Four months ago, antiques dealer John Sansevere of White Plains sold a vintage 1938 oil painting of Piermont on the Hudson, titled “Paradise Row,” to an area gallery owner.
In one of his most memorable ”“ and lucrative ”“ sales transactions, the owner of Nyack-based Decorative Arts & Antiques Franklin Antique Center had not yet happened upon his newest treasure, what he interprets as a Raphael Tuck and Sons chromolithograph signed off by 19th century artist Andrew Melrose.
The traditional and atmospheric landscape artist”™s oil paintings could fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars, he predicted.
The particular replica Sansevere holds is characterized by individuals in period dress, sailboats and a breathtaking view of West Point from the Hudson during the fall season.
It likely hails from the 1800s, he said, though the date is obscured. ?Sansevere started Decorative Arts in 1991 after a departure from the personnel and corporate accounting end of IBM.
Â
He grew up with antiques, he said, and welcomed the opportunity to “linger in the morning with two cups of coffee without having to watch the clock” as he entered a life of art-centered entrepreneurship.
Â
He began modestly, transitioning from dishes to higher-ticket items.
Though costlier decorative pieces may scream “discretionary” during trying financial times, art apparently still sells. Â
“Even though we”™re in a recession, people are buying antiques,” Sansevere said. “I was just at Sotheby”™s (art auction house) to bring something down to have it appraised and an auction was going on. People were bidding $9,000 for this and $20,000 for that. I almost fell through the floor.”
Sansevere credited his personal survival to his Nyack storefront that while unable to price items in the fashion of Manhattan or Stamford, Conn., remains afloat from the area”™s retail pull.
“People like to just go out and browse and take a hands-on approach,” Sansevere said. “Nyack is a destination for people. You can spend the day there with the shops, the Edward Hopper House and the Hudson River views. It”™s a walking town. A lot of women come with their girlfriends for lunch and then they go shopping.”
The Nyack Street Fair invites even more visitors, which leaves the waterfront village looking a little like Grand Central Terminal, Sansevere said.
About 60 percent of his business is wholesale; 40 percent is retail.
“I want happy clients,” he said. “If I can gladden somebody”™s heart, that is the greatest form of satisfaction in this business. It”™s not so much about the profit margin.”
