Allan Hatchwell, London Antiques Dealer Interview Transcript
Hatchwell Antiques London – Scientific, Optical, Marine, Aeronauitcal Antiques
[Allan Hatchwell]
What draws people to scientific instruments and optical instruments is, in general, it’s the quality of the way these things have been put together. And they are extremely visual, very beautiful, as is often the way with very well-designed things. But then when you start to understand the technicalities behind the construction of these pieces that are made with such amazing understanding of luminosity, of light, of materials, you become in awe of these pieces that are often abundant, but are very, very underappreciated, or at least they used to be abundant.
They are practical, they’re useful, the optics can be used at binoculars, and then they’re also very beautiful. So you have this amazing thing that is really not well understood, and yet you’re staring at these extraordinary works of art, and extraordinary scientific development of minds that have been able to produce these things. When we’re looking at optical instruments, of course, all the classic names are Carl Zeiss, and Nikko, and the Japanese, and the Ross, they’re the great names that come up.
Toko, Toko Optical Instrument Company, everybody’s familiar with Zeiss. The reason they are is because Zeiss produced the best optics very early on in the late 19th century, and basically everybody’s glass was based on their work, and that work spread around the world. So they’re the most important marks to find, and as always, each binocular or telescope might be made perfectly, over time they may have deteriorated, so it’s often very important to check each one individually and see if the optics are original, and if their clarity hasn’t changed, and to find obviously a piece in original condition with the optics in the perfect state is the ideal.
[Nick Breeze – Artgal]
Hatchwell Antiques has an exceptional reputation for aeronautical pieces, from ejector seats to aircraft propellers. How do you source these rare items, and what makes a piece museum quality versus decorative?
[Allan Hatchwell]
When we’re talking about aeronautical things, everything in an aeroplane has been designed and analysed and it’s practicality, and as it happens, most things in an aeroplane happen to be so, so refined, and that often leads to a very beautiful design. What becomes a collector’s piece is when you can associate a design or a particular part of an aeroplane to be involved in a historic aeroplane, for example, everyone knows the Supermarine Spitfire, it’s wonderful to have a propeller or a tail wheel. Concorde, of course, is the other iconic plane that everybody loves, and to get parts from the engines, which were part of our original acquisitions, they are very, very sought after, but they’re very rare, so there you go.
Today, when we buy aerial engines and dismantle them, turn them into pieces that people would like to use. The difference between a collectible piece and a museum piece is normally its history, because the quality of these pieces is uniform and it’s of the highest standard.
[Nick Breeze – Artgal]
For someone starting a collection in scientific instruments or marine antiques, what’s your advice on building a cohesive collection?
[Allan Hatchwell]
When one is considering starting a marine collection or a scientific collection, the most important thing is quality, and these pieces tend to be of the highest quality because the navigation instruments were designed so you could safely navigate around the world. So the standard tends to be quite uniform. Some very early makers are very important in the late 18th and early 19th century.
Of course, if you have an early piece that is in good condition made by them, then it commands a higher price and also adds to the importance of your collection. And not all of the collection needs to be of very, very high value, but of course the higher up the level and the rarity you go, it requires a greater investment. But that is something that will always return, because as in all collecting, the higher you place yourself, the more desirable your collection will be, and therefore it will be more valuable in the years to come, because all these things are actually getting much more rare and disappearing or getting damaged or lost.
So whatever you buy, as long as it’s of the highest standard, the highest quality, it will – and the best names – you will improve the value of your collection.
[Nick Breeze – Artgal]
Okay, you talk about the investment side of it. What’s your philosophy on negotiating prices with customers, and are there specific circumstances where you’re more open to discussing the price, such as purchasing multiple pieces or items that have been in stock longer?
[Allan Hatchwell]
We’re always interested in assisting our clients with good investments, but there is a natural rising level to the prices in this field, because they are becoming more and more rare, and one has to always bear in mind that these pieces were extremely expensive to make. So they were made in few numbers, and because they were highly prized objects for navigation or for scientific use. So they were never produced in abundance, and therefore there are numbers reducing.
So the value is actually always increasing and will continue to.
[Nick Breeze – Artgal]
What’s the difference between conservation and restoration in your field, and would you recommend a client leave a piece in original condition versus having work done?
[Allan Hatchwell]
We cross between the collector’s world and the decorating world. We will often find objects that have been totally badly treated and therefore require total restoration. Obviously we can’t return to original condition, but we do return them to the optimal usable condition, which is how they would have started.
So if you find anything in perfect original condition, of course you should keep it like that. You shouldn’t turn it into a shiny object. If you find something that, and that is unfortunately most of the time the case, something that has already been mistreated, then you only have one option but to return it to a better condition through restoration.
Conservation is things that are, you conserve the originality of the optics and the structure of the piece, but you might have to change its appearance through stripping and polishing and refining their look. Otherwise they just look messy.
[Nick Breeze – Artgal]
You mentioned decorative, and many of the pieces are the turbines, telescopes, the aircraft models, they make dramatic design statements. How do you advise clients on incorporating these through industrial or scientific pieces into a residential or commercial interiors?
[Allan Hatchwell]
The beauty of most of the designs and the pieces that we have is that the designs are quite pure and strict, and that’s the beauty of good engineering. So a well-engineered piece, a good turbine, well-made and finely finished, will sit very well in a regency environment or an antique environment. So it’s very easy to mix the styles and juxtapose a period, a period we mean an antique setting, with a modern setting because the designs are so pure.
As long as you maintain the concept of good space around all your objects, you’ll be surprised how beautiful a turbine table will sit, for example, in front of a pair of regency sofas. It’s not a classical look, but it’s a very exciting look and it opens up another world.
[Nick Breeze – Artgal]
And just to end on, you’re a multi-generational business. What’s changed and what’s different today?
[Allan Hatchwell]
The antiques business is one of these amazing businesses that every day you go out and you find something that you’ve never seen before, so you can have as much experience as you like. But there’s always a challenge, there’s always another piece to understand and see. So that refers to scientific, to furniture, to art, to optics, everything.
So that part of our business hasn’t changed. What has changed is the understanding that people have and also the attraction that people have. Classical furniture has been a very popular area and it’s recently taken a downturn, but it will come back because it is of such a high standard that it will definitely come back.
But the most important thing in antiques is to understand that there is change, as there is in all things. Many of us now are driving electric cars. We wouldn’t have dreamed of that 20 years ago, but we’re still driving.
So maybe the design or the propulsion is different and it’s the same as for antiques. There’s a different fuel at the moment powering the business, but most of it, the really great stuff, is always in demand and that’s how we have to appreciate it and hopefully it will always continue to be.