The firm have taken a 25-year lease on the whole building at 929 Madison Avenue, the premises which until last year had for decades been the famous showrooms of Tom Devenish.
The building will undergo a £1.7m refurbishment and is expected to open for business in the spring of next year. About 50 per cent of Mallet’s business is with America and the new venture, which they describe as a major project, will be charged with finding new customers as well as servicing the firm’s many existing American clients.
Mallet will retain their two Mayfair showrooms and describe the New York outlet as a satellite business which will be supplied from London.
The move highlights London’s increasing dependence on American business for profitability. A spokesman for the firm last week told Antiques Trade Gazette: “Our shareholders are asking for expansion, and this is the right path.”
• This week the St James’s Georg Jensen specialists The Silver Fund open a New York retail showroom at 1001 Madison Avenue at 77th Street (Tel: 212 794 4994).
This company’s clients are more than 75 per cent American and The Silver Fund stand at many US fairs.
Last week a spokesman told us: “We have always been overwhelmed by the response and very special relationship we hold with our US clients. Consequently, we are now delighted to announce the opening of our first retail shop in the USA.”
Mallet and Silver Fund open New York salerooms
Mallet, one of London’s most famous and venerable antiques dealerships, are opening prestigious new permanent galleries on New York’s Upper East Side.
