ANTIQUES : Seems Like Old Times : 10 of the Best and Busiest Antiques Dealers in Southern California

Different as their shops and their collections may be from one another, these 10merchant antiquarians do agree on at least one point: Los Angeles is fast becoming a world center of the antique trade. Though London, Paris and New York have the cachet of tradition, Los Angeles has other enviable qualities: style, vitality and youthful flair. New York and London dealers regularly patrol the shops of Melrose Place and La Cienega Boulevard and are often seen in Laguna Beach and San Juan Capistrano as well. And these dealers, it may be noted, do not come here for the climate or for the waters.

G. R. DURENBERGER

IT LOOKS EXACTLY the way a California antique shop should--a random series of adobe cottages centered around a patio with the requisite plashing fountain and flowering plants. As a bonus, the Mission San Juan Capistrano is across the street. The cottages are informal and relaxed and welcoming.

So, too, is their owner, G. R. Durenberger. Known as Gep throughout the trade, he regards himself as more of a merchant than an antiquarian and believes that he has one of the last old-fashioned antique shops in the area.

“I don’t carry silver or porcelain or prints or objets ,” he explains. “What I do carry are home furnishings--to be sure, from the French and English 18th- and 19th centuries--since I think that antiques are to be used on a daily basis. That’s why we display them here in a series of rooms, almost in a house setting, with something of the same casualness and even shabby gentility that I have always so much admired in country houses on my trips to England.”

Durenberger started his business in 1967 after having studied for six years with the legendary Laguna Beach antique dealer Carl Yeakel, who died last month. Durenberger has developed a family-oriented clientele; he serves the grandchildren of many of his old customers, and several pieces have passed through his shop three or four times. For the most part, his clients are a solid and conservative group from Pasadena, Hancock Park, Emerald Bay and Rancho Santa Fe. On a Saturday, he says, his patio is filled with fathers and mothers and their children--all on shopping expeditions.

What sort of pieces are they looking for? “I think there’s a definite return to formality,” he says. “People want solid mahogany pieces, like this 18th-Century English dining-room table, and not the stripped pine of other days. They want to entertain formally, and they want to be surrounded by things that have been around for generations.”

G.R. Durenberger /31431 Camino Capistrano / San Juan Capistrano, Calif. 92675 / (714) 493-1283

QUATRAIN

AT THE MOMENT, Los Angeles is a less sophisticated antique market than New York or London, but the action is rapidly moving in this direction. Quatrain--founded in 1977 by Ted Wilkerson, Craig Wright and Don and Alice Willfong--is one of the reasons the focus is changing. Quatrain has an enviable, and constantly shifting, collection of high-style (and mostly museum-quality) antiques, most of them rare items from 18th-Century Europe.

Homeowner clients, as well as decorators and other dealers, come from all parts of the country to shop at Quatrain. Prices are generally more reasonable than at shops in other world centers. “When we first opened,” Wilkerson says, “75% of our sales were to people from out of state--and largely from the East. That’s certainly not the case today. Our best customers now come from California and from the Los Angeles area in particular.

“There is no doubt that the finest-quality pieces are to be found today in Los Angeles, and West Coast prices today are probably the fairest in this country.

“I don’t feel that there’s one overwhelming trend today,” Wilkerson says. “People buy in all areas, and you can see that we deal with many antiques outside of the 18th Century. I think people are looking for the unusual and the interesting. This is particularly true in Los Angeles. So we have Greek and Roman busts, as well as Chinese and East Indian artifacts and these handsome brass candlesticks from India.

“Look at this amazing aquarium, for example--a Portuguese 19th-Century piece in blue and white faience with dolphins for feet. I’ve never seen anything like it in all my travels to Europe. It’s the kind of unusual piece that our clients expect us to have on hand for them.”

Quatrain / 700 N. La Cienega Blvd. / Los Angeles, Calif. 90069 /(213) 652-0243

ANTIQUE MART OF LOS ANGELES

ALICE BRAUNFELD’S SHOP seems to exist in a time warp. Forget the sun-drenched streets outside: The year is 1938, and you are in a small New York antique shop under the shadow of the 3rd Avenue El, in the neighborhood of 57th Street.

The vision is not a surprising one, since Alice Braunfeld started in the antique business with her husband, Murray, in just such a New York location. Murray, who died seven years ago, and Alice have been legends in the antique world for decades, particularly among those with an interest in American items.

Though she carries French and English pieces, Braunfeld’s real love is American antiques of any period. Her personal collection is of museum quality, and over the years she has sold many pieces from her shop to museums. She prides herself on being one of the last of those dealers, once so plentiful in Los Angeles, who are antiquarians and collectors far more than they are merchants. She has a loyal following of customers, some of 40 years’ standing. “I enjoy people who enjoy fine things,” she says. “And I like to see young people studying books and haunting museums and buying what they can afford. But today, I guess, there are a lot of people out there with more money than taste or knowledge. And when they get some money, they are inclined to spend it on cars and jewelry and clothes. You know, it used to be different.”

Some American pieces are among the costliest of any antiques, and Braunfeld recommends that the novice collector start modestly. She believes that early 19th-Century primitive paintings, particularly oils and watercolors by California artists, are a good place to begin. And their prices are within the means of the beginning collector.

Antique Mart of Los Angeles / 809 N. La Cienega Blvd. / Los Angeles, Calif. 90069/ (213) 652-1282 LA MAISON FRANCAISE

IT IS HARD TO REALIZE that Melrose Place is just outside the door and that you have not wandered into a shop on the Place des Vosges in the Parisian Marais. La Maison Francaise, however, has been a fixture of the Los Angeles antique scene for 18 years.

The owner, Pierre Yves Bolduc, offers something unusual. Here you will find not the high-style gilt furniture associated with 18th-Century France but rather the provincial interpretation of it. This “chateau” style has a good deal of grandeur, but its chief characteristics are honesty and simplicity. It fits well into the informal but luxurious California life style. The furniture and accessories that come from these chateaux are far “bolder and gutsier,” Bolduc says, than the elegant, delicate versions found in Paris.

In order to keep his shop filled with merchandise, Bolduc travels regularly to the French provinces. He combs auctions and uses contacts he has made over the years to persuade owners of chateaux in the countryside to part with this or that antique. Bolduc finds that two types of antiques are particularly popular with his customers right now: One is the 19th-Century academic paintings by such artists as Petit, Garnier and Meissonier, a neglected school of art that is attracting new interest because of the recent opening of the Musee d’Orsay in Paris, which features 19th-Century works. The other involves architectural details from provincial chateaux, such as the splendid stone mantelpieces at La Maison Francaise . La Maison Francaise / 8420 Melrose Place / Los Angeles, Calif. 90069 / (213) 653-6534

WARREN IMPORTS

SINCE WORLD WAR II, importing antiques from the Orient has been fraught with difficulties. Between 1947 and 1974 goods from mainland China were virtually embargoed from the United States.

Those and other challenges, however, have hardly daunted antique dealers Harry and Maxine Lawrence, owners of Warren Imports in Laguna Beach. For more than 40 years they have presented collections of Chinese, Japanese and Southeast Asian antiques that have been among the finest on the West Coast, if not in the country.

In the early 1960s, the Lawrences remodeled their building to house a growing inventory, adding a handsome teak front and a blue porcelain roof. A landmark on South Coast Highway, the store offers an antique enthusiast the tranquillity of its Zen rock garden and, inside, a rich variety of merchandise.

The Lawrences’ collections include, among other items, Chinese and Japanese cloisonne from the 18th and 19th centuries; Chinese Ch’ing Dynasty porcelains; figurines, screens and jade trees, some in rare lavender jade; gold lacquered Buddhas; rosewood palace cabinets from the Forbidden City in Beijing; figures of Kuan Yin (the goddess of mercy), Flower Maidens and Temple Lions, and bronzes from Laos and Cambodia. There is also reproduction furniture from the Palace Workshops in Beijing and from the Lawrences’ own ateliers in Hong Kong. They pride themselves on having something for everyone, from the beginning collector to the connoisseur.

Friendly relations with the People’s Republic of China have sparked new interest in Chinese antiques. But because Chinese law now forbids the export of antiques, the Lawrences believe that it is a good time to collect as much as possible from the dwindling supply.

Warren Imports / 1910 S. Coast Highway / Laguna Beach, Calif. 92651/ (714) 494-6505

PALLADIO

SITUATED ON LA CIENEGA Boulevard in a handsome building the color of old terra cotta, Palladio belies the fact that it was founded just last June. Specializing entirely in Italian antiques, the shop adds a verve to the Los Angeles antique district that only fine Italian work can produce.

John Cottrell, long a prominent interior designer, and Michael H. McGrath are the owners. McGrath lived for many years in Florence, and Cottrell, on a recent long-term design assignment, turned from his trademark country-French style to an interest in Italy and things Italian. “From the beginning we agreed that a Mediterranean and Italian look fitted very well into the California life style,” McGrath says. “French antiques are inclined to be a little too serious, and often English furniture is staid and predictable. There is nothing in the world like the exuberance and decorative quality of the best Italian antiques.”

And it is exuberance that strikes the visitor to Palladio: dramatic garden statuary, rococo Venetian mirrors, majolica plates and figurines, 18th-Century painted chests from Tuscany, gilt consoles, tapestries and large paintings. Like many other shops in the neighborhood, Palladio has a line of reproduction furniture made by artisans in Florence. “In addition to the reproductions, we do carry a good deal in the medium price range,” explains McGrath. “We never wanted to get into a situation where we were only dealing in expensive, museum-quality antiques. We are delighted to see people come in here to browse, and we like to think we have something for everyone.”

Palladio / 915 N. La Cienega Blvd. / Los Angeles, Calif. 90069 /(213) 652-3162

CHARLES POLLOCK

“IT MUST STRIKE YOU that the merchandise in my shop is a bit on the eclectic side,” Charles Pollock says in understatement. “I’m sure it’s because of the many years I spent as an interior designer before going into the antiques business. I always look for something unusually decorative, and I suppose style and drama are quite as important to me as provenance. Maybe more so.”

Pollock has been at his present location on Melrose Place for more than 20 years. It matters little to him whether a piece is American, French, English, Oriental or African, so long as it has what he considers the proper style. Perhaps it is not really eclecticism that guides him but rather enthusiasm--and the exigencies of the Los Angeles marketplace.

“This is a very strange town,” he explains. “Fickle and unpredictable. In a way, that’s fine with me, since I get bored very easily myself. But it makes it difficult to be in the antiques business. How do you keep up? How do you know what the latest trend is? All I can tell you is that today anything Russian is hot. Take this round table I found in Sweden. It’s got the Hapsburg crest inset in the top, and it’s made of lovely Cuban mahogany. Originally it came from the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg--Leningrad, that is. The piece is quite expensive, but it is considerably less in my reproduction line. That’s without the crest, you know, and without the Cuban mahogany.”

Charles Pollock / 8478 Melrose Place / Los Angeles, Calif. 90069 / (213) 653-5794

RICHARD YEAKEL

ON A VISIT to Laguna Beach some years ago, Israel Sack, the famous New York dealer specializing in American antiques, paid Richard Yeakel a compliment: “I envy you your business,” he said. “You have such wonderful variety.”

Variety is the first thing to strike the antique maven on a visit to one of Richard Yeakel’s three shops in Laguna Beach. Among them they contain European antiques of the 18th Century and before, Gothic and Renaissance pieces and American Colonial furniture. Yeakel, son of the late dealer Carl Yeakel, has interests that range from early Egyptian objects to nautical artifacts. He can sell you a painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds, or some rare 16th-Century needlework. Perhaps you’d be interested in an 18th-Century partners desk that once graced the office of MGM mogul Louis B. Mayer? Or a Georgian silver teapot? And, if all that was not enough, Yeakel is also enthusiastic about Laguna Beach painters and watercolorists of the first half of the 20th Century.

“To be honest,” Yeakel says, “I think the best investment these days--and today even the beginning collector is looking for the finest quality in a given period--is American country furniture. It’s expensive, but in the long run there’s nothing on the market that will appreciate so rapidly. See that 18th-Century drop-leaf butterfly table? Less than 10 years ago it was worth $300 or $400. Today it’s $12,000.”

Richard Yeakel Antiques / 1099 S. Coast Highway / Laguna Beach, Calif. 92651 / (714) 494-5526

BALDACCHINO

THE PAIR OF LOUIS XIV mirrors surely must have come from a palace just a little less grand than Versailles. Like so many of the antiques in Baldacchino, the mirrors are of unashamedly high style.

Robert Kelly’s shop on La Cienega Boulevard could well serve as a model for the elegant international antique shop. It has a handsome garden full of statuary, and its decorative showrooms are stocked with carefully selected objects from 18th-Century France: large armoires, mirrors, gleaming crystal chandeliers, here a trumeau , there an elegant fauteuil .

The merchandise, however, is hardly limited to French; other items come from Italy and the Orient. Kelly travels constantly in search of the unique and striking. His shopping trips take him to Paris and Hong Kong, to Florence and Bali.

The decline of the dollar on world markets has made it increasingly difficult for dealers such as Kelly to gather the sort of merchandise their clientele expects of them. Finding any antiques from the 18th Century is somewhat frustrating. “You know, it only lasted a hundred years,” Kelly says. “What we have to rely on more and more is the turnover of a relatively small body of beautiful antiques. There is a lot of scurrying on the part of dealers, and frankly, Los Angeles is now in something of an enviable position. The world still passes through London and Paris, of course, but Los Angeles is becoming the best antiques market in the United States.”

Kelly is not particularly interested in trends; he believes that the elegant furniture and accessories in which he specializes are always in demand.

Baldacchino / 919 N. La Cienega Blvd. / Los Angeles, Calif. 90069 / (213) 657-6810

THE CRICKET

ONE OF THE most charming antique shops in the Los Angeles area is the Cricket, in Venice. It manages to avoid the intimidating aura present at some of the grand shops along Melrose Place and La Cienega Boulevard.

To a large extent, that charm derives from the taste of owners Werner and Simone Scharff, who have chosen to emphasize appealing European country antiques. Born in Austria, Werner Scharff came to this country in the late 1930s. He owns the Lanz clothing firm and has extensive real-estate interests; he and his wife started selling antiques as an avocation 17 years ago.

His own house is a warm mixture of Bavarian, Tyrolean and country French and English--the same sort of furniture displayed in the shop. The Scharffs travel to Europe on a regular basis. “We buy all the furniture ourselves,” he explains, “and quite naturally the shop reflects our tastes.” That taste runs to country armoires and refectory tables, contemporary French porcelain and European fabrics.

Currently, the Scharffs are most enthusiastic about their Tyrolean pieces. “They fit well into a California country life style,” Scharff says, “and we are really the only shop where they are available in any quantity.”

The Cricket/ 70 N. Venice Blvd./ Venice, Calif. 90291 / (213) 823-6512