PROFILE: MARK WEST
Leading glass specialist who celebrates 50 years in the antiques trade
The glass specialist celebrates 50 years of dealing
The connection is unexpected, but it was an early interest in collecting antique guns that sparked Mark West’s passion for antique glass. ‘ I was in the British fencing team when I was at school and that led me to an interest in ! rearms: I liked revolvers, probably because of their association with cowboys. So by the time I le" school at 17, I already knew my way around London’s antiques markets.’
Mark’s ! rst job was at the BBC where he worked shi "s in the IT department installing a new computer system. ‘I worked long hours, but just four days a week,’ he explains. ‘ By the time I was 20, I’d saved up £ 250, taught myself about silver, and taken a stand in an arcade on Portobello Road on Saturdays.’ All went well, until two years later, when disaster struck. ‘One Friday night, the arcade was burgled and all my silver went.’ Mark had no silver stock le", but he did have some 19th- century glass. ‘ I’d realised that usable antique glass was cheaper than modern equivalents from John Lewis, so I moved sideways.’ Dealers at the time were focused on 18th- century or earlier glasses, none specialised in the less rare!ed antique glasses of the 19th century, a !eld that interested Mark.
But there was more to his growing passion for glass than commercial consideration. ‘ I’m drawn to glass because it’s something you can use and it’s designed to be handled. It’s a tactile substance. Your ! ngers will tell you as much as your eyes. I drink – and a nice glass actually makes for a nice drink. You watch people a "er a meal and they cuddle their glasses – they don’t do that with their teacups or cutlery.’ Mark built up his knowledge by seeking advice from established experts. ‘Around the corner from the BBC there was a very old and very venerable glass expert called Howard Phillips. He was one of the great post-war dealers who really made the business. He had just fallen out with his son, who was about my age, and he took a liking to me. I used to go and see him in my lunch hour. “Dear boy, look at this,” he would say, opening up his safe to let me see and handle things you’d now only see in a museum.’
When Mark le" the BBC to install a new computer system for the NHS, his work involved travelling around the South East, allowing him time to visit auctions, markets and dealers in the region and build up his stock and his knowledge. ‘All dealers like to impart their knowledge, and you sieve what you think is good or bad from what they tell you.’
In his 50 years of dealing, Mark has joined BADA, sold glass to the
Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and many other American institutions. He is proud to be the only British dealer to be honoured with a fellowship of the Corning Museum, the world’s largest glass museum. Inevitably, over the decades he has responded to vacillations in the market. ‘ We ran a shop in Wimbledon Village and sold a lot to top dealers from Mayfair, Manha!an, Japan and Australia, who wanted to buy from someone they trusted and didn’t want to spend time running round looking for things.’
Having closed the shop some 18 years ago, he now sells online, privately and at leading antiques fairs, including Olympia, the NEC and the Ceramics Fair in New York. This year, everything shi "ed. ‘Our customers are now mainly private, and during lockdown all our business was online.’
Despite the ups and downs, the appeal of glass hasn’t faded. ‘ It’s a treasure hunt; you never know what you will # nd. Two weeks ago I was in a market and bought an albarello – a Spanish pharmaceutical jar – that dates from c1600, when Queen Elizabeth I was on the throne. Last Saturday we bought another unusual piece of 17th- century Spanish glass. Both pieces are really rare. At the # rst market I went to a "er lockdown I picked up a piece of glass. “It’s a score,” the dealer said. I handed him the £ 20 cash and put a piece of early 18th- century glass, unwrapped, in my bag. I kept pinching myself – it was so exciting.’ Naturally, antique glass graces the table at home. ‘ We use an 18th- century wine jug, and I have some wonderful whisky glasses engraved with a hanged man on the base: they are called ‘ Last Drop’, and we also use drinking glasses from c1800.’ A favourite shopping haunt is Ford Air #eld Market near Arundel. The glass collections he most enjoys include the V& A, the Murano Glass Museum in Venice, Mompesson House in Salisbury, and, of course, the Corning Museum. When it comes to 20th- century and contemporary glass he is selective. ‘ I don’t like glass that is trying to be too clever and I’m allergic to massproduced Lalique.’ As a fellow of the Corning he hears about the makers in residence and also admires Scandinavian makers such as Kaj Franck and Tapio Wirkkala. ‘But, ultimately, it comes down to personal preference. My job as a dealer is to tell you what something is. Your job as a customer is to live with it.’