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The 2010 edition of the San Francisco Fall Antiques Show is now a matter of historic fact, and next year’s outing is something, thankfully, that most of the participating dealers are looking forward to.

I say ‘thankfully’, as, at our trade meeting yesterday morning on the show floor, there was a good feeling overall, and precious little grousing. That in itself is unusual when a group of dealers congregate, and I have to say, Keith and I spoke to a number of not only our local colleagues but those we know from far afield, and the mood was overwhelmingly positive. Mind you, sales results were mixed- some dealers did well, some did less well, and some didn’t even open the invoice book. But attendance was good and for those who did not sell, there nevertheless were innumerable conversations with punters of the type that lead one to expect that there will be follow-on business.

And, that’s what’s been lacking in the fairs- not just at show sales, but the attendance of engaged visitors who one feels, if they don’t buy today, will do so when they feel sunnier about things.

So, now that’s over, we can focus on the matter at hand- Go Giants! What? did you think there was anything else going on?

Not unusual for the time of year, dining table interest has spiked. Nothing more personal than a dining table, as style of life- casual or more formal- and décor- traditional or contemporary- and room size- compact or cavernous- often have more to do with what’s wanted than the style of the table itself.

A word to the wise, when you consider purchasing a period table, beware the banded table! An area with contrasting cross banding of either wood or decoration such as brass inlay around the perimeter of the table top is almost invariably a later add on. Surprising how often people inquire about banding, doubtless because they’ve seen a reproduction example with it- or a period example reprehensibly tarted up for sale. New and tarted up is hard to hide. But often banding, albeit not original, can still have some age to it. Again, beware, as cross banding can often mask substantial old repairs, including what so often occurred, the reshaping of a table top, often to associate the top with a new base. Bear in mind, dining tables are working pieces of furniture, and invariably sustain some damage through extensive use. When a table is restored, then and sadly now, sometimes it is thought easier and cheaper to make an alteration rather than to accomplish a proper repair.

We are ready for the first game of the World Series, and so is the San Francisco Fall Antiques Show. Go to tonight’s gala preview at Fort Mason’s Festival Pavilion, and watch the opening game of the series on big screen. Trust me, the bev and nibblies will be better than anywhere else, and what a better 7^th inning stretch of the legs than to browse the show?  Go Giants and good luck to everyone at the San Francisco Fall Antiques Show!



In terms of local San Francisco demography, Giants fans together with those who planned to attend the San Francisco Fall Antiques Show takes in pretty near everybody in town. There may be one or two asleep in doorways along Market Street who are generally indifferent, but I wouldn’t make book on that, either.

Of those handful of people in the western hemisphere who did not watch Brian Wilson throw the final strike in Saturday night’s game, a majority of those few might have been antiques dealers scheduled to participate in the fall show tortured as they were by the prospect of the Giants going to the World Series. As it happens, Game One exactly conflicts with the gala opening of the San Francisco Fall Antiques Show. Will the World Series affect attendance at the gala? Well, what do you think?

Star crossed seems to describe the significant West Coast fairs this year, with the Los Angeles Antiques Show this past April affected by the 7 mile high ash plume of an Icelandic volcano- remember all of this?- that delayed flights by days, and consequently delayed some European dealers and their stock in trade from setting up in time for the gala.  It was a near thing, but in the end, everyone got there, got set up for the balance of the show, and at least one of them- Elliot Lee from London- had a stellar show. As the sportscasters say, perhaps with more color, it isn’t over until it’s over.

So with the San Francisco Fall Antiques Show. No question, strong attendance while not promising a strong show, certainly improves the odds. That said, the World Series will affect most prominently the gala preview- there will still be plenty of non-game time during the succeeding four days of the show’s run for anyone to attend the show that wants to. Anyone can say what they want, but significant sales during the preview are as unusual as Tim Lincecum with short hair. The preview is first and foremost a benefit for the sponsoring charity-  the dealers’ show stands provides an elegant backdrop for what is, ultimately, a party. Mind you, the San Francisco Fall Antiques Show and its benefit charity, Enterprise for High School Students put on to my mind the best of the best when it comes to parties.

Still, the Giants in the World Series is the big news and Keith and I can barely stay seated, excited as we are to watch Game One, planning to close early on Wednesday to get home to watch on TV. For those of my loyal cadre of readers who know how venal we are, this amounts to a rare, albeit ecstatic, level of commitment. And who knows? The Giants aren’t the only team in the series, and we are liberal minded- our galleries, and the San Francisco Fall Antiques Show, will happily welcome Texas Rangers fans.

Syrie Maugham was and remains an influential designer from a time replete with ‘society decorators’, including Sibyl Colefax, Nancy Lancaster, and Elsie de Wolfe. Sadly, little but a photographic record remains of Mrs. Maugham’s work, nicely showcased just now in Pauline Metcalf’s monograph, newly published by Acanthus Press.  No one in the world of design does not at least claim to know about Maugham’s ‘white on white’ room treatments, revolutionary in their departure from the gloom of late Victorian and Edwardian decorative schemes. For those of us who love early ‘30’s cinema, one cannot help but be reminded of Mrs. Maugham when watching Jean Harlow lounge in her white on white bedroom in the 1933 ‘Dinner at Eight’.  As Metcalf surmises, set designers Fred Hope and Hobe Erwin doubtless considered this the height of chic and a clear encomium to Syrie Maugham.

As an antiques dealer whose trade is dependent on collectors, it is hard for me to endorse what use Syrie Maugham and others made of period pieces, with so much original finish stripped off and left plain, pickled, or painted white, with connoisseurship subsumed by chic. None of this is too surprising, though- as her designs marked such a break with the past, a thoroughgoing iconoclasm that extended to period furniture was probably to be expected. With all that, Maugham embraced contemporary makers and always included modern pieces in her designs.  The comfortable eclecticism that we now embrace certainly finds one of its most prominent early proponents in Syrie Maugham. As she was popular and consequently a popularizer, one wonders about the level of success of Jean-Michel Frank or the Giacomettis without her patronage.

Though competitors, Maugham was yet friendly with her contemporaries, indeed was a near neighbor to Sibyl Colefax, and travelled through India with Elsie de Wolfe. Not surprising, then, that some clients and design elements would overlap, with some commissions hard to distinguish, certainly between de Wolfe and Maugham. It was a surprise to find, in Maugham’s Palm Beach project for the Harry Payne Binghams, art moderne dining chairs identical to those we had acquired from de Wolfe’s Los Angeles commission for the Countess di Frasso.