Martin Fennelly Antiques is at 60 Francis Street in Dublin's "art and antiques quarter". "There's a great sense of community and the Liberties' spirit makes it a great place to do business," says Fennelly, who stocks a broad collection of antiques, paintings, lighting, bronzes, porcelain, glass and furniture.
What’s your background?
I grew up one of eight boys on
a farm in Tipperary
. We were fortunate to have the space to run wild and very fortunate to have parents who made education a priority. I left secondary school in the 1970s and got a job in
Bank of Ireland
. This enabled me to party and travel, and I did lots of both.
Visiting cities around Europe instilled in me a great admiration for architecture and history. Lyon, the old regal city of France, was and still is my favourite European city by a long shot. The architecture is mind-blowing.
Having mastered the art of looking busy, I got promoted several times and ended up in management. I made some lifelong friends but, as the years passed, my interest in banking lessened and I wanted to learn more about Irish and European history.
How did you get into the business and why?
I was taking more and more time off work at the bank to travel and to source antiques for my own home. I may not have realised it at the time but what I was really doing was buying the stock for an antique shop.
My first sale also happened at that time. During a visit to London, I heard about a dealer who was closing down. I went to his shop and bought a lovely set of Italian framed engravings. I returned to my hotel and got into the lift with my set of unwrapped engravings. I was joined by an American tourist and, by the time we left the lift, he had bought the engravings from me at a nice profit. So a business was born. I opened my shop about 10 years ago and my banking background was, unexpectedly, of great benefit as many of the marketing and sales techniques I had learned proved to work well in my new venture.
I realised that the future involves phones and tablets so I learned all I could about the internet and social media and my Facebook page now has more than 11,000 followers.
What has been your career highlight?
Last year I sold the only known Killarneyware credenza – a type of cupboard – made of arbutus and yew. It was made in about 1870 by the renowned furniture makers Egans of Killarney.
Killarneyware is the term used to describe furniture and other decorative items made in the Co Kerry town during the 19th century and sold mainly to tourists.
When I put the credenza on my website it went bananas and more than 100,000 people viewed it online. The ticket price was €75,000. It was bought by a private Irish collector for a house in Cork but I can’t reveal what the final price was.
What advice would you give collectors or investors?
Antiques from Ireland are always a good buy and, with the Irish diaspora growing at a constant pace, it is likely that there will be a growing demand into the future. I love having antiques from Ireland in my shop such as items of Killarneyware and Irish carved bog-oak made by our ancestors 150 years ago in trying times. They are wonderful creations, little memory capsules and often evoke an elegiac response from the viewer.
When tourists visit the shop they love to hear the history of these pieces and it never ceases to amaze my customers, and myself, the talent we had, and still have, in Ireland.
What do you personally collect and why?
I collect classical bronzes. Antique dealers have to sell things to make money but we sometimes come across a piece that is a “keeper”.
My most recent such experience happened when in London I got the opportunity to purchase a very special medal that belonged to a survivor of Auschwitz. The Auschwitz Cross was awarded in the 1980s by the government of Poland to survivors of the Nazi concentration camps. They very rarely come up for sale. If I'm feeling down – or feel like the world is a bad place – I realise that I have it lucky compared to what these people went through.
When I show the medal to people they go quiet. It speaks of hope, resistance and survival and always elicits reflection. I showed it to a Jewish visitor to the shop from New York who wanted to buy it, but I’m not selling it.
What would you buy if money were no object?
A lottery win might not even be enough but we all dream. My purchase would be difficult to acquire, as it is in the
Philadelphia Museum of Art
.
The famous silver Two-Handled Cup With Lid was made in Dublin in the 1760s by Samuel Walker, one of a famous family of 18th-century Irish silversmiths. It is an exquisite piece which is beautifully made and displays all the symbols of Ireland so superbly crafted in Dublin.
What’s your favourite work of art
? Rodin’s bronze life-size sculpture,
The Thinker (in French Le Penseur). When I saw it for the first time in Paris 20 years ago, it completely disarmed me. I think Rodin got across the idea that life shouldn't be all a big crazy rush and that we should take time to think and reflect. fennelly.net In conversation with
