Clinton Howell Antiques is a gallery specializing in English antique furniture of the late 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries. I first established my business in 1981, in Pound Ridge, NY and moved to New York City in 1991. My intention is to maintain an inventory of the finest examples possible of a given time period, while offering the service of finding everything from dining tables and sets of chairs, to putting collections together.
My interest in antiques began with my enrollment in the London College of Furniture in 1971, where I spent three years learning antique restoration with special attention to finishing. After spending two more years in England buying, restoring and selling antique furniture, I moved back to the United States, where I began Clinton Howell Restorations. Shortly thereafter, I founded "The Antique Furniture Newsletter" and began writing for "Art & Auction" magazine. Two articles on "English Furniture in American Museums", which I co-authored Colin Streeter, brought attention to some of the academically less well-known, but nonetheless, important collections of English furniture that have gone virtually unnoticed by connoisseurs and collectors in both the UK and elsewhere.
My approach to English furniture has been to search for the greatest examples of a genre in order to better understand and more ably recognize what is great. To that end, I have visited, often three or four times, over fifty English country houses, some having extraordinary collections that are virtually intact such as Harewood House, Stourhead, Nostell Priory, Erddig, Houghton and Saltram. This, as well as an intimate understanding of the collections in the great museums such as the Lady Lever in Port Sunlight, the Victoria and Albert in London, the Temple Newsam Museum in Leeds, and the Metropolitan Museum in New York have all contributed to my education as a dealer and connoisseur.
What is referred to as "the knowledge" by those few dealers in the know, is earned by very few. "The knowledge" is an understanding of wood, cabinetmaking and restoration, style and history coupled with extensive reading and most of all looking at tens of thousands of pieces of furniture. I have devoted myself to finding out more, and to creating an inventory of objects that are both decorative and substantial works of art, as well as thrilling pieces of history. I hope that you will enjoy what you see here, and that at some time, you will be able to have the opportunity to come and see these objects in three dimensions.
