The revaluation of antiques: antiques auctions and fine arts galleries
The advice of Collier Calandruccio, a refined aesthete whose Klismos Gallery in the Brooklyn borough of New York has become an absolute benchmark for the market.
DISTINCTIVE SIGNS OF MY STYLE
I am a staunch classicist and there are moments in art history to which I always return: 5th century Athens, 15th century Florence, Enlightenment Paris, Regency London, Baltimore and Federal New York, to name a few of my favourite periods (Calandruccio is the owner of New York's Klismos Gallery, specialising in antiquities, klismosgallery.com).
MY STYLE ICON
It's neck-and-neck between Sargent's Dr. Pozzi and Bronzino's Portrait of a Young Man at the Metropolitan Museum. I would also say Sir John Soane, but not because of his architectural style, so much as his collecting habits. A didactic accumulation that represents every era, it's horror vacui (Sargent's painting, housed at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, inspired Julian Barnes' book The Man in the Red Coat, 2019; metmuseum.org; Soane's collection can be seen at the Sir John Soane Museum London, soane.org).
“Ritratto di un giovane” di Bronzino. ©The Metropolitan Museum of Art della Pilotta
THE VIEW THAT INSPIRES ME
L’incendio delle Camere dei Lord e dei Comuni di Turner, al Philadelphia Museum of Art. Avevo una bella stampa colorata del dipinto che mio nonno mi regalò al liceo, lo considero ancora il dipinto più bello in assoluto. Tuttavia, ricordo la prima volta che lo vidi di persona a Philadelphia e ne rimasi deluso. Come molti dipinti di Turner, ha sofferto nei secoli a causa dei suoi procedimenti sperimentali ed è una versione anemica del suo antico splendore. Lo vedo ancora nella mia mente con la tavola di colori intensi che mi regalò mio nonno. Una menzione speciale va poi al retro dei Marmi di Elgin del Frontone Est del Partenone. Mai destinati a essere visti da occhi umani, sono scolpiti in modo tanto bello quanto il fronte – realizzati solo per il godimento degli uccelli e degli dei. È forse la più pura espressione dell’arte per l’arte (philamuseum.org; britishmuseum.org
L’ingresso del Philadelphia Museum of Art. ©Graydon Wood, Philadelphia Museum of Art.
The OBJECT FROM WHICH I WOULD NEVER SEPARATE
The inscribed copy of my grandmother's novel is my greatest treasure. In her note on my 12th birthday, she writes that she hopes I will be "as proud of [my] ancestors as they would be of [me]". For a decade I thought the book was lost, then one day it reappeared in my parents' mailbox (my grandmother, Louise Wilbourn Collier, was the author of the novel Pilgrimage, A Tale of Old Natchez, 1982, a personal saga recounting the family's struggles to survive the devastation of war).
LAST OBJECT I PURCHASED AND LOVED
I always say that my favourite piece is the most recent. Several weeks ago I bought a stunning pair of beautifully designed gilt brass scroll shelves from a fine early 20th century Beaux-Arts building. Relegated to a shelf and used as bookends by a previous owner, my father and I installed them as counter supports in the country house we are rebuilding together in Tennessee.
And THE NEXT ONE I ADOPTED
Every night, I fall asleep scrolling through the auction catalogues. At any given time, I am looking at fifty lots or more. My mother taught me to appreciate beautiful carpets, and I am counting the days until a beautiful and well-preserved late 19th century Tabriz carpet (antique Persian silk Tabriz carpet, 19th century, EUR 3,711, at 1stdibs.com) is auctioned.
Antico tappeto persiano in seta Tabriz del XIX secolo (su 1stdibs, 3.711 €). ©Courtesy 1STDIBS
AN UNFORGETTABLE PLACE THAT I VISITED
Alcuni anni fa sono stato a Potsdam, fuori Berlino. Era una giornata piovigginosa e grigia di ottobre, e avevo quasi tutto il parco di Sanssouci per me. Ho trascorso ore vagando da solo attraverso il Charlottenhof di Schinkel e i Bagni Romani. Per quel tipo di neoclassicismo prussiano, è la mecca. Più recentemente ho visitato il mio amico Toto Bergamo Rossi a Venezia. Toto è il direttore di Venetian Heritage, e durante la sua carriera ha completato decine di importanti progetti di conservazione. Per me il restauro della Tribuna di Palazzo Grimani con le sue sculture antiche originali in situ è il suo opus magnum. Stare in quella stanza è qualcosa che non posso raccomandare mai abbastanza (spsg.de; museumsportal-berlin.de; venetianheritage.eu).
Venetian Heritage ha co-curato e finanziato l’allestimento della Tribuna Grimani al Museo di Palazzo Grimani, a Venezia. ©Matteo De Fina
The BEST GIFT I HAVE GIVEN
For my parents' wedding anniversary this year, I gave them a copper-lacquered gas chandelier from the 1880s to hang in their country home in Tennessee. It is one of the few surviving pieces from the now-lost Palmer Potter Mansion in Chicago. At the time of its construction, it was the largest private residence in the city (Japanese chandelier circa 1880, from the Palmer Mansion and fully restored, about $50,000).
Lampadario giapponese del1880 sopravvissuto all’incendio di villa Potter Palmer, a Chicago.
And WHAT I RECEIVED
When I was fifteen years old, my grandmother entrusted me with the family archive. There was a tin box containing about a thousand letters, diaries and photographs from the 18th and 19th centuries collected from our home in Natchez, Mississippi, called The Burn. The contents of the box were the basis for her book. Over time, I read and transcribed every piece of paper in the collection. Sifting through that treasure has influenced me, and the responsibility of looking after it is a great honour.
The OBJECT TO WHICH I DO NOT RETURN
I made fun of my Texan friends for wearing cowboy boots throughout my college years. But when I moved to London after school, I decided to embrace the idea and become the American that England would expect me to be: I bought my first pair of boots, and have been practically sleeping in them ever since (leather cowboy boots with tone-on-tone embroidery, Sonora, from €650).
Stivali da cowboy Santa Fe in pelle, SONORA(da 650 €)
LAST MEAL THAT IMPRESSED ME
My partner, Dylan, who works for Tungsten Property, recently brought the new restaurant Corima, modern Mexican cuisine, to New York in Chinatown. Exceptional wine pairings with brilliantly orchestrated fresh flavours. It got a Michelin star straight away (corimanyc.com).
Il Nori Buñuelo del ristorante Corima di New York è fatto con kampachi affumicato, emulsione di hojasanta e tartufo estivo. ©Jovani Demetrie
My favourite room in the house
Our main living room is painted a dark grey with a green tinge and has a large north-facing window. In the afternoon, there is a Vermeer moment occurring on the wall next to the window where we have placed, above a Florentine writing desk, a bronze relief of General Colleoni cast from the 15th-century marble original in the Musée Jacquemart-André. At night, it is lit by an 18th-century chandelier with beeswax candles. The gilded surfaces in the room glow in the candlelight just as they were meant to do. Dark magic (musee-jacquemart-andre.com).
The CLOTHING CLOTH I WILL CONTINUE TO TRY
The red velvet smoking jacket that belonged to my grandfather.
If I HAD TO LIMIT MY PURCHASES TO A QUARTER, I WOULD CHOOSE..
Mayfair, London. And I recommend William Wolfe's Guide To Excellent Living In London (Fitzdares editions, £15, members.tzdares.com) written by Ig's friend Martin Williams and illustrated by fellow New Yorker Tug Rice.
Guide To Excellent Living In London”, di Martin Williams, con i disegni diStefano Arata(Fitzdares, 15 £).
The books I keep on my bedside table
Currently Anna Karenina (Feltrinelli, 13 euros, lafeltrinelli.it).
“Anna Karenina”, di Lev Tolstoj( Feltrinelli, 13 €).
MY GREEN OASIS IN THE CITY
I discovered the Untermyer Gardens with my good friend Peter Lyden, director of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art. The ICAA's organised visiting programmes in the US and abroad have opened doors I never imagined I could walk through (untermyergardens.org; classicist.org).
AN ARTISTIC PROJECT NOT TO BE MISSED AT THIS TIME
Although it is almost over, the Far and Away: Drawings from the Clement C. Moore Collection exhibition at New York's Morgan Library will return to the library's permanent collection in due course. The extraordinary group of mainly Dutch Golden Age drawings was promised to the museum by Chips Moore, with whom I had the pleasure of touring his collection last autumn (the next scheduled exhibition at the Morgan Library is Renoir Drawings, from 17 October, themorgan.org).
“Young Girl” (ca. 1900), dalla mostra “Renoir Drawings”, alla The Morgan Library & Museum. ©Courtesy Philadelphia Museum of Art/ The Morgan Library & Museum
If I DID NOT LIVE IN NEW YORK, I WOULD LIVE...
Recently I've been spending a lot of time near Memphis, where I grew up. For over a decade I've been restoring a circa 1830 farmhouse with my family, an hour from the city. When I'm done, I'm sure I'll be looking for my next project.
If I DID NOT DO WHAT I DO, I WOULD LIKE TO BE...
I would like to combine my interests and develop fully furnished turnkey properties. Historic preservation, interiors with collections, and myself as a client. A total design despot - and then start again with a blank canvas: that is the dream.
