Paris_ The Collected Traveler - Barrie Kerper [246]
Q: Where did you meet your second husband, and did he, too, have a passion for the antiques market in Paris?
A: At the marché aux puces, the Paris flea market, bien sûr! One Friday morning, I came around a corner in the Marché Dauphine and there was this gorgeous man with an equally gorgeous stand. Voilà! He’d grown up in Tehran’s bazaar with his father, and when the shah’s regime collapsed, he lost his scholarship and had to eat, so he sold antique photographs at the puces to survive. He’s been there thirty years now.
Q: When did you establish Grotto Antiques, and what do you specialize in?
A: January 2007. The antiques side of the company deals in a refined eighteenth-century look. Unfortunately, a dealer has to buy what the market wants, and now, modern rules. Magazines dictate the current look and most people don’t have the courage or taste to buck the trend. I like to think we hold people’s hands to help them be individualistic and nonconforming when it comes to creating a home. The other part of our business is the École Boulle atelier. We just landed a prestigious project with one of America’s top architectural and interior design firms. Our specialty? Roman shades made in the same fashion as the Élysée Palace.
Q: When did you start attending auctions at the Hôtel de Vente Drouot?
A: Right after I got the CAP in 1996. The official visit at Drouot is all day long the day before the auction. (Check La Gazette de l’Hôtel de Vente Drouot for specific information on hours and merchandise to be presented—for example, silver, coins, books, wine, furniture, modern paintings, etc.) Still, professionals huddle around the steel grates just before eleven a.m., chatting and smoking, waiting for the one-hour visit, eleven to noon. The steel grate opens and they’re off! A mad frenzy of hundreds of dealers, pushing and elbowing, up and down escalators, all on a mission: to find things that’ll make money. There’s an hour to scout through thousands of articles: sixty minutes to note the salle, estimate price, leave an order, corner the commissaire, befriend the auctioneer, and spy the competition. Promptly at noon the doors slam shut.
Auctions begin at around two, though longer ones can start at one-thirty or sometimes even in the morning. You stand—all day long—in the back or running between the salles. You have to stand so you can see your competition or whether the auctioneer has a pigeon (fake bid) in the corner. Dealers crush you, on purpose. You’re on tiptoes trying to see. And the smell can be overwhelming—there is often a clochard (bum) in his filthy clothes, trying to warm up in winter weather. The auctioneer announces the numbered article and opens with a bid: Monsieur, est-ce que j’ai cinq cents? (Do I have five hundred?) Five hundred in an eloquent, slow chant. Six cents? (Six hundred?) Six cents! Et sept cents? (Seven hundred?) Est-ce que j’ai preneur à sept cents? Sept cents! Sept cents! Adjugé, sept cents euros! The commissaire flies to the person that’s bought the lot, gets his check or cash, and hurries back with his name to the recording secretary, who makes out the bill. In the meantime, the crieur has already started taking bids on the next auctioned article. Back and forth and back and forth, all day long, every minute, a lot is sold.
Photo Credit bm1.11
Q: The Drouot auction house can be intimidating to visitors, which is where your courier service can prove to be invaluable. What exactly does your service provide, and what are some notable pieces that you’ve found for your clients over the years?
A: Drouot is a closed world where if you’re unknown, you can’t bid. The auctioneers don’t know you—won’t take your bid—and the dealers won’t let you have anything anyway. Are you fluent in