https://dsdmag.com/revisiting-history/

For two long years, the famous antiques markets and fairs across France were all but dormant. In the wake of worldwide travel restrictions and quarantines enacted at the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak, seasoned dealers had limited access to the historic treasures hidden away in galleries, showrooms and warehouses overseas. But 2022 has been different.

“It really opened up for dealers to come back to buy this past April,” says Bruno de la Croix-Vaubois, owner of Country French Interiors in the Dallas Design District. Although he made a couple of short buying trips last year, thanks to his dual citizenship, de la Croix-Vaubois was delighted to see the markets finally back in full swing this year. He and his son Chris, who manages online listings for the antiques showroom, attended six major fairs over two weeks this June, in a bountiful, whirlwind buying tour. The Slocum Street showroom soon will be bursting with new acquisitions, from 18th- and 19th-century furniture to one-of-a-kind paintings, mirrors, tapestries and colorful tin-glazed majolica.

“There were fewer buyers, so we feel we were able to get some really good deals,” notes Chris de la Croix-Vaubois, who has learned the antiques trade by his father’s side since graduating from college. Although a shipping service followed the father-son duo from one fair to the next, they focused heavily on acquiring smaller pieces, as they traveled by car, plane and bullet train across France to find historical gems. During the pandemic, much of the showroom’s business shifted to online sales, and items like paintings, objets d’art, and other decorative accessories are easier to transport, says Chris de la Croix-Vaubois. “We handpick everything ourselves and negotiate directly with the vendors,” he says, whether they are buying hand-carved furniture or bantam decorative pieces, and they always search out exceptional finds, he adds.

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