Asian art specialists Paul Ruitenbeek and Ben Janssens.
The truth is that plenty of traders slow down, shut up shop or even shuffle off this mortal coil. In these events, having a succession plan in place can keep alive the history of the business and the knowledge built up by its previous owners. Here we examine how some dealers have been grappling with succession planning in recent times as well as some of the alternatives for dealers as they reach a new stage in their career.
Take the reins and amalgamate
London dealer Ben Janssens brought his usual wealth of Asian art to the latest edition of TEFAF Maastricht where he has stood since 1988. He also took along his probable successor, Paul Ruitenbeek, an Amsterdam Asian art dealer.
“What happens with the company is up to Paul but basically he’s taking over from me,” says Janssens, who has 40 years in the business behind him. “Right now, [our firms] are separate but eventually we could amalgamate.”
For the time being, Janssens is consigning objects to Ruitenbeek to provide an income while he starts slowing his pace - though not, he adds, absolutely retiring.
Janssens plans to continue with the parts of the job he enjoys most: buying, selling and cataloguing while working with the firm - now listed online as Ben Janssens and Paul Ruitenbeek Oriental Art - as a consultant.
Tang dynasty (618-906) pottery mask that Paul Ruitenbeek is offering on consignment from Ben Janssens for a price in the region of £8000.
Exactly what will happen between the two businesses is still a work in progress, but Janssens is definite that a final decision will be made soon. “I’d like to finish this year,” he says.
Part of his stock and personal collection will soon head to auction and his years of standing at fairs are over, not to mention days spent battling with the more onerous parts of the business as legislation around trading in Asian art becomes more challenging.
It is relatively unusual to hear a dealer speaking frankly about retirement. A career trading in art and antiques is so often a vocation and a passion as well as a living that the idea of stepping back from it is unthinkable.
For those who do consider retiring, having a succession plan in place, even a loose one, can make the concept more appealing. It promises a legacy and safeguards a depository of knowledge built up over a long career.
On a less glamorous level, it removes some of the logistical hassle that can be left should no plan be put in place - and the dangers of records being lost. During the compilation of this article, the one thing that those interviewed spoke of with more horror than retirement was the idea of archives ending up in the bin.
Changing collecting trends and the rise of the internet mean that the traditional model of a gallery, a shop front passed down through the generations, is less common and less practical than it once was.
Those left to think about the future of their businesses have questions to answer. Will the firm be left in the hands of a family member? A colleague? Sold? And if it is wound up, what happens to the stock and the records?
“Regarding dealers planning for their retirement - I’m not sure how many dealers are that organised and how many continue to deal until their demise,” says Louise Phillips, who now runs the Leyburn, North Yorkshire, antiques business launched by her mother and is chairman of The British Antique Dealers’ Association (BADA).
My mother, Elaine Phillips, who established the business in the 1960s, always said that she wanted to pass away in a saleroom while bidding, preferably seated on the front row.
“But in all seriousness, I think the vast majority of members of the BADA would agree that the most important factors are knowledge and experience, be they held by a family member or a director/ employee of the business. As soon as one of the former joins a business, the task, hopefully an enjoyable one, begins immediately with education concerning all aspects of the trade and the discipline in which they specialise.”
The challenge can be in finding the person to bring on board.
Janssens, for example, said it was “difficult”. He had known Ruitenbeek only for a few years before coming to their current arrangement. Ruitenbeek is comparatively fresh to the trade with 10 years’ experience but grew up in that world, with both parents involved in the Asian art market.
“He’s easy to get on with, that’s definitely a bonus,” Janssens says. “He’s got a really good eye for quality and eye for rarity that I feel is really akin to mine. I think having someone quite young is an advantage too. He’s got quite a few years ahead of him and this will help him get established.”
For some dealers, bringing on a partner might not be with a view to passing the torch necessarily but as a way of invigorating the business, another way of ensuring its longevity.
Mayfair dealership Sam Fogg.
Medievalist Sam Fogg, for example, made Matthew Reeves a partner in the business late last year. Reeves has worked at the Mayfair dealership for nearly 12 years.
“I have no expectations of ever retiring - and have lots of plans,” Fogg says. “But I also want to ensure that the business remains strong and capable of evolving, so Matt becoming a partner is important and makes sense. The market continues to change but I still think it is important to keep a good physical gallery space in Mayfair. If I was left to myself, sooner or later I would be tempted to work from an office and that would be a mistake.”
The business has a 40-year history and has represented Reeves’ entire working life. He started interning at the gallery while an undergraduate at the Courtauld. In 2020 he became a director. “Becoming a partner in the business started to feel like the logical next step,” Reeves says. “Sam was already thinking about making sure that the gallery continued to grow strongly in the future, and while this new relationship allows me more authority when speaking with clients and conducting our gallery’s business generally, the gallery is very much a team.”
Do it early
Freya Simms, CEO of trade association LAPADA, encourages its members to start considering succession planning earlier rather than later. “These businesses represent a wealth of experience, expertise, and reputation within the trade, and their continuance ensures that this valuable knowledge is carried forward,” she says.
“It’s never too early for businesses to start thinking about the future though, ideally, dealers should initiate succession planning at least five years before retirement to ensure a smooth transition.”
The association has several lawyers among its approved service providers who can help dealers plan ahead and restructure the business if necessary, as well as notes on the topic from the 2018 LAPADA Conference in its ‘knowledge bank’.
Martin Levy of H Blairman and Sons.
For some, the search for a successor requires looking no further than home. So it was that a young Martin Levy, who grew up surrounded by the family antiques firm, became the fourth generation of H Blairman and Sons, founded in 1884.
“At school age I was always interested in the business,” he said. “I was always told [joining the family firm] was my decision to make, but looking back I think I was gently manipulated - not that it matters. I’ve loved every minute.”
Carrying on Blairman’s, one of the longest-running antiques firms in the UK, has been a “privilege” Levy says. However, he has recently been reflecting on the future of the business. This year marks his 50th year in the trade, the state of the market seems to be changing, moving away from real enthusiasm for classic collecting categories, and his children are busy pursuing different careers.
Levy will therefore be the last in the line for the firm. The decision does not mark his retirement, but he has started trading in a “gentler” way. That means closing his Queen Anne’s Gate premises in Westminster, London, and ceasing to show at fairs. He continues to buy and sell privately with online traffic and existing clients to keep busy. He also remains engaged in the numerous other art world activities on his schedule.
Offered by H Blairman and Sons for £28,000 is this walnut table, probably French, c.1845, after a design by Augustus Pugin. The use of walnut, the construction and its discovery in Lyon point to the fact that it was made in France rather than England, though the design is based on one of the plates from Pugin’s Gothic Furniture, 1844. Levy says the table “reflects the firm’s interest in 19th-century design and the ways in which fashion crosses borders”.
“I don’t think there’s an obvious reason for saying we should force the business to continue because it’s gone for four generations. I don’t feel sentimental about the fact that it will end with me,” he adds.
In the meantime, Levy is pursuing ways of preserving the history of the firm and the knowledge he has amassed over the years, partly by interacting with groups of younger dealers and art world professionals as much as possible. He is also planning a book chronicling the firm’s history.
As for his considerable archives, the key part of the library will be moved to his home, other peripheral parts donated. A large segment is to be made publicly available. Formal business records going back to 1900 (currently in store), old stock books dating to the 1920s-30s and documents relating to John Coleman Isaac, another historic dealer linked to the family, will all be retained for public record.
Life stories
Some of Levy’s archives will go to Brotherton Library at the University of Leeds via Mark Westgarth, head of the extensive Antique Dealers Research Project at the same institution. The library is now home to a substantial holding of dealer archives including those of Phillips of Hitchin (1884-2010), Maurice ‘Dick’ Turpin (c.1970-2000) and Roger Warner (1936-85).
Westgarth is full of anecdotes from the history of succession planning. Among notable stories of the 20th century is “the firm of John Bell of Aberdeen, established in 1905 by John Bell; he sadly died in 1914, but the business was continued by his son WS Bell, it is said at the extraordinary age of just 16.”
‘An antique oak buffet’ photograph, c.1910, in the Phillips of Hitchin archive, showing stock. It is one of the archives Mark Westgarth has worked with.
Image: Special Collections, University Library, University of Leeds.
Though passing firms down the family line was once common, Westgarth is alive to the fact that times are changing. He is himself a resource for dealers, happy to discuss the fate of individual archives even if not every example is accepted to the Brotherton.
He urges dealers to also seek out other places to preserve their records, including local archives. The Portsmouth History Centre, for example, stores the history of Flemings from 1943-75 and Hammersmith & Fulham retains the records of T Crowther and Son, architectural salvage dealer, from the 1930s-40s when it helped furnish local film sets during the war.
There are more examples besides. Other archives go to museums - perhaps most notable among these is that of Agnews, now at the National Gallery - but this can sometimes have the effect of closing them off from the public.
Whichever route dealers take, for Westgarth, as for so much of the trade, the end goal is to ensure that the history of these firms, so often packed with historical colour and wonderful detail, is preserved.
