Your Secret Weapon
March 2007
Joan Price makes decisions in a hurry. Like other highly successful businesspeople, she has to. So, standing before a pair of framed 18th-century Chinese wallpaper panels at the International Fine Art and Antique Dealers Show, Price quickly decides she wants them and is ready to make the purchase—that is, until her antiques consultant intervenes. “Let’s keep looking,” says Tim Corfield, with a gentle nudge. “They’re a bit ‘flat.’”A life-long lover of art and antiques, it only recently that Price, the CEO of a Manhattan real estate
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"Our job is also to protect the client," says design consultant Cristina Grajales. "Before I propose a piece to a client, I've done a lot of vetting." |
Through a private international concierge club called Quintessentially, Price discovered Corfield and his British/American antiques advisory service, Corfield Morris. Formed by Corfield, an antiques dealer and restorer, and Daniel Morris, a former Sotheby’s director and expert in 18th- and 19th-century furniture, the consultancy boasts a sizable American client list thanks to its increasingly ubiquitous presence at international fairs. Along with Martyn Downer, the former head of Sotheby’s jewelry department, and Tanya Buckrell-Pos, a 20th-century specialist, Corfield Morris has the collecting field covered.
Price is typical of the new breed of collector who hires consultants: someone who has crossed a mental threshold and is ready to the move to the next level, where the quality level and the prices are higher. For this type of buyer, expert advice on decorating and furnishing homes is also at a premium.
“I try to get the personality of the client in my head,” says Corfield, a 15-year veteran consultant who visited Price’s apartment while in New York and went out shopping with her to see what kinds of pieces she liked. He soon discovered that her mental hurdle was the idea of living with 18th-century English antiques in her new industrial loft. “He took me to a gallery with a similar setting—Tony Ingrao—which I thought was very sensitive of him,” explains Price. “Then I began to get excited.”
Back at the International Show, a set of six late 18th-century Chinese enamels on copper depicting a bucolic country narrative caught Price’s eye after she passed on the framed wallpaper panels. She watched how everyone who visited Jeremy Ltd.’s booth on this first day of the fair was drawn to them. “Tim turned to me and said, ‘You don’t have to buy them.’ He was slowing me down. But I asked him to negotiate a price for me. Without Tim I wouldn’t have made the conceptual leap to buy something of that quality.”
Consultants are generally knowledgeable pros—former museum curators, auction-house specialists and dealers—who have decided to launch their own advisory services. While no official accreditation exists for what they do, they tend to be well-known in their fields, and with a little digging, a prospective client can easily research their backgrounds. Some high-end consultants work with only a couple of clients, since developing a museum-quality collection can be a full-time job. These experts might be kept on a yearly salary or monthly retainer. Others are far more accessible and are happy to work on a project basis or even negotiate just one purchase for a buyer. Commissions range from 2 percent on multimillion-dollar painting sales to 20 percent on say, a $5,000 antique table.You don’t always have to arrange for an advisor in advance of shows. Some, such as Corfield Morris, have booths at TEFAF Maastricht, Olympia, Grosvenor House and other major fairs. “It’s wonderful, because you see these affluent young people in Chelsea wandering into the fair,” says Gillian Craig, director of the British Antique Dealers’ Association, of its annual fair in London (March 21–27). “They fall in love with an object, but they’ve never bought an antique before. With the services of an advisor, they have the confidence to make the purchase.”
ADVANTAGES OF USING A CONSULTANT
SAVING TIME
Today’s collector is a time-starved individual who can only dream about getting through his stack of auction catalogs, let alone researching provenance or the background of an emerging artist. “Our clients are very busy. We do the editing and accelerate the process,” says Cristina Grajales, a leading 20th-century design consultant who’s worked with Peter and Stephanie Brant, Beth Rudin DeWoody and Mr. and Mrs. Tom Kaplan.
AN EXPERT EYE
Consultants will scout new talent and report back to clients on market trends. When they spot an object, they’ll send a client an e-mail, and, if the client wants to see it in situ, will arrange for delivery and a try-out before a formal sale is made. Their expertise can also secure the best of a category, something with resale value that an uneducated eye might let pass. “Tim Corfield called me from Christie’s in London and said, ‘There’s a commode—nip home quickly and have a look online,’” recalls Price. The 1780 English mahogany piece in the manner of Linnel had the serpentine shape that Price was seeking and Corfield was able to see beyond the “scruffy” surface and realize that it could be returned to its former glory.
UNIQUE KNOWLEDGE OF PROVENANCE
As constant market-watchers, advisors can recite the history of works as if they were old friends or family. “Oh, that’s back,” says Corfield as he passes a stunning 12-foot Regency four-pillar dining table in a booth at a New York fair. “It’s been on the market a long time,” he says, reciting the table’s recent addresses as if they had been his own.
PREVENTING COLLECTION DISASTERS
“Our job is also to protect the client,” says Grajales. “You have to deal with reputable dealers and you have to ask a lot of questions”—especially in the increasingly murky field of improperly restored and knocked-off 20th-century design. “Before I propose a piece to a client, I’ve done a lot of vetting,” she continues. “And if they are in love with an object that I feel any doubt about at all, I will refuse to buy it. I’ve done it many times.” (Among the designers whose works Grajales says have to be watched are: Jean Royère, Carlo Mollino, Gio Ponti and the Brazilian masters.) “There’s a whole cataloguing language that’s not immediately obvious,” says Corfield of the antiques world. “And some of the auction estimates are way off mark—the average collector wouldn’t know that.”SPECIAL SERVICES
Art consultants have a roster of key experts in their Blackberrys, ranging from professionals who hang art for the Metropolitan Museum of Art to the world’s top restorers. But don’t be surprised if you try to hire one of these pros on your own and find that they won’t do the job. Many work only for a select clientele, which will include your consultant. “We do everything from collection maintenance to appraisals,” says Grajales. “We’re a full-service company, of course handling shipping, insurance and museum loans.”
SHOPPING ADVICE FROM AN INSIDER
Since these pros log numerous hours trotting the globe, they’re well acquainted with international galleries, antiques shops and salerooms. Headed to Paris on business but want to do some shopping? Your consultant might be happy to share the addresses of her favorite galleries or maybe arrange for tea with a specialist at the auction house Tajan. Dying to shop the antiques dealers of the Cotswolds but dread driving on the other side of the road in England? Your consultant will arrange an itinerary with a driver who will take you to every member of the Cotswolds Antiques Dealers’ Association, as well as to busy country salesrooms.
ACCESS, ACCESS, ACCESS
A consultant can make the difference between a mediocre collection and a museum-worthy one. As Adam Lindemann explains in his recent book, Collecting Contemporary, in which he interviews top consultants, advisors have the inside track on the “gray market”—the secondary market where works are passed from one owner to another without going through a dealer or an auction house. They are also essential to entering the elite reaches of the contemporary art world. As consultant Mark Fletcher explained to Lindemann, “The beginning collector can’t walk into the galleries of eminent dealers like David Zwirner or Barbara Gladstone, or Larry Gagosian or Mark Goodman, and be offered works. It’s a relatively closed system, and what a good art adviser can do is allow access.”
Art & Antiques’ New York correspondent Sallie Brady recently reported on how to work the fairs like an insider (“A&A Advisor,” January 2006).
FOR MORE INFORMATION
►Antique Markets Accompaniment Association
France. Bilingual consultants who advise on shopping and
shipping in France. 011.33.6.11.44.78.55
www.amaa.fr
►Cristina Grajales
New York.
20th-century and contemporary design specialist, gallerist and interior design services. 212.219.9941
www.cristinagrajalesinc.com
►Collecting Contemporary, by Adam Lindemann (Taschen, 2006)
►Corfield Morris
New York and
England. Fine and decorative art, antiques and jewelry specialists
with full complement of services,
especially restoration.
212.460.9005 and 011.44.17.9430.1141
www.corfieldmorris.com
►Kimberly Light, Lightbox Gallery
Los Angeles. Consults on contemporary art and sculpture, gallerist.
310.559.1111
www.lightbox.com
►Robert C. Moeller III
Jackson, Wyo. Focus on European and American
paintings.
307.733.9607
www.theartadvisor.com
►Thea Westreich
New York. Specialist in international modern and contemporary art.
212.941.9449
►Quintessentially
28 domestic and international locations. Members-only concierge service that partners with
art and antiques experts.
www.quintessentially.com