Mezzetin Antiques

18th - 19th C French, European Antiques & Art: Porcelain, Silver, Faience, Boxes, Bronze, Drawings
Member since December 2003 View Profile

We welcome International customers! Ich spreche deutsch. Je parle un peu de français.

Today's Featured Items

$599 USD
Antique French Sterling Silver Coffee Pot Risler & ..

$285 USD
Rare Antique 19th C SWISS FAIENCE Plate Appenzell ..

$999 USD
SALE REDUCED! Set of 19th C French PARIS PORCELAIN ..

$695 USD
VERY FINE Antique 19th C French SCENT CASKET & 3 ..

$1,500 USD
Magnificent PAIR Antique 19th C Country French SEVRES ..

$1,495 USD
Antique 19th C Italian Micromosaic on French Jewelry ..

$495 USD
Lg. Antique Wood and Pewter Inlay Jewelry Casket w ..

$1,695 USD
Maison ODIOT Antique French Sterling Silver Tea Pot ..

$750 USD
Antique MUSEUM Q 18th C French Faience MARSEILLE ..

$350 USD
Antique 18th C French Rococo STRASBOURG Faience Pottery..

$550 USD
Very RARE Antique German Nymphenburg BUSTELLI Figure ..

$3,995 USD
Antique 19th C French Sterling Silver Flatware Set w ..

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View All Shop's Items (115)

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Sale Items (2)

 

About Mezzetin Antiques

Our Service Pledge To You:
We look forward to meeting you and are eager to help you find items on your wish list! We aim to please our customers around the globe and work very hard to give you exceptional service.

We are very experienced with international shipping and always welcome international buyers.

Ich spreche, lese und schreibe deutsch.

Je lis et écris le français.

About Us
Ours is a small, second-generation family business, which first grew out of my family's opportunity to live in Asia and from our love of their people, their cultures and history and those of other countries we came to know over the years. For a woman following her husband around the globe, the business of antiques conveniently fit their mobile lifestyle! Depending on where she lived at any given time, my mother specialized in Asian and early American antiques for over forty years. I learned various aspects of the trade from her as I grew up and expanded on that base with my lifelong studies of art history and European antiques at some of the world's great museums while I lived in Europe. When my parents finally retired to Florida, where my mother had a shop for 20 years, I was living in Europe at the time. So, I conveniently became the Europe buyer for her business. After she sadly died in 1994, the last of her inventory came to me. I had recently retired from a career in psychology (both, therapy and college teaching), with the aim of focusing this part of my life on beauty and joy. I had no space for most of her collection... and thus was born a new antique-dealing generation of our family. Our daughter has taken well to world travel, live auctions and buying art; while our son has taken an Asian bent. So, who knows where this will end?!

About Mezzetin Antiques:

In case you wonder, Mezzetin is the French name of one of the characters of the Italian Commedia dell' Arte (Mezzetino in Italian). Our logo is based on the painting titled "Mezzetin" by the 18th century French artist, Watteau. I chose the "bilingual" nature of the name to reflect our love of the Italian Comedy, French antiques and our mix of other international interests. One of the first things we began collecting was a group of porcelain Commedia figures designed by the great Bustelli of Nymphenburg, in what is now southern Germany, not far north of Italy. We have also collected Meissen's large animal figures, inspired by our visit to the Zwinger porcelain museum in Dresden soon after the Berlin Wall came down, with its collection of the huge figures from the porcelain zoo of Augustus the Strong, King of Saxony and founder of the Meissen factory. We have since trekked further afield, to visit porcelain and faience museums all over Europe. But, we mainly collect... and sell ... French antiques. Very early French faience and Sevres porcelain are particular interests there, though it has become increasingly difficult to find good examples, with most of those now in museums.

Having gradually tailored the business more to my own areas of expertise, I specialize in 18th (& some 19th) century French faience, porcelain and silver. I have studied porcelain for over twenty years, first German then French, with the rare treat of being privately tutored by one of France's leading experts in French ceramics who has catalogued many of the French museums' ceramics collections. My interests grew to include early French silver after a chance encounter with an exhibit at MFA in Boston. I guess you could say that I specialize in the French "arts de la table." But, you will also find here some of the finest German porcelain and the occasional antique French glass & crystal (including opaline and scent bottles), fine European antique boxes and "objets de virtue," plus a bit of gilded bronze and original 18th - 19th century French drawings, paintings and miniature portraits… and, yes, even some Japanese and Chinese ceramics and antiques, now and then.

In contrast to large dealers who sell a huge variety of antiques and have no time for much research, mine is a more studied approach, emphasizing depth in the fields that I know best. "Ever the academic..." I really enjoy doing research for each of our items. I have also enjoyed teaching new collectors who have asked me to expand their knowledge about their treasures. That said, I enjoy learning something new, everyday, myself: so, stay tuned for my future leanings!

A word about authenticity: recognizing that the world experts themselves are often in disagreement regarding the origin of many antiques (particularly early ceramics!), mine is no simple task, and some things simply cannot be identified with complete certainty. I try my best to pin down what I can and to point out what I cannot identify. But, if you think me mistaken about something, please contact me before purchase, so we don't run into a conflict later!

I can't go without mentioning my indebtedness to my wonderful husband, who shares my passions for world travel and art and antiques. Among the latter, painting and sculpture are his first loves, followed by early porcelain. Over the years, he has adopted many of my interests as his own. (Actually, I think he married me to have a live-in tour guide!) He enjoys and gives me full support for this business as the vital head of our technology and shipping "departments." Our customers tell us that he does a wonderful job of packing! We have become very experienced with international shipping and always offer a hearty welcome to our international buyers.

We welcome International customers!

Ich spreche, lese und schreibe deutsch.

Je lis et écris le français.

If language difficulties arise, please try the internet translators, such as Yahoo/Babelfish or FreeTranslation, for translations of our item descriptions, e-mail communications and any other texts on this site.

Travel and languages are in my blood; so, I especially enjoy my contacts with collectors and dealers on other parts of the globe. I absolutely loved living in Europe and in Asia and traveling widely on both continents. My friends of numerous nationalities are scattered all around the globe and we still return to those regions at every opportunity. Our most recent travels included our first trip to Istanbul, via Paris. Another first this year was a trip to Taiwan and Hong Kong. That trip and a month in China a couple years ago, followed by a short stay in Japan and a separate trip to Hawaii finally returned me to an Asian island-culture in the Pacific, like one I once lived in, after more years than I am willing to admit! (Suffice it to say, I was in 9th grade!). I could not have enjoyed anything more, anywhere else on the planet, than FINALLY being back in Asia! It was like going home again! But then, so was a trip a few years before that, when we were in France, Germany and Austria with family and old friends, which included a French couple who sell faience near Lyon. What a lucky gal I have been of late!

Part of the fun of my international business is the opportunity to practice my languages. I’ve used five languages in my lifetime, but have forgotten nearly as much! The last one I studied stuck the best, so, my best language is German: I speak, read and write German. I also read and write French; but, despite college courses long ago, I can’t make heads or tails out of all those silent letters, to understand much of the spoken French or to speak much of it myself! (As my very southern mother once said about her French major in college, “I can’t even pronounce my r’s - much less roll them!”) I am hoping to soon be refreshing my Español with an eye to seeing some of South America during future travels with my husband. (The lucky man was on business in Argentina, Venezuela and Peru, in just this past year! He will absolutely not be allowed to go without me the next time!) Given their similarities to my other languages, I can often understand a bit of Nederlandse and Italiana. Sad to say, my Japanese is now extremely limited: I have not had much chance to use it since my early teens; and my Chinese is purely touristic. But, I always consider as very special our customers from the Asian countries! They were my first introduction to the world beyond, and I still cherish every minute of those years and my exposure to their ancient cultures.

AUCTIONS

We send some of our items to auction on eBay, under our eBay user name, Mezzetin. We have been an eBay Power Seller with excellent feedback since 2003. Our greatest number of items, however, are HERE, in our Ruby Lane shop. So, please bookmark this page and keep checking back here for our newest offerings! And remember that you can also save a search within my shop to your Ruby Lane Wish List too, to receive an automatic e-mail anytime something new arrives that matches your key words. Just do the search within Mezzetin Antiques and click on the Add to Wish List link at the bottom of your search results.

"Collectors are not born... they are taken hostage!"

Welcome to my world! I hope you will enjoy the thrill of the hunt with Mezzetin!