FINDERS KEEPERS | MASTERS & MUSES | WORLD OF CABANA
Esteemed British antique dealer, collector and decorator Gordon Watson has spent more than four decades buying and selling exceptional objects. His treasure-filled home in Tangier is the ultimate stage for his museum-worthy finds, acquisitions and memories. He shares with Cabana the story of two such pieces: his greatest find and the piece he'll keep forever.
INTERVIEW BY JAMIE SHARP | MASTERS & MUSES | 25 MARCH 2025
My Greatest Find: A Tibetan Silk Tapestry
"I've had quite a few. I started my business with my partner, Lewis Caplan, who was a contemporary art dealer, and he'd moved into a huge lateral conversion on Eaton Square. Every Saturday, we'd go shopping for antiques and furniture to fill this shop. He had Morris Louis; all the great Hockney paintings; there were Freuds; there was Giacometti, there was Cole, and there were all these beautiful things. I walked into a shop where the owner knew us, and he said: "I've got something for you, Gordon."
"I looked at it, and literally all the saliva drained from my mouth. I've never had such a visceral reaction to looking at something. I knew it was Tibetan, I thought it was 19th century, and I knew it was important. It was about three and a half metres by four metres, there was a silk banner, and in the middle was a woven silk image of Shri Devi, the Tantric goddess that protects Buddhist Tibet.
"It was absolutely extraordinary, with a blue silk surround and Chinese symbols. It was £650. "I’ve got to go and make a phone call," I said. There were no mobile phones then. Lewis said, "What do you mean you're making a phone call?" I said, "I've got to call my mother. She's got to send me the money." He said, "Well, I'll put the money up, and we’ll split the profit." So I bought the thing. I took it to Sotheby’s - where I was working - and showed it to the head of my department, who thought it was wonderful.
"Take it to the V&A," she said. The director of the Indian department was called Mr. Lowry. I showed it to him, and he said, "It’s incredible." I told him the whole story. He said: "It’s 18th century, and it might even be earlier. It’s a high-status gift from one monastery to another, and you’ve done very well." We got very excited. I put it into the next sale, and then got a call from the V&A asking if I would I consider not putting it into a sale? They’d love to buy it for their collection. They offered, I think, £22,000.
"In the meantime, I found out there was a similar one, in the great Indian collection of the Cleveland Museum in America. And I was greedy. I thought, well, if they’re offering £22,000, imagine what American museums would pay for it. So, I declined, and when the viewing started, we had an estimate. The day of the auction came, and there was one bidder, and it was a little old lady with glasses. I could have bought a small flat for £22,000, but she bought it for £16,000 because I lowered the reserve. And guess who she was? The secretary to John Latterhithe of the V&A, so it’s in their collection now. It’s a long story, but that was my seed money. That’s when I started buying half-shares with Lewis, and when we started buying Jean-Michel Frank, Puiforcat, and Cartier."
Gordon's home in Tangier, from the pages of Cabana © Miguel Flores-Vianna
The Piece I'll Keep Forever: A Birthday Bracelet
"Absolutely everything is for sale, but I’d find it difficult to sell gifts—you know, birthday gifts. I’ve got this bracelet, this great gift that was for my 60th, and it’s made by the jeweller JAR, Joel Rosenthal. A great girlfriend of mine, Janet de Botton, gave it to me, so I’ll never sell that. But I’d say that 95% of things in my house are for sale.
"The things that I won’t sell are small things, you know—sentimental things. I’m not sentimental though; I’ve had various sales at Sotheby’s — such as, "Gordon Watson, End of a Chapter" — and we sold about 2,000 items in 2006. And I’ve had sales at Christie’s, and when I went to the warehouse to get everything organised for sale, there were boxes I’d never opened in 10 years, with fabulous things inside.
"I mean, I like buying things—it’s the chase, it’s the adrenaline rush. Once I’ve got it... Buying with selling in mind does often go wrong though. I would tell any budding antique dealer: never buy because you think you have a client, because the number of times I’ve bought something thinking, they would love that, and they say, "Oh no, we’re not buying," or "We’re divorced," or "We’ve changed our minds." So, you can only buy for yourself. I like being stuck with it — you’re never really stuck."
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