The London International Fine Art Fair at Olympia

The much trumpeted new look London International Fine Art Fair (at Olympia) is over and what can we say? The best word I can find is “flat”. With new owners, a new title and a new direction for arguably the previously best known fair in Britain, all was not as it was hyped up to be. The fair itself, with all due credit to David Lester (the Florida based impresario who has now taken the reins), looked wonderful with a uniform presentation of tapered columns, sculpted stand fascias, deep pile carpets and with flowers and topiary galore.

So where did it all go wrong? The two primary issues were the lack of visitors and the lack of the right sort of exhibitor. Despite promises and expectations of some 65,000 visitors (normally around 26,000 in the previous few years) numbers were actually down on previous years. The combination of the blisteringly hot weather and the school half term made the exhibition hall feel like a morgue on the opening weekend. The true figure, when the organisers tell you the numbers are 10% down, is probably more like 20-30%.

In addition, the fair lacked the usual good core of “across the board” and particularly high end traditional British dealers, which for years have been the mainstay of the event. Admittedly a few did sign up at the last minute, but these were heavily influenced by pressure from the organisers. With Masterpiece only a week or so after the LIFAF, many of the previous key Grosvenor house dealers stuck their flag on that castle instead.

Feelings were certainly running high at the exhibitor meetings held during the event so much so that Mr Lester mentioned to me personally that next year the fair may be called “The Olympia Antiques & Fine Art Fair”. Notwithstanding that it still remains to be seen whether or not they put the final caveat of ….” in London” at the end.

The Summer Olympia Fine Art & Antiques Fair goes up-market with a new team at the helm.

After 37 years as a quality collectors and trade show the summer Olympia fair is changing direction and moving more upmarket. Florida based fairs impresario David Lester and his wife Lee Ann are taking a 50% stake and controlling interest in the large London summer exhibition. With a view to making the country’s flagship large fair more into a cross between Grosvenor House and Maastricht.

Gone will be the large introverted “self-build” stands where dealers with the cash could concoct a large effigies to their own vanity rather than to the exhibits contained within. In comes a uniform stand build with a layout similar to that of TEFAF in Maastricht and more importantly an emphasis on quality goods within that new environment.

The London International Fine Art Fair will be for some be a welcome departure from the normal Olympia Summer format, whether the new look event will produce more visitors and the necessary increased business to pay for the higher costs for exhibitors will only be seen after the event. Mr Lester certainly seems very enthusiastic and is very hands on, watch this space for further developments!

Uk interest rates on hold at 0.5% - great for borrowers, terrible for savers.

In these latter days of the credit crunch, we see Mr Brown and his Darling friend trying to do everything they can to bring a bit of life into the British economy (and into their chances for the next election!) whilst bankrupting the country in the process. We have interest rates sitting at an all time low of 0.5% which is great news for people like me with an un-restricted tracker mortgage, but what about savers?
Current deposit rates are hovering around the 3-4% mark if you are lucky, and if you are very lucky a little more than this; but hang on, no sensible person has their money tied up in a deposit account do they?  Long term investments are surely the smart way to go, oh and the stock market….OK let’s not go there.

Yes, times of low interest rates are great for borrowers but not such good news for the few amongst us that might have a bit of cash tucked away for a rainy day. If you have a big wodge hiding away somewhere, now could perhaps be the time to start snapping up some cheap real estate with an optimistic view that the property market has bottom out……hmm, maybe not?
Perhaps we might consider alternative investments? The contemporary art market has taken a big speculatively fuelled dive recently, the majority of buyers in this market place in it not because they thought Damien Hirst’s works were the best thing since Rembrandt, but like the property game they felt as though they would be left out of a surging modern art market if they didn’t get in there quick….well they have – out of pocket that is.

So where can we put our cash so that it is relatively safe which maybe has a tangible asset to back up our investment, and perhaps also even enjoy as well? 
This is where I come clean. I run a Fine Art & Antiques Business, selling fine quality British furniture & clocks from circa 1680 through to 1830 (perhaps the best period in history for quality and aesthetics of hand crafted pieces) and paintings from the 19th and early 20th century.  Whereas all the junk that you see on day time TV antique shows is going down the pan like anything else, the quality end of the market is actually still creeping up in value and so is the traditional art market.

The key?  Who knows, this market is generally frequented by the super rich throughout the world, fashion does not matter to them, they have made it and know where they are going, so the things they buy are all bought with a long term strategy in mind. They may one day sell what they have just bought and they know that in the long term quality sells and their investment will be safe.

For instance, we have a piece of furniture at the moment that was made in about 1760 and for all intents and purpose is a chest of drawers. This piece was sold to its previous owner in 1963 at the Grosvenor House Fair in London for £2250, it has been used every day for the last 40 odd years and we have just sold it on for 2600% more than it was bought for in 1963, try that with something contemporary!

Millington Adams stand at the 2009 Olympia International Art & Antiques Fair - turnover up by 2.5 times.

This June we exhibited the Summer International Fine Art & Antique Fair at Olympia in London and our turnover during the 10 day event was up 2½ times that of the previous year, with many of our more costly items selling within hours of the event opening.  So maybe people are putting their money into fine art & antiques? You can use it or look at it every day, enjoy it, admire it and one day if you decide to sell, your pride and joy will still be worth something……maybe there is some light at the end of the tunnel!

If you feel like looking at something alternative drop by our site www.millingtonadams.com

Pablo Picasso - La Fille de l'artisite a deux ans et demi avec un bateau - A casuality in a recent New York sale.

The once booming contemporary art market is certainly feeling a change from the early days of the heady “noughties”, for example in New York contemporary sales recently the once extremely bullish estimates have been replaced by realistic ones enabled the New York flagship sales of post-War and contemporary art to set solid selling rates. But, for both major houses, the financial gulf between this year and 2008 even was enormous.
Sotheby’s sale for instance on the 5th May was the smallest New York contemporary auction since May 2003. With a very thin catalogue, the sale total only achieved $40.1m down over 85% on the 2008 sale. One of the casualties of this sale with a heady estimate of $16-24m was Pablo Picasso’s – La Fille de l’artisite a deux ans et demi avec un bateau a study of his then 2½ year old daughter.
Christies held a sale the following day of 54 contemporary works, the pre-sale estimate was $71-104m, vastly reduced in terms of volume and price over 2008, the sale eventually achieved $80.9m against last years total of $294m. These still may seem like telephone numbers but percentage wise they are considerably diminished on the previous years results, an indication of what is to come? Well read on.

Paintings like William Weekes' early 20th century study of geese chasing an old soldier, entitled "Suspicion" is both humorous and decorative.

So where does this leave the art market? The traditional art market has historically been less susceptible to the wild hormonal and financial swings of the modern market. This is probably because buyers are more mature, not necessarily in age but in taste, and are also buying out of desire rather than supposed investment potential. It has so far suffered little from the economic downturn however we will monitor interest at Olympia and the big London sales and keep you posted.

A report last year in the Sunday times business section just before the “credit crunch” started to bite did conclude

that due to the volatility of the contemporary art market, where generally the buyers are in there for gain rather than pleasure, the author would stick his money in traditional art all day long – not as trendy but then not as dangerous either.  Safe but sure? I would certainly think so. We can help you out with traditional art, visit  www.millingtonadams.com to see more!

The entrance to the BADA Fair at the Dule of York Square, London.

Having just tentatively completed the BADA Fine Art & Antique Fair in London, we come away feeling that there may be a degree of truth in Mr Brown’s tales of “green shoots” returning to the British economy. Whilst attendance and interest in the fair was high, the magic sales were a slow to get off the mark. On the opening day we made some headway, however did find a slight reluctance in the decision making process by many visitors. It was though people wanted to make business and do deals, but yet there was a mysterious force keeping their hands away from cheque books and wallets.

As the days progresses, the initial reluctance started turning into commitment and things began selling. It was though clients were making doubly sure that they wanted something before making the final decision. One customer who bought an important piece after the fair closed, commented that he “.. could only put up with a bear market for so long, as it became tediously boring after a while…”
Interestingly many of the long established large London dealers did not start hearing the scratching of fountain pen on cheque till well into the fair, if they did at all. We on the other hand started slowly and gradually gained momentum, with two large sales coming after the close on Tuesday evening. All in all we were very happy with our BADA outing, despite the doom mongers that we still hear prolifically on TV, radio and in the press.

Maybe Gordon is right, there are some “green shoots” appearing in the economy.

You've just got the best deal and now you want to charge it to your American Express.....

At Millington Adams, we take credit cards like most other antique dealers do these days.  However do we want to take these cards or do we take them to add convenience for the customer? Probably the latter, credit, debit or charge cards do make it easier for the customer to part with his or her money, because the large expenditure hit they are just committing to is not coming immediately out of their bank account.  We, unlike a lot of dealers, do pride ourselves on a upfront pricing structure, that is visible on the web and is exactly the same at an exclusive London fair.

So now our customer from Texas really moves in for the kill, he produces his American Express card! Our dealer’s face goes white and he swallows imperceptibly, he has been hammered down completely on the price and now with the production of this gentleman’s Amex, he is about to lose another 3% or so. This dealer has had his “old friend” piece of stock for a while and is now seeing any last bastions of profit disappearing, he would like to move this piece on and try something new, so the customer has got him over a barrel we will have to take another £540 hit on the commission – the Amex card is run through the machine, the stony faced dealer is struggling  to smile as the delighted Texan billionaire shakes his hand and heads out of the fair with the bargain of the year.

Millington Adams pricing structure is fairly uniform, we do not add onto the price of any piece just so we can “sell a discount”. When asked for our best price, that is what we will give you – our best price possible, please don’t be offended when we do not take offers below that level! Our best price will always be for payment by cheque, bank transfer or debit card. We are happy to accept credit cards and American Express, but not however when every last penny has been wrung out of the deal, we do have to try and run a business, so please be gentle with us!

So where does the wonderful pieces you see at an Antique Fair come from?

Many people ask this question when buying antiques, I am sure we would all like our new art and antique acquisitions to be provenanced to a stately home where it has remained since its manufacture,  generally over 200 years ago. Well quite frankly buys like this are few and far between.

Most dealers do not want to divulge the immediate source of stock they are currently selling, however are willing to mention which part of the country the piece has come from, or if we are allowed by the vendor, be a little more specific than that.

Most antiques that are being sold today are ones that were sold in maybe the late 60’s and early 70’s, and have not always been wanted by later generations. So they are disposed of either directly to the trade, via a house clearance or through auction.

At Millington Adams we tend only to acquire privately sourced stock, the vehicle we use to perform this task could be varied including the three ways mentioned above. We are particular for instance when we buy at auction to know where the piece comes from, we do not generally buy trade hand me downs, except of course for a few exceptional circumstances where we will state this in the “Provenance” section on our website.

So our provenance statements are for the stocks immediate past unless we know further history. One thing I must add is that auction houses and the like, are just agents acting on behalf of their client. When a dealer buys at auction, he is buying from the private individual using the auction house as the facilitator, likewise the vendor uses the auction house as a vehicle to sell his unwanted antiques, the main winner of course is the auction house, who takes a cut from both sides of the equation…. easy life isn’t it?

The 2008 Antique Furniture Index

First compiled in 1968 by John Andrews (also a writer of price guide books for antique furniture) the Antique Furniture Index (AFI) is now in its 40th year. The index represents a blend of retail and auction prices for 1400 typical (rather than exceptional) pieces of furniture from the seven different periods pictured in Mr Andrews’ book, British Antique Furniture.

Standing at an initial value of 100 in 1968, the index peaked at 3492 in 2003, and today stands at 2942 a “dramatic” fall of 1% on 2007. Historically, the AFI has tended to track, and sometimes even better, the fortunes of the stock market or house prices in the South of England. But since 2002, when the AFI registered the first of four consecutive years of correction, it did not keep pace with house prices in the South East.

But now things are different, this year’s basically static index figure contrasts with a more dramatic dip in the housing index over the last year and a plummeting FT250 Share Index, which is I’m sure a good sign for collectors and enthusiasts alike. The top end of the furniture market in particular is even showing a modest rise in values. During the current recession it probably can be said that good quality Georgian furniture is one of the few stable homes for your money!

To help you invest for your hard earned cash during this down turn, Millington Adams have some fantastic pieces in stock and available shortly – click here to view our “Recent Acquisitions”.

British prime minister Gordon Brown

It appears that British prime minister Gordon Brown’s, business minister Baroness Vadera has denied she is out of touch after claiming she could see “A FEW GREEN SHOOTS” of economic recovery. With the un-employment queue growing in the UK every day, what are they talking about? Probably vote gaining twaddle as usual.
However I must say that since the first week in January I have notice that we are having enquiries again, both by phone and e-mail and I feel that there is a little interest stirring in the depths of the UK’s nearly bankrupt economy!
Talking to friend yesterday who’s wife runs an interior design business, confirmed my suspicions, she has had virtually no enquiries at all since the beginning of November and yet in the last 10 days or so, they have started trickling in again, just the same as us.
Maybe not the green shoots that Mr Brown et all talk about, but maybe people are getting fed up hanging around putting off the decision to buy, so maybe the feeling is that we are at the bottom of this, who knows, let’s see what the spring brings…..

What do you think? I welcome comments to this thread. Please click the comment bubble at the top right of this article.

A Millington Adams price ticket - described and priced!

“POA” is bad enough on a price label but on a website? Well for one, I would like to know where I stand before even speaking to someone, if an item is totally out of my league then I won’t waste the vendor’s time, either by asking them or calling. So many art & antiques websites have “POA” or at best “price bands” instead of an actual price for each piece. I personally think every website should be priced and every ticket should be comprehensively annotated at every antique’s fair.

When Millington Adams started I always made sure that our stock was priced at fairs with pre-printed tickets which mirrored the website price; we do not add on a bit because the fair we are doing happens to be at Olympia. We think that adding a fair margin to our cost price and being happy with it is the best way forward, you the customer know where you stand at the outset, and it is your decision then to make an enquiry, possible purchase or not.

What do you think? I welcome comments to this thread. Please click the comment bubble at the top right of this article.