It is with very great sadness that we heard that Robin Kern sadly passed away on 2nd November. We have our own reflections on Robin and on the antique dealing business of Hotspur further below, but Chris Coles, who undertook our oral history interview with Robin back in 2016, has also composed a personal tribute to Robin.
A Personal Tribute to Robin Kern from Chris Coles
Mark has very kindly allowed me to write a few words about Robin Kern. I first met Robin whilst still working at the British Museum. I had fortuitously seen an advert in the Antiques Trade Gazette that Mark had placed, asking for volunteers for the Antique Dealers Project. Thankfully I applied and was accepted and Mark very kindly allowed me to conduct some of the oral history interviews. One of those interviews was with Robin Kern at his beautiful home in Notting Hill. I had previously met Robin some years before at his premises in Kinnerton Mews, having already closed the Lowndes Street shop. I had actually visited him as a result of a visitor to my department at the BM who had told me that she was researching dummy boards. I knew that Robin had a pair in stock at that time and suggested that she went to see him. She emailed me afterwards to say how well she had been treated and that I should go and see him myself and I did. This bringing together of academics and researchers and members of the trade was entirely typical of the way that Robin conducted himself and it was no surprise at all that some of his best friends, and greatest clients, included the likes of Christopher Gilbert buying for Temple Newsam and Sir Nicholas Goodison the expert on Matthew Boulton and barometers. As John Hill said so perfectly in his eulogy at Robin’s funeral
‘He was a gifted mentor, using his passion for diplomacy and his velvet touch……Robin and Brian built a strong bond of friendship and trust between like-minded souls and Hotspur was to feel a bit like a private members club’.
When I interviewed Robin for the project he spoke with understandable pride about some of the many famous private collections he had helped to form such as those for the McAlpine family, Jon Gerstenfeld, Fred Krehbiel and Jon Bryan. It is no exaggeration to say that Hotspur took the marketing of purely English furniture and works of art to a new level amongst the trade and virtually every great collection of such pieces will include something that passed through the firm’s hands at one stage or another.
When conducting the oral history interviews, it was always our policy to get a photograph of the interviewee for use in the relevant section on the website. Robin was insistent that we use the image of him and his brother Brian with the Chippendale lacquer secretaire, now at Temple Newsam (see photograph below), that featured in the Hotspur anniversary book. He didn’t want anyone to be under the impression that the firm’s success was down to him alone and wanted Brian, who had already tragically passed away by that time, to get his full share of the credit. The two brothers took over running the firm in the most difficult of circumstances, both of their parents having been killed in a tragic car crash. Under the brothers’ stewardship, however, the firm flourished and moved on to the next level and the respect and affection for Robin was obvious from the remarkable turnout for his funeral which was attended by almost everyone involved in the current high end furniture trade and plenty in other branches of the antiques trade as well.
Robin’s generosity towards the Antique Dealers Project was cemented by his decision to give all of the remaining copies of the Hotspur anniversary book to Mark for use as university prizes and this, again, was typical of his outlook in life, always trying to help others and never hinder.
All of us involved in the furniture trade in Britain and America owe a huge debt of gratitude to Robin for raising the profile and standard of dealing in our area and for his personal kindness and generosity. He was a titan of the trade who will be sadly missed and I send my condolences to his widow Odile, herself also a great dealer, and the rest of the Kern family.
Robin Kern (1938-2024) – Thank you Chris for your contribution to the Antique Dealers Research Blog. Robin’s obituary was also published in the Antiques Trade Gazette (ATG 23rd November 2024), p.79 (composed by his friend, Simon Phillips of Ronald Phillips Limited, London). Below are my own reflections on Robin and the significance of the antique dealers’ Hotspur Limited.
I remember meeting Robin in London at his store in Chelsea, back in 2018. I had driven down from Leeds to collect a very large pile of copies of the book published to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the founding of Hotspur (2004) Hotspur: Eighty Years of Antiques Dealing which, with typical generosity (as Chris mentioned above) Robin had given to the Antique Dealer Research Project to distribute to students enrolled on the module I teach at the University of Leeds (called ‘Antique Dealers: the market for ‘decorative art’ from curiosities to retro’). It is a 3rd year undergraduate module, the focus of which I believe is unique in UK universities, and which I’ve been running for almost 10 years now. Robin give us dozens and dozens of spare copies of the Hotspur book, which I distribute each year to eager students studying the history of antique dealing. Here’s a photograph of the undergraduate students enjoying the book from 2023 (and which I also would send to Robin as evidence of the real impact of his generosity!)
The antique dealing business, Hotspur Limited, was founded by Robin’s grandfather, Frederick Kern (see below) together with Robin’s father, Robert (Rob) Kern (see below) in 1924. Frederick had been a director of the London branch of the decorators and antique dealers Carlhain and Beaumartz, as Nicholas Goodison described in the history of Hotspur, ‘[Frederick] was with the firm for twenty years until it closed in 1914, and was then briefly in business at 27 Soho Square as a director of Monday, Kern and Herbert, where he was in charge of the ‘Antique Department and Reproductions” (Goodison & Kern, Hotspur: eighty years of antiques dealing (Two Associates, London, 2004), p.19.
Hotspur’s first antique shop was at 16 Buckingham Palace Road in London, before moving to 6 Frith Street, near Soho Square in London by the late 1920s. The building in Frith Street occupied by Hotspur Ltd was formerly the home of the writer William Hazlitt (1778-1830) and the interiors were perfect for displays of English antique furniture that Hotspur were famous for buying and selling.
In 1939, to avoid bombing during the Second World War, Hotspur relocated to Streatham Lodge, Richmond, a rather grand 17th century house, again with period rooms ideal for the display of English antique furniture.
In 1951 Frederick and Rob Kern moved Hotspur back to central London, to 14 Lowndes Street, a very smart street near Belgrave Square, and in 1956 Robin joined his father in the business, followed by his younger brother Brian in 1963. Robin and Brian’s father and mother, Rob and Betty, were tragically killed in a road accident in 1977. Brian retired from the business in 1999, but Robin continued, finally closing the doors in 2008.
Hotspur were one of the leading dealers in the highest quality antique furniture, especially English furniture of the ‘classic’ period 1680-1830. As Chris mentions (above) they helped build many of the most important collections of antique furniture in the mid-to-late-20th century in both the UK and the USA. Hotspur were also central to building of the antique furniture collection of Noel Terry (1899-1979), which remain on display at Fairfax House in York
Our memories of Robin are of a highly principled and exceptionally generous person. We are privileged to have included Robin and Hotspur as part of the Antique Dealers Research Project at the University of Leeds. Indeed, we are working quickly to make the oral history interview that we undertook with Robin and Chris Coles available to listeners (we are just sorting out the images so we can make that interview live on the project website). You may also be interested to hear that Hotspur are one of the antique dealers that are highlighted as part of the Year of the Dealer digital trails – the sale of the Harewood House secretaire (and the story of Hotspur), shown above, is one of the 10 objects in the digital trail at Temple Newsam, Leeds. We hope to have news of the launch of the Year of the Dealer trails in January, so do keep you eye on the Blog.
But before that, we send our sincerest condolences and best wishes to Robin’s family and friends.
Mark
antiquedealersblog 