IAA Connoisseurship Workshop in New York City


October 15 & 16 2007: If the inaugural IAA Connoisseurship Workshop in New York City was a harbinger of things to come, then upcoming IAA events in preparation for the 2008/2009 season are going to be a great success. Combining seriousness of purpose with insider’s exposure to the best in 18th Century French Furniture, IAA president and workshop director, Juan P Lluria, took a group from Miami, Palm Beach, New York City and Paris on a memorable 2-days of discovery about the elite world of this specialized collecting and appraising field reserved for only the highest level of the market and clientele.

The workshop commenced with a private breakfast for the group of appraisers, dealers, interior designers and collectors at Christie’s Auction House in Rockefeller Plaza. The buffet breakfast was actually enjoyed in the princely galleries showcasing the sensational offerings of the auction entitled Le Gôut Steinitz. This milestone auction was a sale of the inventory of one of the most legendary Parisian dealers Bernard and Benjamin Steinitz. Under the hospitable guidance of Christie’s expert Will Strafford, the workshop was able to learn while touching and examining some of the rarest and dazzling 18th and early 19th Century furniture to emerge in the auction market in years! The first day continued, after a lunch break, at the Chinese Porcelain Company on Park Avenue. Here, our group met our iconic guest lecturer Thierry Millerand, who was formerly head of Sotheby’s Worldwide French and Continental Furniture Dept for 28 yrs and who is now active as a private advisor and broker to collectors. Our group was privileged to also touch and examine some of the rarest grand French furniture of the Ancien Régime including a rare lacquer Louis XV commode and other examples of exceptional masterpieces by noted French ebenisites.

On the second day, the group had privileged access to fine 18th Century French furniture at the Frick Collection and the Metropolitan Museum as a stimulating morning activity with Mr. Lluria and Mr. Millerand. After a lunch break, the afternoon was spent under Thierry Millerand’s guidance in a truly unforgettable visit to the legendary Dalva Brothers Gallery in their new location on East 77th Street. The five storey gallery is situated in a historic townhouse. This gallery has a dizzying array of great 18th and early 19th French furniture that most museums would covet. But it also has the inventory set off against some of the most sumptuous period paneling imaginable thus giving the visitor the feeling he or she is in a grand Chateau! All agreed this last experience, in the company of gallery owner Leon Dalva, was a truly remarkable afternoon of learning in the most desirable “hands on” manner for a true connoisseur of this highly refined field of learning and collecting.

Everything on this IAA study trip was five stars. And to wind it up with an appropriate level of sophistication that hallmarked the 2-day event, Mr. Millerand kindly invited all workshop participants – including the gallery owners, curators and auctioneers to mingle and get better acquainted over a few glasses of Veuve Cliquot in his elegant Upper East Side flat. The civilized atmosphere of the evening was an appropriate tone in which to wind up 2 days of exposure to endless visual delights!

Trip Pictures:


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IAA Study Trip