An exceptional Louis XIV Period giltwood console table, the epitome of luxury and opulence, acquired from a private estate in Provence. The gilt finish is original. Available at Lebreton Gallery; price on request.
Jackson Square is San Francisco’s oldest commercial district, covering 142 acres of prime city real estate. The Square’s low-rise, tawny brick buildings, sturdy survivors of the 1906 and 1989 quakes, flank narrow, tree-lined streets and charming alleyways, recalling the romance and rowdiness of the area’s colorful early days.
In the spring of 1848, the Gold Rush began in Jackson Square, then the heart of the Barbary Coast. Ships filled with hopeful prospectors sailed in from around the world. Deckhands morphed into miners, deserting their ships for the promise of buried treasure up north.
In 1850, San Francisco’s first literary magazine, The Golden Era, began printing at 730 Montgomery, soon launching the careers of two young reporters, Bret Harte and Mark Twain—the latter having taken up the pen after failing at prospecting. Both men would later be made honorary members of the Bohemian Club. Twenty paces down Montgomery, at 710, John Steinbeck and William Saroyan held up the bar many a 1930s night in the old Black Cat Café, where Bocadillos currently serves up what are arguably San Francisco’s best fries.
Jackson Square was designated San Francsico’s first historic district in 1972. In 2009, it serves back some of the most exquisite objects history has to offer; an array of dealers offer for sale the gold standard for worldwide collectors of art, antiques, antiquities, Asian carpets, vintage posters, European and American furnishings, and sides of astonishingly fine accessories.
Trophies & Nuggets
“Jackson Square is as fine and important a venue for art and antique collectors as the Quai Voltaire in Paris, the Via del Babuino in Rome, and Fulham or Pimlico Road in London,” says Michael Chappell of Chappell & McCullar English Antiques (which has a sister shop, Reindeer Antiques, in London). “Although a destination for interior designers, most of our clientele are collectors,” he explains. “The core of our collection is formal eighteenth century English furniture that has attributable provenances and distinctive qualities.”
“Jackson Square’s dealers each have their own ‘look,’” notes S. Collier Gwin, owner of Foster-Gwin Period Antiques, occupying what is certainly Jackson Square’s most remarkable-looking space: seven-thousand square feet in the historic Hotaling Stables, which marks the Bay’s 1846 shoreline. Gwin’s clientele are “well-heeled travelers, designers, and locals who are educating themselves and looking for a trophy or two,” he says, as he fondly strokes a four-hundred-year-old, magnificently massive, museum-quality, “completely original Italian rectory table that nothing could harm.”
Gwin mixes his selection of sixteenth to eighteenth century country furniture, antiquities, and ethnographic pieces with an extensive collection of twentieth century painting and sculpture by Bay Area artists.
Alain Lebreton, Co-owner with Karim Mehanna of the idiosyncratic Lebreton Gallery, says, “Jackson Square has been an exciting venue for us. Aside from being a beautiful and historical area, the location attracts collectors from all over the world. It is a relatively small area, but it’s home to galleries with exceptional collections of art and antiques.”
Alain, reached at his home in Nice for this conversation, and Karim, whose home is Monaco, have inside access to private collections around their hometowns, and thus source the gallery’s sixteenth to twentieth century pieces from collections that are inaccessible to other dealers. “The great French estates are filled with furnishings and decorative arts that span centuries of grand style,” says Alain. He also shops France’s most renowned design houses. New shipments from France arrive at Jackson Street constantly.
To enter Lebreton Gallery is to open the door to a fabled French curiosity cabinet. The space showcases an anthology of antiques modified with modernist nuggets; a browse through is a lesson in mix and match, which Lebreton sees as “le next hot thing.”
“Fine Design Is Fine Design”
“Mixing was used by well-known French designers in the 1970s,” Alain says. “Henri Samuel and Jacques Grange incorporated traditional eighteenth century pieces with steel designs and contemporary art to great éclat. For example, picture this Louis XIV giltwood console with a steel mirror from the sixties over it. Or, a sixteenth century stone fragment or acephalous statue mixed with 1940s furnishings. Chairs by Florence Knoll from the mid-twentieth century are highly sought after, and comfortable as well. The savvy interior designer has the ability to take a piece, whether an antique or an objet trouvé [readymade] and, using it to advantage, can start a trend.”
“A credo that all great interior designers believe,” adds Michael about mixing styles, “is that fine design is fine design, regardless of period. Fine eighteenth century pieces work very well in the same interior with twentieth century pieces. Our more prescient clients understand this. We recently sold a young collector both a William and Mary period cabinet on a stand from the late seventeenth century, and a Jacques Adnet red-and-black leather writing table from 1950.
“What’s critical is giving objects sufficient space within their setting to allow them to make their own statement, and not compete visually with another object or artwork. A cliché, but true: less is more.”
“The next thing is less,” agrees Collier, “but good, very good. You can surround the antique with simple items, or continue to add quality items as you find and can afford them. You don’t need many pieces, only a few unique items. People are moving fast and want comfort, but they also want a place where their personality shows and a place that is different from their friends’. Art and antiques accomplish that desire, as they are unique items. A great painting over the fireplace and a wonderful old pair of comfortable chairs is enough to personalize a room.”
On Trend
“A trend centers less on a type of item than a class of items,” Michael states. “People want pieces that are very nearly artworks in themselves. But good quality European antiques, including English pieces, of course, are quickly gaining ground. Christie’s in London set several record prices for eighteenth century English furniture early last year. It appears that what used to be considered ‘just brown furniture’ is speedily displacing outré contemporary pieces. Good quality French pieces, signed eighteenth century pieces, as well as nineteenth century pieces by Linke, Sormani, and Krieger, are excellent buys right now.
“We have difficulty keeping dining tables, sets of dining chairs, and sideboards in stock,” he continues. “This might come as a surprise, because one associates these pieces with formal entertaining and not with the individuals in their thirties and forties who purchase the items from us. Once their living space can accommodate, however, members of this younger age group quickly pounce on a Regency pedestal dining table and Chippendale-inspired chairs.”
Speaking to her own specialized realm, Rachal Prater, manager of The Silver Fund, notes, “Silver is gold today.” The Silver Fund, specializing in Georg Jensen’s, one-of-a-kind, hand-wrought sterling silver designs, is hidden away on Jackson Street behind Argentum-The Leopard’s Head, premier dealers in fine antique English, American, and European silver themselves.
“A charming trend,” Rachel adds, “is using silver casters for chocolate powder, and, in the bath, for talcum, and also potpourri.”
A Solid Investment
“There are no surprises nor huge fluctuations in the values of antiquities and antiques,” says Collier. “I say, ‘No Sherpa, no summit.’ [When antique shopping] know who you are dealing with. Ask questions about a dealer’s reputation. Talk to a trusted designer who knows who the finest dealers are, and who among them might have the best items for your situation.
“Unlike reproductions and ‘custom-created’ pieces, exceptional antiques and art always hold value. Art and antiques are trophies that successful people enjoy as the results of their hard labor. They have always been a great refuge in both good and bad times. Living with pieces of history is richly fulfilling.”
“Provenance is important,” advises Alain, “but there is also le coup de coeur [what captures the heart]. If you purchase something that you absolutely love, it can’t be the wrong thing to do. Your designer can always assist you with placement or display.”
“Everything cannot be a rational monetary investment,” Collier concurs. “We buy some things simply because we work hard, and we want them.”
