Trade Tips: 18th Century French Chairs

Here is our third Trade Tips video clip! Tony Victoria covers the defining characteristics of Louis XIV, Louis XV and Louis XVI chairs as well as the transitional periods. He offers some great details to look for to help you identify the different styles. We hope you find it useful and enjoyable!

Note: you may need to to turn up your volume since we had to film a bit farther away this time to fit everything in the shot. Sorry!

Trade Tips: Chair Frame Construction

We just finished our second Trade Tips video clip. This segment covers some of the basics of traditional chair construction and some key dimensions to keep in mind regarding chair design and comfortability. We hope you find it useful! Have a great Labor Day weekend!

Trade Tips: Gilding Techniques

Tony and I are trying something new - video blog clips! We shot our first "Trade Tips" clip yesterday. It is a quick overview covering tricks Tony has taught me to identity mercury gilding versus electrolytic bath gilding of brass mounts. The topics will vary, this one being a bit more advanced, but will also include some furniture and decorative arts basics for both antiques and new designs we are working on.

We know we need to work on the our production quality (!) and my "screen-presence" needs to be improved to say the least, but we hope you enjoy this and find it useful!

Hope you are enjoying the last bits of summer.

Learning from the design process

The development of this table has been a bit of an odyssey and a learning experience for me. Believe it or not, we starting working on this table in 2008!


There were some structural problems that we had to fix: primarily the "wobbliness" of the frame. Without cross supports or the right gauge material, this basic "Mallett" style of table is always a bit shaky. We solved this this by using heavier gauge brass both for the legs and the shelf-supports and the difference is remarkable.


That first, wobbly, prototype had wooden shelves too - that was the original look I had in my mind; something rustic yet contemporary, industrial but refined. But as we were improving the frame, a finisher friend of mine saw and fell in love with the idea of the table and offered to lacquer the shelves in a new technique that she was working on. I consider this friend to be an extremely talented and innovative finisher, so naturally we went ahead and lacquered the shelves instead of using a natural wood finish. This was the result:





And here is a close up of the lacquer:

I really love this lacquer. The pattern is hand applied using a metallic dust that sort of bleeds out into the white lacquer, creating a soft halo-effect or shadowing around the lines. And more importantly, I like how it makes the table look. It gives it a more modern feel. However, I must admit some degree of satisfaction now that we have the table as originally thought of with the wooden shelves. Perhaps that is just because it fits the expectations I had in my mind. But it taught me a lot about the design process. There is a hard balance to maintain between your own inspiration and external inspiration. Truly, whenever I go to my friends studio, I get inspired. And I am thrilled by this lacquer technique and using it. But, somehow I am just a bit more fulfilled by seeing the table as I originally envisioned. It may be a tired axiom, but you really must stick with your vision for a project. Of course outside inspiration is vital, but I believe you must somehow take that inspiration and adapt it to your vision instead adapting your vision to the inspiration.

Price and Quality, this weekend in Massachusetts

This weekend I was in western Massachusetts, in an outlet store, and I stumbled across a perfect example of an issue I’ve been thinking about since I started working with my father: the trade-off between price and quality. It was a chair very similar to the one in this image.



It’s a knock-off variation of our Rope chair pictured here.

Perhaps “knock-off” is the wrong word to use. It is clearly a bergere form, whereas the back of ours is open. Plus, the original chair was not our design anyway (I believe we are perhaps the only firm with patterns based on the 1870's Napoleon III original, however) and “knock-offs” are a part of this business anyway. What shocked me was the price. The bergere was selling for about $2,000 in the store.

Suffice it to say, we could not carve, finish and upholster one of our chairs for even close to that cost!

Now, there are some important differences that must be pointed out. Ours is a gilt finish. Ours has tufted upholstery. Ours has a stretcher. Our carving has greater detail. The proportions of our rope is consistent. The tassels of our arm-posts are free-standing from the posts. And so on...

But at some point you have to ask, does the client signing the check care? Would they rather have the more expensive, detailed example of fine craftsmanship, or would they prefer the inexpensive example that gives a similar idea of the original?

I believe that more and more, clients are opting for the later.

Certainly, the current recessionary times do not help, but it’s my opinion that the average client is more interested in the “idea” behind a piece and the look or feel of their home as a result. You could call them the “aspirational” client. The apsirational client may make the choice based on price, or simply because they are unware of the custom option, or the reasons behind the cost difference. But, for whatever reason, they decide to spend their money based on how they want their home to feel.

Now, there is still a client out there that does want the detail and does want the craftsmanship, and is willing to pay for it. But, similar to knowledgeable collectors becoming fewer and fewer, I think there are fewer and fewer of these clients around. From a personal perspective, when these clients place an order it is exciting from the production end, because these are usually jobs that push your boundaries a bit and require you to really engage your creative side. But if I am right and there are fewer of these types of clients, it means that high-end customized furniture and craftsmanship will continue to be relegated to its niche. And, without getting too Malthusian, we will continue to see a dwindling of the bespoke production trades in America. Small talented craftspeople and firms will need to find others ways to stay relevant.

I pulled this post together quickly and did not take the time to find supporting hard metrics. Most of my opinions here are a result of my observations and then stumbling across this chair. So please tell me what you think, or if you feel differently. I would love to know. Just one clarification: I do not place a value judgment on these two diffferent client groups – one is not superior to the other. The 2 groups are themselves a gross over-simplification I used to illustrate what I think I see happening in our business. In fact, sometimes the same client can act both "aspirational" and more custom oriented. I simply want to note these observations to help us make more informed business decisions, and if I am lucky, some of our readers’ as well.

Found in the Warehouse

We recently "re-discovered" these candlesticks. My father calls them the "Jelly Mold" candlestick for reasons only he knows, but the name has stuck. We used to carry these at Chez Soi in Bridgehampton where they were a popular small gift item. You can see the old protoype in the background before we gave it the rustic, irregularly patinated finish. We might have to bring these back...

Architect's Barstool

We just took these new pic's of our Architect's Barstool in a Bridgehampton Kitchen and wanted to share them. The model was originally used as an architect's bench, hence the name. We used some of these at our kitchen counter at home when I was much younger! The model has always been a favorite of my family so we decided to include it in the "Essential FPV" collection. Hope you like the images!