Antique dealers with flair and good taste:
Over the last 60 plus years we have seen many antique dealers come and go. This is inevitable for any small business, but particularly where a successful dealership depends on the owner’s active and personal participation over a long period of time.
There are many that we have admired but we’d like to shortlist just five of the many we were fortunate enough to have known, and from whom we learned so much:
1. Geoffrey Bennison.
2, George Sherlock.
3. Axel Vervoordt.
4. Monty Sainsbury.
5. Henry Rubin.
…All instinctive masters of good taste with an extraordinary gift of seeing the potential of an item and presenting it in an environment where it then creates impact, communicates quality and value to a client. What better definition of good taste?
Recently in the Antiques Trade Gazette the remarkable Prof. David Starkey calls it flair.
When flair is coupled to sound academic knowledge and long term hands-on experience, you have found an exceptional dealer.
Where does this elusive quality of flair come from? An interesting subject for further debate. We welcome comments from readers on this.
Unlike academic knowledge, we believe it cannot be learned.
Any experienced antique dealer with flair and sound academic knowledge should be more than willing to share it with you. If they don’t, then best look on.
John and Alex
