English decorative arts before 1720: strength at the top of this market suggests new specialist collectors are replacing the traditional manor-house owner who buys to furnish

Apollo, Oct, 2004 by Samson Spanier

In the early twentieth century, the traditional English manor house of the medieval, Tudor or Stuart periods became a total work of art that required the collecting of not just old oak furniture but also delftware, tapestries and so on. Is that milieu still with us? The answer is yes, but tastes are changing. One collector in the manor-house tradition is Mary Ann Robb, owner of medieval Cothay Manor in Somerset, which she has made famous for its garden. Mrs Robb has been collecting for the house since the 1970s and is sure she will never stop. She says of her ceramics, textiles and furniture that, 'I like them to be used', reflecting a taste for homely permanence and antiquity.

Dealers in early furniture, especially those outside London, agree that the traditional manor-house market still exists. Mike Gelding of Huntington Antiques, Stow on the Wold, in the Cotswolds points out that much oak is acquired from him 'for what's called "the display of ostentation"'. 'People who buy a dresser need an alms dish and candlesticks to put on it.' A recent example from the silver market demonstrates the relationship. Michael Prevezer at Bonhams, London, remarked on a Norwich silver tankard (Fig. 4) that sold for 30,000 [pounds sterling] (estimate 10,000 [pounds sterling]-15,000 [pounds sterling]) in July. 'Talking speculatively,' he said, 'a rich Norwich farmer might well wish to collect local objects for his farmhouse'. As Norwich silver is rare--Mr Prevezer sees perhaps three examples a year--the lot was strongly contested. The best example of a medium which encourages collecting across a wide field is textiles, since by their nature they adorn other objects (or, as tapestry, walls).

New collectors

Nevertheless, dealers are unanimous that while the top lots are successful, the bottom end is increasingly ignored. The market is changing at the top to reflect the rise of the specialist collector, which may well be bound up with a decline in the manor-house taste. Jonathan Home, the London dealer of ceramics, explains: 'I am a specialist dealer and most of my clients are specialist collectors.' Mr Prevezer points out that 'It is rare for collectors to have good taste across all media', and that the majority of his clients do not collect across the whole range of the decorative arts. A sale at Lyon and Turnbull in Edinburgh of a private collection of Scottish and Continental silver appears to conform to this trend. Unshowy, small pieces--such as two Queen Anne thistle mugs by John Luke of Glasgow (1707) that sold for 11,000 [pounds sterling] appear better fitted for a cabinet than a dining room.

Sotheby's has recognised a decline in conventional taste, and Fergus Lyons of the furniture department explained that the Age of Oak and Wulnut sale this September is a new initiative. Objects traditionally associated with Sotheby's Olympia are being sold in New Bond Street with the aim of attracting buyers who might buy just one very fine piece to be placed in a more or less minimalist house. The cover photograph is revealing: a table and chair are accompanied not by tapestries and pewter but by an orchid.

A more quantifiable effect on the market, however, is the world's economy and the related absence in England of American buyers. This may be especially relevant to the manor house ideal, because many Americans buy to furnish their (often large) homes. Mike Gelding mentioned their importance, while London dealer Joanna Booth, who specialises in textiles and sculpture, often visits the Palm Beach and New York fairs. However, internet and telephone sales are on the up, helping to reverse the trend.

Solid sales for solid lots

Whatever the causes of the current situation, the result is in general what Fergus Lyons identifies in furniture: 'a polarisation between the top pieces and the mediocre pieces'. The market for oak and walnut demonstrates this clearly. Mr Gelding comments in relation to minor pieces: 'I used to sell three dressers a month; now, I sometimes don't sell a dresser for three months.' The concomitant is excellent performances for pieces that are rare or unusual, and in good condition and if they are especially old, so much the better. Mr Golding sold a sixteenth-century walnut buffet 'in very good condition' by telephone for 60,000 [pounds sterling] the day after he posted his catalogues; in fact, seven clients called him about it. In June, Sotheby's sold a George I children's chair of around 1720 that was untouched by restorers for 24,000 [pounds sterling] (estimate: 4,000 [pounds sterling]-6,000 [pounds sterling]). A seventeeth-century West Country carved tester bed sold for 11,000 [pounds sterling] at Christie's, South Kensington, in March. An example of a 'solid' lot that performs well is Fig. 2, on sale this September. Oak is, however, the most consistent and predictable part of the 'manor house market', partly, according to Mr Lyons, because it did not enjoy an unsustainable boom in the past decade, unlike later furniture.