Dear Friends,
Goodbye 2020 and hello 2021 and a healthy and happy new year to our newsletter subscribers wherever you may be in the world.
2020 a year that has passed with so much grief, sadness & uncertainty for the world, a year where suddenly it is acceptable to wear a mask whilst taking money from the bank, who would have ever predicted that scenario.
2021 now brings the UK the certainty of a Brexit trade deal in place with our European neighbours, and that can only be a good thing for business and stability whilst we continue to live with the future uncertainty of vaccination rollouts and tier groupings, which seemingly will continue to drag on for the first half of 2021.
However at last it seems there is light at the end of that long dark tunnel thanks to the incredible groups of scientists working across borders to find the answers in such a short space of time, and as I write this morning the government have announced approval of the Oxford vaccine, and the availability of 100 million doses, this great news should hopefully speed up our journey back to some normality in 2021, an amazing achievement !!!
Imagine what could be achieved in the world if politicians and religious leaders worked in such close harmony.
On a business front 2020 was a year where the determination and flexibility of the antiques and art dealers moving to an online model may well have saved their particular business, and continued to drive changes in the industry that will last forever, changes that were probably inevitable if you follow the trend of most other retail environments in the past decade. Whilst galleries, fairs and exhibitions will inevitably be either closed or under further restrictions during 2021 these online marketplaces will continue to flourish.
At Steveslyjapaneseart.com we have received numerous recent enquiries from as far afield as Kenya, Italy and Russia resulting in multiple sales being achieved. Another factor of lockdown has been a significant increase in enquiries offering goods for sale, or requesting valuations, we are always keen to view, value and ultimately purchase market fresh high quality items.
During December we were delighted to add this magnificent Silver Koro firmly attributed to Setsuho Hidetomo to an Italian lady’s Japanese art collection, it was a special sale in more ways than one as this particular lady just missed out on the Koro first time around when it appeared in the PDF of our exhibition book “2020 Vision of an enlightened ruler”.
Her joy was plain to see when reading her feedback upon safe receipt in Italy just in time for Christmas, she added images of the Koro centre stage in her Japanese collection that has mostly been supplied by ourselves over the last few years.
“Dear Steve
I received the Koro today it is beautiful I love it.
I thank you for the welcome gift and for your dedication.
As you can see in the attachment, the Koro is in excellent company.
Best wishes. Mrs G. Thank you so much. I gave myself a really nice Christmas present.”
The hardcopy of my book is still available and only last month we delivered copies to customers as far away as India and Canada, if you would like a copy at only £25 inc free postage anywhere in the world please e-mail me. steve@steveslyjapaneseart.com
For the start of what I truly believe will be a great year on many fronts I would like to exclusively offer this rather rare and delightful Koro (incense burner) in the members area, The Koro comes in the form of a shibuichi and silver hanging boat, and from the same Japanese art collection as the previous Koro.
See our members area for further details of this unusual item.
In other news 2Covet continues to flourish and attract new dealers from the UK and overseas, the 2Covet team are working tirelessly behind the scenes and although due to covid restrictions they have had to close the offices on numerous occasions this past year, they have carried on almost seamlessly, once again reinforcing the significant advantages of an online and portable business model.
Please do take a look at the 7,000 plus pieces being offered by some of the leading specialists in their chosen fields, and now all hosted on one premium marketplace. Shop the exquisite at www.2covet.com.
Plans for my 2021 exhibition book are well underway with some really exciting finds already in the bag, and with others in the pipeline subject to further due diligence, it is looking increasingly likely that I will follow last year’s successful model of a PDF being rolled out about a month before the hard copy comes off the press, this will once again guarantee my newsletter subscribers first opportunity to acquire the finest items before they hit the wider audience of the world market.
There may also be an exciting twist with a physical launch, covid permitting, although it is still far too early to predict what might happen in the Autumn of 2021, so for now we will stick with the old adage of “If it isn’t broken we won’t try to fix it”.
Have a great month and do please stay safe.
Best wishes
Steve