Recession Strategy

RAPAPORT… Edward Faber, who founded the Aaron Faber Gallery with his wife Patricia Kiley Faber in 1975, takes an optimistic yet philosophical view of the current marketplace. “We have to learn from a recession and come up with a strategy,” Faber says.

Dual Demand
The New York City–based gallery has occupied its enviable blue-chip 666 Fifth Avenue address throughout its 34-year history. Its targeted game plan always has focused on one-of-a-kind art jewelry from contemporary studio artists and an expansive selection of vintage watches and jewelry. As part of a move earlier this decade to 2,300 square feet of space in the same block-long building, the retailer installed a dazzling new display gallery and created an additional 1,000-square-foot downstairs, subway-level repair shop. The high-ceilinged gallery has eye-level cases on each side wall. One side contains an assortment of estate jewelry arranged by period, followed by several cases of vintage timepieces. Showcases on the opposite wall feature art jewelry, including a rotating Master Series focusing on individual contemporary artists. In October, a retrospective of works by Bernd and Tom Munsteiner occupied this space. Floor cases in the center of the gallery are filled with the latest collections of featured studio artists, such as Michael Good, Earl and Tod Pardon. These studio jewelry exhibitions change six times annually.

“The gallery has been a resource for jewelry design and style, with an emphasis on originality, wearability, personal expression and good value. Our intention is to provide the highest level of customer service and information to our clients and collectors,” is the pledge stated in its thirtieth-anniversary catalog. “We are inspired by educating new collectors, as well as assisting established collectors to develop their expertise,” states the company website.

Taking the Challenge
Faber clearly relishes the challenge of unearthing rare artisan jewelry and placing it with just the right customers. One recent purchase is a collection of finely detailed sterling silver designs with offbeat nature-inspired themes created by artist Jaclyn Davidson during the 1960s and 1970s. “I bought these pieces from an elderly client,” Faber explains. “They are highly original and will be sold to people looking for unique and statement-making pieces.”

In the current economic climate, diamonds present a real opportunity for the Aaron Faber Gallery because diamond-encrusted estate pieces are now selling below market value, Faber says. “We can use the economy to our advantage to buy and to sell.”

A steadily growing part of the business comes from loose diamonds and engagement rings. Diamonds are top quality, and Gemological Institute of America (GIA)-certified, says Faber. “White and clean” diamonds are top sellers, in G to H color and VS-or-better clarity. “Our clients want choice in mountings, whether they buy actual estate pieces or new pieces that have been remade from old pieces.” The gallery has a network of expert jewelers in diamonds and platinum on whom they can call for special needs.  

Time To Profit
Another of Faber’s great loves — and a healthy part of his business — is vintage timepieces. Watches bring in people, he says. Frequently, the gentleman who spends $5,000 to $10,000 on a watch for himself selects a gift for his wife from the jewelry collection.

Outreach efforts for potential clients include a gold-buying service, as well as complete repair, cleaning and upgrading of jewelry and watches, whether they were purchased at the gallery or elsewhere. The new downstairs repair operation offers soup-to-nuts servicing for watches, from straps and batteries to expert repairs and restorations. About two-thirds of its business comes from watch repairs, the balance from jewelry redesign and repair, says Debbie Davis, store manager. Her archives illustrate a number of damaged vintage pieces that were re-created into fashionable and wearable jewelry. “Taking the unwearable and making it wearable” is the goal, says Davis.

Both buyers and sellers of jewelry are welcomed at Aaron Faber Gallery and among the new strategies is a more aggressive outreach to each group. Marketing efforts have changed a bit in recent years. For example, the gallery has begun using more in-store signage, runs fewer print ads and has upgraded its website. It continues to stage in-store events, such as lectures by jewelry historians and artists, collectors’ evenings and book signings for notable jewelry and watch publications. The gallery — which has a 10,000-name mailing list  — keeps in touch with major clients personally, reminding them of birthdays and anniversaries and introducing them to new finds.

A large part of the gallery’s buying activities come from referrals and word of mouth. Faber notes that neighboring retailers such as Cartier, Tiffany & Co. and Van Cleef & Arpels no longer buy jewelry from their clients, but often refer them to the gallery to sell their unworn or unwanted pieces.

Due to its sophisticated clientele, Faber says the gallery is often ahead of the curve trend-wise. While most vintage dealers have their strongest business in Art Deco, Retro and midcentury styles, Faber says his customers are buying later 1960s and 1970s goods, in yellow gold and fine mesh from Van Cleef & Arpels, Sterle and Bulgari, as well as diamond solitaires and animal designs from the 1970s. Diamond ladies’ watches from the 1950s with bigger stones are another strong category. At another end of the time spectrum, turn-of-the-twentieth-century enamels and florals from factories in Newark, New Jersey, also are attracting interest.

When buying estate pieces, Faber says brand and provenance are the most important considerations, followed by condition and materials. However, he says style and design play equally important roles.

Remaining true to his original mission of buying and selling only the most carefully selected rare and precious pieces, Faber says, “We are able to offer a wealth of opportunity to acquire art pieces at tremendous value.”