Antiques

Old is the new new

And contemporary art is suddenly yesterday’s thing, writes Helen Kirwan-Taylor Damien Hirst’s two-day auction of spanking new works at Sotheby’s in September signalled the end of an era. Our idea of what is desirable has changed dramatically since. ‘The definition of luxury today is something that can’t be made in one day,’ Sir David Tang said at the Luxury Briefing Conference in London in November. ‘Look at all the wonderful items of quality that we buy in auction houses. Real craftsmanship can’t be rushed.’ ‘Anyone can buy contemporary art,’ says Giles Hutchinson Smith of Mallet Antiques, ‘but antiques require more thought and more consideration.’ Antiques take more knowledge to buy and therefore even more knowledge to give. They also won’t end up in a landfill next Christmas. ‘People want things that they can hand down to their children,’ says Charlotte Avery of Scantique, a company that sells vintage Swedish design. ‘It’s part of our green awareness but it’s also about valuing things.’ Bill Gates and Henry Kravis are currently buying up French 18thcentury furniture. This is because the finest quality antiques that took months, if not years, for the craftsman to make are still cheap compared to £1,441,250 for a Hirst ‘Butterfly’ painting (one of many) that he is unlikely ever to have touched.

The return of interest in the past — and with it antiques — is one of the positive offshoots of the credit crunch. ‘We are seeing a lot of new customers,’ says Kevin Weaver, co-owner of Guinevere Antiques on the King’s Road. ‘There is a sense that nothing is of value any more. It’s all going up in smoke. People are looking for things that have some intrinsic value.’ Antiques are not only a safer bet in terms of investment, but there are bargains to be had because the market was low to begin with.

Guinevere Antiques caters to almost all tastes, though Weaver has some Christmas suggestions. ‘Victorian or Georgian decanters [£300-400 — they have a huge selection] make the perfect gift. They retain their value and they have decorative quality, too,’ he says. As people slowly return to entertaining at home (because going out is too expensive), how you set your table and with what will take on more importance. Nineteenthcentury champagne flutes retail for £80-100 at Guinevere. ‘Brand new glasses are about the same price but they lose their value as soon as they leave the shop,’ he says. Another great personal gift are old French linen napkins (which are much more generous in size than anything new). Guinevere has over 300 in stock, all organised by monogrammed letters, and it’s very likely you can find the initials of the person you wish to give them to (a set of ten or 12 is £100-200).

The big trend at the moment is to mix old with new. There is nothing quite as spectacular as a table set with a combination of antique and new china and silver (mixing sets up is all the rage). Though an antique candelabra will set you back £5,000 at Simon Griffin Antiques, a tiny silver shop in the Royal Arcade, it is still relatively cheap compared to contemporary art or even jewellery. Griffin has noticed that more customers are asking for practical antique items to give as gifts. He recommends a Georgian toast rack (£488) and silver pepper mill (£285), but I noticed a few customers lining up to buy antique silver jewellery boxes (from £170), frames (from £80) and cigarette boxes (from £140), which they were having engraved with personal words rather than initials (this service starts at £30 and can be done in a week).

Antiques are also one-offs. Soane — Charles Saatchi’s favourite design shop — has some unusual antique gift choices for Christmas including a pair of tankards in Indian silver (£350), a mammoth’s tooth (£1,600) and a pair of engravings depicting the bow and stern of a model 1741 establishment 60-gunship (£12,500) which, according to owners Lulu Lytle and Christopher Hodsoll, has generated a great deal of interest.

Glass is always a good gift. Scantique — now showing at the Cross (on Portland Road) until Christmas — has a great selection of affordable Swedish glass and ceramics from the 1920s onwards, as well as handmade mid-century furniture (which costs a fraction of factory-made Italian design) by the great manufacturers including Orrefors and Pukeberg. Each vase (they start from £70) is hand-blown and dated. You can tell they’re well made because they require almost two hands to pick up.

Buying something old also avoids ‘luxury fatigue’ (what happens when you see the same thing everywhere) and shows people that you spent more than 30 seconds considering the purchase. Your gift might also grow in value rather than end up in someone’s present drawer ready to be re-given.

Guinevere Antiques

www.guinevere.co.uk

Simon Griffin Antiques

3 Royal Arcade, Mayfair, London W1 Tel: 020 7491 7367

Soane

www.soane.co.uk

Scantique

www.scantique.co.uk