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| LOUISIANA PURCHASES | ||
| MARC CHARBONNET EXPLORES HIS NATIVE NEW ORLEANS |
| Moving on along Magazine Street and into the Garden District, the designer drops by the Neal Auction Company. "I particularly like this place," he says. "It reminds me of the New Orleans auction houses of my youth. I bought a Louisiana child's bed here when I was twenty, and an Old Paris
porcelain teapot. They deal in some of the finest Louisiana furnishings and objects from estates of local people."
The auction gallery was founded fifteen years ago by John R. Neal, who is still the owner; and much of the inventory is catalogued and assembled for sale by Neal Alford, his associate who is an expert in American furniture. A little more than two years ago Stephen A. Moses was hired as its president. He is the fourth generation of his family to work in antiques in New Orleans. The family business was Waldhorn's, a Royal Street antiques shop, established in 1880. When Moses realized that none of his children were interested in being "the fifth generation," he sold Waldhorn's, found himself bored and came to help at Neal's. By putting the auctions on a regular schedule - six per year, with some "annex auctions" of less valuable pieces and some Friday night jewelry auctions, offered with champagne and hors d'oeuvres - Moses has increased Neal's sales by 50 percent. |
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"Neal's is a very serious auction
house," says Charbonnet, who recently discovered a set of ten Louisiana gondole
chairs there, made between 1800 and 1825. Moses points out that the American furniture, such as matched sets of dining chairs - always hard for designers to assemble - reflects the emphasis on Louisiana and American pieces that has always characterized Neal's. "We recently had paintings by Louisiana |
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