New collectors are taking a shine to the silver market, says Christopher Hartop, head of the silver department at Christie`s, New York.
”Silver has been a normally staid market, but you do flush out a lot of buyers you`d normally not see these days,” Hartop says.
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”We`re getting a lot of what I call lifestyle buying now.” Not the collector who puts it in a case to admire it, but ”the one who says, `I want to dress my table.` Silver as part of formal dining . . . is very much in fashion.”
Hartop was at Spiaggia recently to tempt buyers with an advance showing from ”Important Silver & Objects of Vertu,” a Christie`s auction to be held April 28 in New York.
Hartop says part of silver`s appeal is its price. ”You can still buy an important piece of silver for $50,000, whereas painting collectors are priced out of the market today.”
And forget the simple look. ”The glitzy things are very much in demand,” says Hartop. ”The three big names in silversmiths whose prices have held up at auction are the three P`s-Paul Storr, Paul de Lamery and Paul Revere. The supply is dwindling.”