styleNorth

Deco, deco, deco—art deco has to be the most misused term in home decorating. If I had a dollar for every time I saw “art deco” used to describe some piece of junk on Craigslist I’d be able to afford to shop in Wenda Thomson and Gray Abraham’s stupendous Decollect, located in tiny, perfect Port Hope, Ontario, about an hour east of Toronto.

I stumbled upon Decollect’s website quite by accident and one look at their shop had me making arrangements for a visit. Oh. My. Goodness. Rarely have I been as excited by a shop tour, even if most of the goods are priced out of my reach. Wenda and Gray have assembled the most fantastic collection of Deco and Art Moderne treasures I’ve had the pleasure to peruse. Sure, there are even higher end shops in New York and Paris dealing in museum-quality, jazz age furnishings, but this sublime little store can hold its own particularly when it comes to smalls, lighting and especially deco-era clocks.

That Decollect is “world class” is borne out by the fact that 70 per cent of the shop’s online orders come from outside Canada. “The internet has changed everything,” says Gray, “and has allowed us to be here in Port Hope, a little out of the way but still completely accessible.”

Accessible to those with deep pockets, anyway. In the image above, the chrome and lacquer dressing table is $975, the Royalchrome swivel chair is $1,500 and the German Musician Lamps with red shades are $875 each. The fantastic deco clocks range in price from $275 – $800, although the really top notch, Australian, polychrome plaster, mantle clock, below, is $1,500.

Wenda and Gray have so many impressive pieces that I wondered aloud whether it’s hard to let them go when a buyer comes calling. “It’s very much like being a drug addict,” relates Gray. “Your interest turns into a habit and pretty soon you have to start dealing in order to feed it. We let the pieces go knowing that that’s what allows us to acquire even more.”

As time marches on, genuine 1920s, 30s and 40s art deco furnishings become harder and harder to find. “These pieces were mass produced for the middle classes,” explains Abraham, “and so they weren’t considered especially fine. They usually went from the living room to the basement to the cottage to the dump when people got tired of them. Today, they’re quite scarce and somewhat valuable as a result.”

Decollect’s prices reflect the scarcity and yet they remain extremely competitive, especially thanks to the lowish Canadian dollar. “Our prices on average are about 60 per cent of what many Deco dealers are asking on sites such as 1stdibs.com and others,” says Gray.

I always imagine that art and antique dealers hold onto the best pieces for their own collections so I asked Gray if he’d show me his own home. “By all means,” he replied, so be sure and visit styleNorth next week for one of the most impressive virtual tours I’ve ever assembled!

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