TWO years ago, Apter- Fredericks, one of the capital’s leading dealers in the finest English furniture (a diminishing band), closed the Fulham Road galleries it had occupied since Alfred Fredericks founded the business in 1946. The firm, still family run, now operates entirely online (www.apter-fredericks.com), except when conditions permit the more traditional business model of participation in the Masterpiece fair in London and New York’s Winter Antiques Show. Apter-Fredericks’s pride was that a client could fully furnish a house from its stock, but the online version no longer needed the three floors in Chelsea, which led to a January sale at Christie’s.
The business has been in the hands of Harry and Guy Apter, grandsons of Alfred and born to the trade, for a good number of years. At the age of 21, their father, Bernard, wed Claire Fredericks and joined her father in A. Fredericks Chelsea. Back then, there were 14 furniture dealers cheek by jowl on the Brown Mile, as that stretch of the Fulham Road was known, and it was very much a matter of ‘pile ’em high and sell to the trade’. Later, the business courted private buyers, but, paradoxically, the success of antiques fairs—Harry was a founder of Masterpiece—made it more difficult for shopkeepers, as some overseas clients would only visit them at a fair.
In the post-war decades, there were numerous country-house contents sales around the country, if not yet on the scale reached in the 1970s, and almost every local estate agent had its own saleroom. However, Harry was seven and a half before he could persuade his father and grandfather to take him on a buying trip. He signed on full time after leaving school and has been with the firm ever since.
Denne historien er fra February 17, 2021-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra February 17, 2021-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Kitchen garden cook - Apples
'Sweet and crisp, apples are the epitome of autumn flavour'
The original Mr Rochester
Three classic houses in North Yorkshire have come to the market; the owner of one inspired Charlotte Brontë to write Jane Eyre
Get it write
Desks, once akin to instruments of torture for scribes, have become cherished repositories of memories and secrets. Matthew Dennison charts their evolution
'Sloes hath ben my food'
A possible paint for the Picts and a definite culprit in tea fraud, the cheek-suckingly sour sloe's spiritual home is indisputably in gin, says John Wright
Souvenirs of greatness
FOR many years, some large boxes have been stored and forgotten in the dark recesses of the garage. Unpacked last week, the contents turned out to be pots: some, perhaps, nearing a century old—dense terracotta, of interesting provenance.
Plants for plants' sake
The garden at Hergest Croft, Herefordshire The home of Edward Banks The Banks family is synonymous with an extraordinary collection of trees and shrubs, many of which are presents from distinguished friends, garnered over two centuries. Be prepared to be amazed, says Charles Quest-Ritson
Capturing the castle
Seventy years after Christian Dior’s last fashion show in Scotland, the brand returned under creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri for a celebratory event honouring local craftsmanship, the beauty of the land and the Auld Alliance, explains Kim Parker
Nature's own cathedral
Our tallest native tree 'most lovely of all', the stately beech creates a shaded environment that few plants can survive. John Lewis-Stempel ventures into the enchanted woods
All that money could buy
A new book explores the lost riches of London's grand houses. Its author, Steven Brindle, looks at the residences of plutocrats built by the nouveaux riches of the late-Victorian and Edwardian ages
In with the old
Diamonds are meant to sparkle in candlelight, but many now gather dust in jewellery boxes. To wear them today, we may need to reimagine them, as Hetty Lintell discovers with her grandmother's jewellery
