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The third opus for SF20 has come and now gone. Some good sales, of course there could have been more, but that’s the show dealer’s lament even in the best of times. With all that, attendance, according to Gordon Merkle of show organizer Dolphin Promotions was up 50% over last year. With our return to the show yesterday mid afternoon, and to see it abuzz with activity, I am strongly inclined to believe him. Traditionally, a good attendance at a preview party- and this year’s party as a benefit for SFMOMA was very lively- does not necessarily translate into a successful show, as the preview party is, well, a party, and not everyone is intent on buying. The last couple of years, though, with the art economy sharing space with all the rest in the doldrums,  attendance during the run of most shows has been poor, with dealers who did not do business at the preview basically out of luck.

It was good to see, then, business done and attendance steady and improving all through the weekend. We spoke to a number of veteran dealers who did not actually sell, but had, in their words, ‘important conversations’, by which they mean they confidently expect follow up, post-show business.

Always important at a decorative arts fair, the support of the design community- shopping with clients or individually- gives the fair legitimacy and certainly lifts the dealers’’ spirits. AD100  designer and fair stalwart Douglas Durkin has done phenomenal work in this regard. In print and in person, Douglas has done yeoman work to raise the profile of SF20. On preview night and even late yesterday afternoon, Douglas was on the show floor, engaging with dealers, clients and friends. Were I wearing a hat, it would be most prominently tipped in his direction.

Times being the way they are (I’m tired of saying that, but times obstinately remain the way they are) it is encouraging to find SF20, arguably the West Coast’s premier modern design fair, previewing last night and open to the public through Sunday, going from strength to strength. In its third year under the management of Dolphin Promotions, Fort Mason’s Festival Pavilion has rarely looked so, well, sexy, and, no, it wasn’t my four vodkas on the rocks, refreshing though they were. Our friends at Hedge as usual installed a stunning display.

As impressed as I was with their install last year, I have to say the continuing efforts of Roth Martin and designer/partner Steven Volpe continue to astound.

That said, there was plenty else around to delight, including the offerings from our Los Angeles friends Dragonette and first time exhibitor but modernist stalwart, New York based Todd Merrill Antiques. Speaking of delights- Rachel Prater, you never looked lovelier! Always where the design action is, Rachel’s Danish Silver USA  will be an exhibitor in just a few weeks time at the San Francisco Fall Antiques Show.

SF20 will run through Sunday at the Festival Pavilion at San Francisco’s Fort Mason.

Debo, Your Grace, the last of the Mitfords, and Mrs Cavendish- Deborah, the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire would probably respond with equal aplomb to however she’s called. One of the most enjoyable articles I’ve read in World of Interiors, a very enjoyable publication, was that in this month’s issue, penned by Her Grace herself, on a restored vicarage that now functions as her dower house. Interesting, what was formerly my favorite article in World of Interiors was something from five years ago, about the Mayfair house the Duchess shared with the recently late Duke, that was soon to be put on the market.

I don’t know that I have any peculiarly inordinate fascination with English aristocracy, but certainly in the case of the dowager duchess, she is such an astonishing woman, avuncular, and down to earth, that anyone, even the most dyed in the wool republican, would find her at the very least engaging. With all that, her own familial connections joined with those of the Cavendish family result in a pedigree few on earth could ever match. Just at the moment, with the family’s so-called attic sale scheduled for early next month at Sotheby’s, the focus is on their renowned Derbyshire country seat of Chatsworth, but the sale includes a huge number of items from Devonshire House, their London house long since demolished, designed in the early 18^th century by the redoubtable William Kent.

Sotheby’s catalog for the upcoming sale, I must say, is worth whatever you have to pay for it. Whether you buy anything or not, the catalog itself is a compendious recounting of all the building works of the Cavendish family beginning as long ago as the Elizabethan prodigy house, Hardwick Hall.

In a brief Facebook exchange with colleague and now design journalist Kendra Boutell, it occurred to me, times being the way they are, that we have an unusually large stock of some items, most notably mirrors. Some time back, I had written a brief squib about period mirrors for my friend Heidi Gerpheide for California Homes.  Still and all, my own fascination with mirrors remains unabated.

The three century survival of something as fragile as a giltframed mirror with its glass plate is worthy of wonder, but in our own age of mass production, the miracle of technology that allowed its production in the first place is lost in the mists of time. The now glaucous plates with their reflective surfaces achieved with an amalgam of silver and mercury were about the most precious thing then going- not the least element of which was the mercury poisoning that afflicted anyone involved in mirror production.

The ubiquitous gilt frame, often now the most prized portion of the mirror itself, was largely the result of a period notion of typology. With the mirror plate itself so precious, one naturally had to pair it with a framework that was equally so.

And as striking. With the ability to shape and grind glass resulting in the introduction of convex mirrors in the early 19^th century, the typical placement of the convex mirror above the mantelpiece in the sitting room gave an inordinate prominence to an object already astonishingly striking. Interestingly, these mirrors were always placed rather high up on the wall- their function was less to peer into, than to allow reflection of the entire room in the convex surface of the mirror plate.

See an album of our mirrors on our Facebook page.

I’ve heard it said that golf is becoming a less popular leisure activity, doubtless in favor of passive X-box types of pursuits. A real shame, times being the way they are, as I cannot think of anything more pleasant than half a day in the out of doors, pitting one’s own mettle against a small, dimpled white ball.

My life has in the main been a fortunate one, but, frankly, I had the joy of reminding myself how fortunate in the weekend just past, spent playing golf. In the middle 1990’s, Keith’s mother and father purchased a home at Blacklake Canyon, a golf resort on the coast about an hour north of Santa Barbara.  At the time, with its landscaping and homes new, it had the bare earth rawness of any new development, but, in the intervening years, the edge has worn off beautifully, with a combination of natural native oaks articulating perfectly with that landscape introduced to make a playable golf course. Suffice to say, we really have a good time there, with the course about as challenging as anything I will ever require. Moreover, with the house itself adjacent to the 11^th green, and looking to the westward toward the ocean, it is about as pretty a spot one could choose.

A brief interruption to the travelogue, to say that I am not the first to impute spiritual properties to the game of golf, but that does not make its spiritual aspects any less of a facet for me. From a mechanical standpoint, the club and the ball do all the work- with very little physical effort, the connection between the club face and the ball itself makes the ball travel a long, long way. Everything else is dependent on how the club is wielded, and that is dependent on the unity of mind and body. Does this sound like yoga? It should, as achieving such a unity, with the reward the ball flying off the club face and heading straight down the middle of the fairway in the direction of the flagstick, it all becomes a metaphor for success in life. I defy anyone to play a successful round of golf with a lot on the mind. And, for me, success during play and enjoyment are not consequentially dependent, but concomitant. And the same goes for life generally- as one does tend to keep score, a round of golf requires play hole by hole, and provides plenty of opportunities for success and, if success is not achieved on one hole- or with one stroke- there is always the next. And- you are able to do it all on your own. Of course, in life one isn’t always complete master of one’s fate, but I think that playing golf makes one realize that one has more control than one realizes- or cares to admit. And, there is always another chance.