Any interest in Antiques? We just read a short piece from Design Link that says that the new buyers of antiques (a term traditionally applied to pieces more that 100 years old) moving in to the market (those born after 1960) are really not all that interested in pre-20th century furniture.
From Herman Miller's Design Link:
"Victorian is out. ("Dealers and auctioneers," according to The New York Times, "say they can't give the stuff away.") Federal and Queen Anne are "off the radar." Eighteenth century is going for a song.
According to a recent article in The Washington Post, early- to mid-20th century is where the market is "increasingly muscular." It is "a generational thing," many experts say. Deep-pocketed collectors born post-1960 are abandoning "formality and fussiness" for clean and straightforward. High-quality work in new materials--plastic, fiberglass, molded plywood, metals--is much sought after. (Names like Eames and Noguchi come to mind.)
"The 20th century has now become an historic period," the Post quotes Paul Greenhalgh, director of the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington. Antiques and their buyers grow younger with each passing day."
While we think this sounds likely, we wonder how the AT community weighs in on this one...
I am shocked--shocked!--to find this out.
Come on, seriously, this is news? That things go in cycles? No, this has been going on forever. Things come, then they go away. Then they come back. Then they go away again. But they always come back. It just depends on how long the valleys are between the wave's crests.
Fifty years ago, you could barely give away Victorian furniture--or Mission, or (God forbid) Art Deco--because all the Young Moderns in Levittown wanted to forget all that fusty old-fashioned stuff at Granny's house, and so they went in a big way for bent plywood chairs
view magnaverde's profile
My true love is Mid-Century but I have lately become enamoured with late 20th Italian Design and the "Modern Baroque" furnishing.
view Keisha Kornbread's profile
The older the better! But differences make the world go 'round.
I think part of the problem with older antiques among younger people is the architecture of the houses we're working with (and can afford.) Most younger people are not lucking into older houses with charming architecture that compliments older pieces.
Plus, mainstream retailers like Pottery Barn whet the public's appetite for cleaner tableaux.
view Valerie's profile