‘George III’ are synonymous descriptive signifiers for the decorative arts in the last half of the 18th century.

They are not, actually, and sorry to give anyone the wrong impression. Thomas Chippendale, a Yorkshireman who made good as a cabinetmaker in London, came to prominence in the reign of George II. Chippendale’s designs, or rather, the designs then fashionable that he employed himself and cribbed from others, then collected and incorporated into the pattern book that has come down to us as The Gentleman and Cabinet-maker’s Director is very much a compendium of rococo design motifs. This is where it gets tricky, though, as Chippendale’s name has become associated with motifs he rarely used, including the redoubtable ball and claw foot. Further, the period of his activity spans two great epochs in the decorative arts- the rococo of the middle of the century, and the restrained neoclassicism of the last quarter of the century. Consequently, using Chippendale’s name to denote a particular time and style in the decorative arts is hardly precise.

As before, identification with Britain’s reigning monarch functions as a better method.  ‘George II period’ works when looking at pieces in rococo style, as his long reign, from 1727 to 1760, encompasses the end of the baroque, the length of rococo, and the beginnings of neo-classicism.  As it is, England never embraced the rococo in the same way the French, Germans, or even the Russian imperial court did. Using a typical English case piece as an example, it is difficult many times to tell the carcase of a George II chest from completed decades later. While the carcase may be simple, often the mounts are over the top, with rocaille decoration that screams rococo. I can’t definitively explain the why of this. Given the huge quantities of alcohol consumed by the moneyed 18th century Englishman, it would be hard to argue for some sort of native sobriety that carried over into the decorative arts. As well, with every young man of fashion going on a year(s)-long Grand Tour of Europe as an essential part of his education, it certainly cannot be a function of an ignorance of continental European taste. Perhaps my readers may wish to weigh in on this question.

Images of rococo cabinet hardware from mid-18th century pieces are below. Click on the link for the main images of the ‘sober’ case pieces they go with.

Gilt-brass handle and backplate, with ‘C’ scroll and rocaille motif to the handle

See detail image, or see full image

Gilt brass handle with backplate of ‘Raffle leaf’ design, the backplate and handle of linked ‘C’ scrolls

See detail image, or see full image

Gilt brass handle and escutcheon- a mixture of the rococo and the neo-classical. The rococo phoenix on the handle appears about to consume the foliate backplates on either side. Both are beneath a neo-classical escutcheon in the shape of an urn, with a bell-flower swag

See detail image, or see full image

Question- what’s the difference between ‘George III’ and ‘Georgian style’? In the antiques trade, the short answer is, about a century and many thousands of dollars.

I say this, apropos of looking at our web placement, something critical in this age of internet marketing, and reviewing the, shall we say, interesting free-from manner in which some other dealers are describing their goods. It occurred to me that it might be worthwhile to proffer some definitions that make some sense to my small cadre of readers, making it a bit easier for them to become thereby informed, and consequently, wary buyers. Mind you, this will hardly be exhaustive, but will function as the briefest of primers, followed on in due course by additional entries on the subject as they occur to me, and I have time to pen them.

First, a piece of furniture marked ‘George III’ on the price card should have been made in Great Britain between the years 1760, George III’s accession to the throne, and 1800. Although George III was king for another 20 years, the madness for which he’s famous overtook him through the remainder of his reign, with his son the Prince of Wales ruling in his stead, made official by the prince’s appointment as George III’s regent in 1811. Consequently, most pieces produced between 1800 and 1820, with the hegemony of the Prince of Wales as Regent, are generally termed ‘Regency.’

What you’ve just read functions, in a nutshell, to describe how decorative arts are generally descriptively dated. The reigning monarch is generally given shorthand credit for the era in which he reigns- naturally enough. Whether or not he wishes to be a style maker, he perforce is- kings live in palaces, and the best of everything, including decorative arts, are produced for palaces. And anyone of substance, even if they express republican sympathies otherwise, wants to ape the style of life lived by a king.

Some heads of state do have, however, a greater impact on taste than others. For instance, the fore mentioned Prince of Wales maintained his own household for decades before his official hegemony. He considered himself a style setter and spent lavish amounts of money to so seem- witness Carlton House and the Brighton Pavilion. Consequently, though the period of the Regency lasted a fairly short period of historic time- from 1811 through 1820- the stylistic impact of the Prince of Wales over shone all of the later years of George III’s reign.

We’ll discuss more about this in later blog entries, working backward through the 18th century, into the late 17th century.

What’s crucial to remember, however, is that, in the antiques trade, ‘Georgian style’ does not mean the piece is 18th century in manufacture. In fact, it could be brand new. The 18th century in Great Britain generally saw the nation’s emergence as a world power, and far and away the wealthiest nation, with the wealthiest population, on earth. The iconic names in furniture design and manufacture- Chippendale, Hepplewhite, and Gillow, to name three out of at least one hundred- achieved an influence that survives in robust health to this day. Consequently, what was original design in the 18th century has been reprised and reprised again. A Georgian style piece can still be old. There was a wave of Chippendale revivalism in Britain and America beginning in the 1880’s, with vast quantities of mahogany furniture decorating late Victorian parlors on both sides of the Atlantic. That’s the problem, however- ‘vast quantities’ of Victorian material, produced fairly cheaply with machine, as opposed to hand, labor, survive as opposed to very little 18th century material, produced to what were then new designs.

Does any of this sound familiar? It might, as some of these points were discussed in an article about Thomas Chippendale and the enduring influence of Chippendale style. Click on this link to read more.

So, if something is of George III appearance but was made in the late 19th century, what shall we call it? ‘George III style’ is what it should be called. Can it be called a period antique? If you define antique as anything over 100 years, then, sure, it can be so called. Can it be called ‘period’? If it is produced in the reign of Queen Victoria and it is labeled ‘Victorian’, then, with the definition we’ve developed using George III and the Prince of Wales as our trope, I’d say sure. But let’s achieve greater precision, and diminish the room for misunderstanding by including another term to distinguish a George III style article, or anything in an earlier period style, that was produced during Victoria’s reign. There is a term for that, too- ‘period reproduction.’

I received a telephone call yesterday from the daughter of a good client of ours. Her father had built her a house- he’s a home builder and property developer- and she’s trying to finish the inside off with a few period pieces. Well, where better a place to come than Chappell & McCullar? With all that, though, when inquiring if her father would be with her, she gleefully told me he was in London, then off to Paris, where he had taken his two granddaughters for an early summer outing. What a shame…

If you’ve not read the newspaper, accessed the internet, or watched television in the past 2 years, perhaps you don’t know about the perilous state of the residential housing market in this country. Frankly, if you are a San Franciscan, you could be excused for not knowing, as prices continue to escalate- and I mean sharply. Our builder-developer cum European traveler client, however, is in a market that is, shall we say, not so brisk. Even so, a tough year comes on the heels of the best years he’s ever had, so he’s still able to afford a suite of rooms at a hotel in the Place Vendome- sorry, Mr. Al-Fayed- not the Ritz. As well, he had enough scratch to ring me up and inquire about antiques galleries sufficiently near at hand that he can walk to them while he’s taking a respite from his giggly granddaughters. Sounds sexist, but what normal, healthy fourteen year old girls are not giggly?

My good friend and Paris-based colleague Ulrich Leben had one or two suggestions, but the best was the venerable Left Bank dealer Galerie J. Kugel. This, of course, is the kind of dealer I dream of becoming. A fantastic array of mainly 18th century pieces of all types, from furniture to paintings, housed in an exquisite hotel particulier. In my next life, I guess. Not so far fetched, that expression- Galerie J. Kugel has been trading in one form or another for 200 years.

In conversation, Ulrich confirmed, as our man on the ground in Paris, that, overall, the French antiques and fine art trade- and yes, this includes mid-century Modern material- is not all that brisk. Still, with the likes of Kugel still carrying on, like my builder-developer client who will visit them today, somebody must have made some money somewhere. And still have some money to spend.

And it is being spent, in the galleries and in the auction houses. I mentioned in passing yesterday, or was it the day before?, about record prices for brown furniture- yes, you heard me right, brown furniture, at Christie’s in London. Sexy brown furniture, and, yes, there is such a thing, from Simon Sainsbury’s collection, and, on the same day, a small, multiple-owner consignment of 12 extraordinary pieces. Given the anticipation associated with last summer’s sale-that-didn’t happen of the Chippendale pieces from Dumfries House, perhaps it is no surprise that a Chippendale giltwood and padouk chinoiserie cabinet, not unlike a bookcase that remains at Dumfries, sold for a record £2,400,000- a record for English furniture.  In fact, the sales on the day were well in excess of £20,000,000. Unfortunately, the immediate effect of this sale, or at least its timing, was that it functioned to siphon off sales activity from the fair at Grosvenor House. The dealers at Grosvenor House, in the main, did not do so well this year, but one wonders about the possible outcome of the fair had the Sainsbury sale not competed with it. With the preponderance of the auction buyers consisting of collectors or dealers bidding on behalf of collectors, the Grosvenor House dealers need to take heart- there are plenty of buyers out there, willing and able to spend a lot of money.