Koopman Rare Art, expert in antique silver

The firm of E.& C. T. Koopman & Son Ltd was founded in 1958 by Eddy and Jacques Koopman and is specialized in antique English and continental silver. Since the '70s and '80s it is the largest firm of antique silver dealers in the UK. The gallery introduces several collections including the Mahdi Al Tajir collection and the Packer collection.

Since 1993 the company is successfully ran by Lewis Smith and contain Rare Art. The gallery place items of importance into museums as well as the homes of some of the most discerning collectors worldwide. It specialise in silver and all old silver between the 16th to the 20th century.

The company has clients from all over the world, as said Lewis smith there are no rules on the art market, no one will judge on the origin, all is about quality. But American are the best clients for any silver. “It's interesting to see how people don't necessarily buy silver produced in their own Country. The market is really about quality, and less about origin; my American clients could buy German or English silver. In the World silver art market, English silver has a cachet and is therefore more collectable than other silver. The major places for silver trading are America, the Netherlands through TEFAF Maastricht which brings clients from all over the World and London.” Lewis Smith

Historically, we know that the shapes of ceramic have been inspired by silver's shapes. It is also interesting to see how the percentages of the buying intentions for European ceramic (24.58%) and for silver (23.35%) are similar. In general English porcelain collectors and English silver collectors aren't chauvinistic. "The English and the Americans would collect everything, the French won't collect English porcelain but they will collect German porcelain as much as French one, the Russian will focus on Russian porcelain and early 19th Century German and French porcelain because they are very similar to Russian productions.” Michele Beiny

Comments

• Silver Trader (2010-10-26) Report to moderator Same for classic furniture, an English silver collector could easily buy a French silver piece; while the opposite is much rarer. This isn't obviously due to a lower quality of English artefacts as a comment says in the Simon Philips interview! The French don't collect English artworks because of two main reasons. Firs: French are so pretentious they believe the very best artworks could only be produced in France. The second one is more related to history: England and France have been at war for a thousand years and it seems that even in arts the French are more spiteful than the English! Same for classic furniture, an English silver collector could easily buy a French silver piece; while the opposite is much rarer. This isn't obviously due to a lower quality of English artefacts as a comment says in the Simon Philips interview! The French don't collect English artworks because of two main reasons. Firs: French are so pretentious they believe the very best artworks could only be produced in France. The second one is more related to history: England and France have been at war for a thousand years and it seems that even in arts the French are more spiteful than the English!

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