Bring in Your Antiques – But Should We be Buying?

Wednesday 30th September 2015

I thought I’d try out being very rich. Just a try-out, you understand. No actual spending.  How about approaching an Antique Fayre in Berkeley Square as if one were hellbent on off-loading £40,000 or maybe £20,000? Merton Silverwater gave me a card for LAPADA but Dainty Lady TV gave me another for the champagne opening. I rather hoped to avoid Merton Silverwater at the Champagne Opening but ran straight into her. Of course I absolutely had to go again to use her card but she wasn’t there. In truth I wanted to revise the Fayre and graph the antiques. So going twice was perfect. Also I went once more, in between, but it was about to close so I sailed round to Topman instead.

Money is a big worry at the moment. The timing couldn’t be worse. Money is greatly disliked and one isn’t supposed to have it. One is supposed to be paying taxes. I’ve been terribly worried about the State of the country and this Corbyn has been elected who is going to smooth out the most dreadful inequality and remove 20% of everything the top 10% have got. I’ve been dreadfully worried about those on the minimum wage or low pay. Ir’s just so awful that they’re paid so little and what is to be done? Also they could rise up and cause a revolution with blood on the streets. Also metal prices are plunging and those owning mines face ruin because of China which could ruin us all. But I was directed to yesterday’s Financial Times where the political columnist Janan Ganesh says that we’re terribly prosperous; apparently no dreadful inequality or suffering after all. That’s why Corbyn’s such a success, he says. We can afford to require nothing more of a politician than ‘authenticity’, whatever that means. If there were real trouble we might want someone, however ‘inauthentic’ who could do something. This Janan (v. glamorous from picture: have you heard of him?) says all Corbyn followers are middle-class and just looking for something to do. Most of them have never seen a poor person but like rallies.

I did feel a bit less guilty after The Bake Off. If we can afford to spend a whole hour on chocolate soufflés and watching people build a chocolate mountain cake (one of the contestants is a junior doctor: so plenty of time off from A&E for cream horn baking) can a few antiques do any harm? Well, if you’re thinking of being very rich, here’s what you can get at LAPADA Antiques Fayre Berkeley Square (finished now: it was last week) if your budget is in the £20 -40,000 range: one set of 7 elbow chairs for £14,000: very nice antiques from 18th century. Italian 17th century mirrors v. reasonable at £2400 for quite a big one. Rare Regency convex mirror with bamboo effect frame: £9450. Overmantle gilt mirror £5320. Carpets from £5000. 18th century glass rummers £88 each. So the big tip is: mirrors. Followed closely by carpets. I had a candelabra fished out of the glass case but the price tag didn’t say £1700, it said, £17,000. Of course once you’d achieved the £20 to £40,000 spend at LAPADA on antiques, you’d have to think if you really wanted them and where to put them. There could be some eBay work disposing of previous antiques or lesser furnishings. Possibly a new home would be required in which to put the antiques. Is one aiming, as a rich person, for a minimum object value of perhaps, £5000? So no item in the home is worth less? What would it be like to be surrounded by pieces of furniture worth £15,000 plus each?  That would just be the footstools probably. And would a peak ever be reached where everything was just right and there was absolutely no question, even if one thought about it very very hard,that there was no better more expensive alternative lurking somewhere just out of sight?

LAPADA Antiques Fayre Berkeley Square: It’s a Tent

Look Who was Present at the Champagne Opening of LAPADA Antiques Fayre? Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg!

Set of Six of These: £14,000

18th Century Italian: about £4000

18th Century Italian: £2400

This Overmantle was About £5000

18th Century Italian: £4200

 

Posted Wednesday, September 30, 2015 under Adrian Edge day by day.

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