London
A profile like the famous photo of Beardsley, but a crisp, humorous manner, in a drawing room austere in the small quantity of furnishings, but superlatively luxurious in their quality: Philip Hewat-Jaboor is a forty-two year-old Anglo-Lebanese educated at Sotheby’s by that tyrannical teacher of the art of looking, the late Derek Shrubb. But his grandfather, a collector of Chinese porcelain, had already opened his eyes.
Will he be going to the Paris Biennale this month? Of course, he says. “It’s so grand, and dealers bring their best things, so it’s a good overview of what there is on the market: but it’s very expensive, and while the use of stage designers works, it may put off the more nervous private customers, particularly the Americans, who think the decor is reflected in the price of things”.
Mr Hewat-Jaboor is a marchand-amateur, with a few private clients whose names remain secret. The definition of a marchand-amateur is someone who deals in order to refine his own collection. In Mr Hewat-Jaboor’s case, this consists of no more than thirty or so objects of museum quality, very beautiful and technically perfect, and nearly all with interesting associations, such as the chairs given by Napoleon to his uncle, Cardinal Fesch, then bought by William Beckford for the drawing room at Fonthill Abbey.
William Beckford and Thomas Hope, both collectors and both revolutionary influences on history of taste, are his heroes and he focuses on pieces that belonged to them. “They set great store on how things were combined, not just within a piece, like this Chinese porcelain converted by gilt-bronze mounts into a classical vase, but also within a room. The trouble is that nowadays people don’t attribute importance to objects because they can’t tell the difference between a decorator piece and an outstanding one; we live with so much rubbish around. They get by without understanding the language of decoration, the relationship between objects and architecture, for example”.
Like Beckford, he understands the Gothic and the classic and lives with both: “You have to have the broad vision and see how things connect”. He is planning a big exhibition on Beckford. “I think the moment is right; the Bard Centre in New York for the study of decorative art is leading a revival in interest for the subject and lectures there are now packed.”
What advice would he give a collector—or a dealer trying to train one up? Mr Hewat-Jaboor says, “Sacrifice: stretch yourself mentally and financially. After learning to look, look and look again you will get to understand what is the difference between the best and what is merely run of the mill”.
Originally appeared in The Art Newspaper as ‘“You have to be prepared to stretch yourself mentally and financially”'