From Lisbon’s facades to Gwyneth Paltrow’s suggestions. 65 years of tiles with Solar Antiguidades – Observer
When it arrived as the reins of the business, the unavoidable entry into digital took place. “We had nothing, not even a website. We now have a website and networks and are very active in communicating with customers. As a rule we have 30 thousand visits per month online. I can’t complain. There are many more email requests.”
Recent is also a conversion of one of the three available warehouses into the workshop. It was designed, in the middle of the two, from scratch to accommodate in 300 square meters the entire assembly, restoration, and packaging part of Solar Antiques, there is like a pandemic the nerve center of everything that needs to be bought, and where a pandemic equips itself accounts for the volume of work that requires permanent involvement. “We are always looking at stock and needs, we are never idle. For more specific things, like faience, we handle externally.”
In an era guided by environmental protection, as a package was not bought for deserving evolution, still inventing a paper bag that can withstand the weight of safety. “We are more eco friendly. I would love not to have to wrap it with plastic but without that resistance I wouldn’t think about making a transition. We use biodegradable popcorn, it dissolves in water, plastic is recyclable. I try to have the least environmental impact on everything. That was also an adaptation of the times.”
In addition to the natural changes in routine, certain ones remain unchanged, like the assortment of customers from other stops. “We know that my grandfather already had international clients. Just the other day we found the carbon paper of a letter from an American customer and a son who already brought a reply saying he had a credit from his father’s time.”
It is easy to be mistaken, assuming that the story is told exclusively with the patterned people so ubiquitous so identifying the city of Lisbon, but the fact is that “it will not start with blue and as white as people think. Floor care as the origins of the tile”, explains Verónica, we have for the Hispano-Arab models that are hidden in the bottom. They also easily stumble into traps about origins, procedures and other realized ideas that leave us behind. “When we are told that we copied the Dutch… no, it’s about the same era with different styles. We All Went to China and We All Brought Balto, Starting From Strategies In Different Ways, Even In The Brush Application. There is room for everyone, as well as Persian and Turkish tiles. Everyone has their place in history.”
However, when shopping is the focus, it all depends on “the taste in the mouth” and on “word of mouth” among customers, which has been the best Antiques recipe, the result of a certain flexibility when it comes to granting a new to an old purchase. Tired of asking at home? Rest assured that all is not lost. “Thank God people come back. If you buy a panel and after a few years you no longer want it, you are confident that you can bring it back and exchange it for another part. It is not in our interest that they were destroyed or that they end up in an auction without proper appreciation. It has already happened that we go to auctions in France to get panels that were ours. There are things that are sold by mine that were sold to the house. It makes perfect sense to be careful.”
This is, moreover, practical in the company, the constant journey of auctioneers in pursuit of small national treasures, not only current tiles but also pieces by Bordalo, Manuel Mafra, or José A. Cunha, which are relevant and are not available in the catalogue, and who would not otherwise come to Portugal. According to Verónica, it often spreads through France, Germany, walking and the USA, from where it only compensates for the headaches brought by customs if it causes a “part and extraordinary” difficulty applied to the United Kingdom.