The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1907-07-02
ART SALES IN LONDON
Treasure Houses That One May
Purchase Outright.
A QUEER MODE OF LIVING.

n UUEEn MUUE UT LIvIN0.
The "GentIeman Dealer" Will Sell You
Chair, the Dining Table or the
Whole Room and Then Refurnish For
the Ncxt Purchaser.
The method of buying and selling OBJ
jects of art has undergone considerable
change during recent years. Formerly
the art dealer ensconced himself ex-
clusively in shops in fashionable
streets in the St James district and
advertised his presence there by sin
gle chair in the window or Japanese
vase
But the gentleman dealer" has come
on the scene. In recent years he has
taken away the cream of the trade
from the man behind the counter.
There are in London today perhaps
a dozen mansions, magnificently fur
nished, containing great fortunes in
pictures, furniture, china and silver,
whose owners are willing to part with
any one of their beautiful possessions
at price, or are ready at all times
of the day and night to sell out, lock.
stock and barrel
There are no signboardS, no adver-
tlsements, no indication whatever that
the house is anything but the resi-
dence of very well to do gentleman.
There is no admission to the general
public. You must go By invitation or
introduction, and some of these pri-
vate purveyors of antiquities would
be extremely annoyed If 1t became
generally known that they are dealers.
The majority of these gentlemen
dealers" are well known throughout
the trade and are regarded as the most
important men in the business of buy
ing and selling works Of art When
ever therefore, small dealer has
anything to dispose of or there is some
thing which his limited capital will
not permit him to purchase he goes
straight to the gentleman dealer and
in turn for the usual commission
makes it possible for the latter to be
come the possessor of the coveted OBJ
ject
SO it has come about that the "gen-
tleman dealer" has gradually become
the most important figure in this com
merce. Not only does he sell you a
chair out of his dining room, Gains
borough picture from his walls, a val
liable piece of Sevres from the Chip
pendale cabinet In the corner or the
linen fold paneling from off the very
walls of the entrance hall, but he is
prepared to furnish a cottage or q
mansion from top to bottom with an
tiquities.
1t seems rather ridiculous to people
who are not aware of this state OF
affairs, but 1t is fact that if you hap
pen to be guest in one of these
houses and you take a fancy to the
saltcellar you may take it for your
own by sending check for it the next
day, or you may have the whole din
ing table with all it's treasures, or you
may HI. re the entire room, including
the carpet. The only thing you must
not take away is the family circle.
This constant change apparently
gives zest to life in the home Of the
gentleman dealer" for his wife never
knows whether she will be able to
have dinner for her husband served on
a mahogany Chippendale table worth
f200 or a plain deal shelf, since all the
others have been sold.
One day they draw up chairs whose
value is calculated in enormous fig
ures, and the next day they have great
trouble in finding anything at all to
sit upon.
There is no important sale anywhere
in the country at which the gentle
man dealer" is not either present in
person or represented by any one Of
the smaller dealers who are only too
anxious to be of service to him, be-
cause be it noted, the man with the
fine house is able to work with large
capital and is therefore competent to
make purchases at sales which the
small dealer finds beyond him.
For every chair or picture sold in
England the gentleman dealer" sends
across the water a dozen valuable
pieces. There is a story of a fat near
Piccadilly owned by one of these en-
terprising men in which four luncheon
parties and three dinner parties were
given in one week.
AT each party there was different
guest, and every time the host sue
ceeded in selling out the contents Of
tie entire fat. so that it required
small army Of men to bring in new
furniture for the next luncheon or din
ner party. The dat was furnished
seven tines in one week. The owner
was 50 hard put to find new old things
to dazzle the eyes Of prospective par
chasers that lie had to pay the dealers
heavy premiums in order to cope wiz
his business.
1t sounds easy, but it is not, because
there is nothing more difficult or more
risky than buying old furniture, old
prints old china, or in fact anything
old.
The world IS simply flooded with imi-
tations which to the eye of any but the
most expert are supposed to be perfect
If any one imagines lie can become
gentleman dealer merely by taking
an expensive house in Bloomsbury, It
would be advisable for him first to lis
ten to the story of the experiences of
others who have tried and failed igno
miniously.
1t requires. first, most intimate ac-
quaintance with the old masters in
painting in furniture, in silver and
china; secondly, a keen business sense
which is not to be blunted by the nee
essary but not always harmless dinner
parties, and, thirdly, a courtly manner
which does not suggest buying or sell
ing at every turn.-London Express
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