The Litchfield Guide
Litchfield, Connecticut is the home to our Sister Parish studio and so many other gems. It's beautiful, the architecture is stunning, and there are a number of independent shops to explore. If you're visiting...
Dealers of Note: Toby Lorford
Lorfords is the UK and Europe's largest collector and distributor of unique decorative antiques — with over 5,000 pieces in stock and 150 new arrivals every week. We recently teamed up with them on a series of sets: our Creative Director, Eliza, hand-selected sixty exceptional pieces from their collection, and together we styled them into vignettes that feel layered, collected over time, and effortlessly at home with one another. Our fabrics and wallpapers formed the backdrop for every room.
We sat down with Toby to ask about how he got started, the piece that got away, and where else we should be shopping in London, the Cotswolds, and beyond.
What's the story behind starting Lorfords, and how did it grow into Europe's largest collection of decorative antiques?
The love of old things came from both my parents, my mother was a local historian and my father a second hand and antiquarian book dealer. As a child many of my holidays or day trips included visits to bookshops. He had a couple of specialities though I would always delve in to the topography sections looking for one or two books that might have profit! And so the love of poking around dusty shops and basements looking for hidden gold was born!
Fast forward to my mid-20s, after a few jobs in the media and public relations, it dawned upon me that I was absolutely awful at having a boss, and that I had better accept I was not going to escape the life mapped out for me by my parents passions! My father had a great eye, and so it was toward furniture and interiors that I turned…
The evolution of Lorfords I really have to share credit with two other people . My mother installed a self-belief in me that has supported every decision, and a determination to succeed that has been critical through many tough times. I fear it makes me very difficult to work with though! And second, I was lucky enough to work with a business coach in London, Shweta Jhajharia, for 4 years. She taught me how to run a business, how to scale, and how to build a team. I wouldn’t be in this position without her input and her unerring ability to challenge me in a way that pushed me to do better and think more structurally.
What's one antique that changed your life or the way you see objects?
If I had to pick one, it would have to be the Chippendale painted bedroom suite (is that one?!) in the Victoria and Albert museum. The Garrick Bed and Press introduced me to painted furniture as a fine object rather than provincial. In the 90s and early 00s the market was awash with badly repainted pieces on poor quality carcasses. The bed and press opened my eyes to good painted furniture, and that became the mainstay of my dealing for the next 20 years.
Besides Lorfords, where should be shopping in London or around Tetbury?
Favorite places, antique or not for interiors:
Soane, Pimlico Road London. Not just for the products but also for Lulu Lyttle’s ceaseless championing of the British craft industry.
The Decorative Fair, Battersea. Thrice yearly antiques, vintage and art fair in Battersea Park
Philip Adler is a small shop in Tetbury with a great eye and he still doesn’t have a web site… wonderfully old school!
How do you spot a piece worth having? What separates something special from something that's just old?
Very difficult to be specific. It is a combination of form, surface, rarity and quality of construction. Is it beautiful and can you find others easily...
What's the one piece in your collection you'd never sell? And, what's the one that got away, a piece you passed on or lost at auction and still think about?
I have a mid-18th century Swedish writing table that I think I will never part with, but never is a long time, and dealing has taught me that there are always beautiful things waiting just round the corner to acquire! We also have a Saarinen tulip table re-release by Knoll that Kate will never sell, so maybe that’s a safer bet!
So many were missed, just too late at a fair or underbid at auction. The memorable one is usually the most recent. Right now it would have to be an Aubusson tapestry that was being auctioned by Drouot in Paris. Sometimes you have to remember that it’s about a profit, not accumulation!!
- Tags: Antiques and Vintage