In the Press
 Furnishing The Country
by Dan Logan
My training in the appreciation of antiques has consisted largely of being dragged form one Massachusetts barn full of rusting junk to another. My personal taste runs to straight lines and unadorned corners. I scorn luxuriant curves, scrolls carved into every flat surface and gewgaw hardware: in my opinion, too many old-time furniture makers devoted themselves to discovering how many curlicues could fit on the head of a pin.
Thus, any one who can persuade me that antiques can be fun is obviously a marketing genius. Convincing me to contemplate the satisfying possibilities of a piece of furniture is hard to do when my vision is clutter with pilasters, balustrades, rosettes and pediments. Nevertheless, one must remain open-minded about these things. In novelist’s terms, you must entertain a willing suspension of disbelief.
Which is why I found myself at Steven-Thomas Antiques in Santa Ana. Even experts are unlikely to render me simpático, but there’s always hope.
Steve Shedd and Tom Silk often encounter people like me. People who are not necessarily openly hostile to curve wood, but who are unable to visualize how to turn a massively rendered example of the 19th century woodworker’s art into an attractive addition to a home. The brothers-in-law have become experts at tweaking imaginations. "[Our customers] want to see things in the environment of their home. They don't want to have to fight to envision how it will look," says Shedd, who looks like a professional tennis player in his polo shirt and shorts. 'The ambiance is critical to what we do here."
From my first glance around the store, it is obvious that no one is going to have to struggle to imagine one of these pieces in their living room. Hundreds of items of furniture are set up in room-sized configurations that cover all 18,000 square feet of floor space. Quiet classical music drifts unobtrusively through the two-story showroom. Imported coffee is available; on Sunday afternoons, visitors enjoy wine and cheese with live music as entertainment. Shedd and Silk set out to create an environment the customer will remember, and they have become very adept at their calling.
Both Silk and Shedd grew up in Southern California, Tom in Whittier and Steve in Orange County. What is now Steven-Thomas Antiques started with Shedd in 1972. Silk became involved in 1976, taking charge of day-to-day operations while Shedd assumed responsibility for inventory, long-term planning and finance. Without a lot of capital, they bought what they could, and sold at a variety of outlets, including a stall at the Rose Bowl swap meet. In 1981, they bought a strip of land facing the Newport Freeway off Dyer Road and built their showroom.
Notes Silk, "Our competition isn't other antique dealers; it's new furniture dealers. We either have what the customer wants, or we don't."
To ensure that they have that ideal piece for the Orange County buyer, Shedd and Silk each travels to Europe two or three times a year. Between them, they speak six languages. While they import furniture from England, France and Scandinavia, they specialize in Italian furniture. They have warehouses near Milan and Turin in Italy, as well as two full-time buyers there. More than 150 wholesalers in Italy know them and keep on the lookout for furniture for the pair.
Although they were once in both the wholesale and retail markets, they finally closed the wholesale operation. "You've got to decide who you want to appeal to," Shedd says, and Steven-Thomas aims squarely at the retail market.
Focusing on the retail niche makes each buying trip a marathon effort, since the available supply of high quality, antique furniture in Europe is dwindling. They have to hunt to uncover the best examples available, and Silk admits that the trips no longer hold the allure they once did.
The scarcity of high-quality European antiques is becoming increasingly evident. As a result, the two men go on buying trips prepared for anything. "Nobody has control to know how many old houses there are to supply these goods. You have to buy what's there," Shedd says. "For specialty items, the market has become a one-price market worldwide for quality. You have to compete with the rest of the world to buy it. We'll plan to spend $50,000 and instead spend $75,000 or $100,000. Sometimes, we'll only spend $40,000."
Most of the pieces Shedd and Silk ship from Europe were made between 1880 and 1930. "Period furniture is not our market," Shedd says, adding that the problem of authenticating the rarest examples of furniture is one the partners don't want to tackle. "Our philosophy is to provide good value for the money. Our market is furniture that has good value relative to new furniture. New furniture would cost much more."
Their store advantageously displays the ways in which the historical can be combined with the contemporary, opening the visitor's mind to new possibilities for old furniture.
“We stick to the traditional classical look,” Silk explains. “You can blend them with contemporary, Oriental, whatever you want.”
The brothers-in-law have an accurate sense of what will sell; they say they turn over their inventory eight or nine times a year, and September 1989 sales were up 30 percent from the preceding year. Shedd estimates sales at more than $3 million a year. In volume, he says, Steven-Thomas is the county's top antique dealer.
Still, not every purchase is a winner. "Five percent of what we buy, we have no business buying," Silk admits, standing before a massive burled elm library priced at $14,995. “This monster I like, but it is big enough to function as an apartment, rather than in one. The library has been slow to move out the door.”
As the quantity of quality antiques diminishes, competition has broadened. "When we started, it was pretty much us. Now Germans are going to Italy; the Japanese are going into Denmark and England," Silk explains.
"The Japanese are becoming formidable," Shedd agrees. "On my last trip, one of my buyers told me the Japanese said they wanted every sideboard that came in, at 20 percent over market"
If the most obviously desirable pieces are becoming harder to uncover, Shedd and Silk have discovered that the quirkier pieces can be rescued from an overlong stay in the showroom by adding an appropriate accessory or two. "People will buy not only the piece but the accessories," Silk explains.
It has only been in the last year that the partners have taken accessories seriously. As their feel for design became more sophisticated over the years, they realized that accessories were having a discernible impact on how quickly a piece sells. Silk flowers, paintings and bronzes are especially popular, but you'll also see such oddities as an English leather saddle or Yorkshire chimney pots decorating a piece. As a result, the dealers now spend more time ferreting out brass sconces, antique books, vases and dishes that will highlight the other pieces in their store.
All these container loads of stock require lots of preparation, presentation and warehouse space. Steven-Thomas has 35 employees to support its growing business. To promote the store, Silk and Shedd put out a quarterly newsletter that introduces the staff, summarizes finds from recent buying trips, and highlights the guests attending their frequent sales. "We keep a real active mailing list. People have about a two-year lifespan, and then they fill their home," Shedd says. "We have people who fill their garages and have no place to put [their purchases]."
New acquisitions are readied for the showroom floor in a 10,000 square-foot factory located near the store. Some of the pieces require refinishing or repair. The company recently bought a new system for the coating application process, to reduce the amount of volatile chemicals released into the air and meet more rigid AQMD standards.
Can the pair continue their success if prices climb quickly upward? "The impact for us is that we may have another five good years, and then it's going to be a changed market," Silk says. Neither man looks concerned; they have their sources, and they're confident their market can absorb the inevitable rise in prices.
As for me, if I had $14,995 to spare, I'd sure put it on that burled elm library.
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