Behind every top collector is an adviser. Here’s what you need to know about hiring one. By Sallie Brady.
Joan Price makes decision in a hurry. Like other highly successful business people, 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 wanted 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’s only recently that Price, the CEO of a Manhattan real estate and investment company, decided she was ready to begin collecting in a more serious fashion. ‘I had acquired a lot of pieces, but they didn’t match - especially in the new space I was in,’ she says. ‘I was lacking the education and the confidence.’
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 move to the next level, where the quality level and 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 reach 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 per cent on multi-million 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 Dealer’s 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 the 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 Linnell 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 for 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 may times.’ (Among the designers whose works Grajales says have to be watched are: Jean Royere, 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 sale rooms. 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 county salerooms.
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.
