Hidden Treasures

BY RAEANNE MARSH

PHOTOGRAPHY BY SCOTT SANDLER

>>> FeriArte, Scottsdale, Arizona

Decorative iron and furnishings at the Scottsdale showroom.

Recognizing that a lot of designers from Arizona were coming to their Santa Fe, New Mexico store, FeriArte owners Ric Hajovsky and Marie-France Lemire, partners in life as well as business for 24 years, decided, "Let's move closer to them." Luck was with them in finding a good location—not only near the new Waterfront development in downtown Scottsdale, but with the high ceilings they need to display their offerings of antique hand-forged iron.

Focusing on items of interest to the American market, Hajovsky and Lemire concentrate on items from the 1400s through the 1800s, though some items date to the 1200s or are as recent as the 1930s, if they are eye-catching.

Indeed, the walls are covered floor to ceiling with iron accessories demonstrating craftsmanship and design that elevate them from strictly functional to works of art. Among them are kitchen utensils, window protectors, crosses, fat lamps (whose cups can hold a votive candle to burn instead of the fat or oil they once held), lamp hooks and firebacks (whose purpose was to radiate heat from the back of the fireplace out into the room, but which are popular now for decorative use behind a stove).

Mixed with the iron works throughout the open space may be a vestment chest from a sacristy in Portugal, an Opus Dei flail and cilice, or plates from Valencia circa 1800s, with carefully made repairs that show the value their early owners placed on them. Repairs, observes Hajovsky, let you see the history in a piece. "I really like the idea of a piece absorbing the events around it," he says.

Style, not date, determines whether the piece will go to FeriArte's Santa Fe store or the one they opened in Scottsdale a little more than a year ago. "At the Scottsdale store, we focus more for the style and size [that fit homes] here," Hajovsky notes. Santa Fe's adobe style of architecture often calls for smaller-scale items, while Scottsdale's prevalent larger, European style calls for pieces "we weren't able to carry much of in Santa Fe." Most pieces come from Spain, with some from France and Portugal.

Colorful rajoles di arte i oficis (tiles of the arts and crafts) displayed on one wall are among the few items of modern manufacture; they reflect the couple's understanding of how differently an item may be valued from one culture to another. The tiles depict artisans at work in their craft, and are copied from originals that date from the mid-1600s to the mid-1800s and sell for $750 to $2,000 each. Feeling such a price would be unreasonable here, where the tiles would be appreciated strictly as decoration, they contracted with a tile shop that does restoration work for the Spanish government, which agreed to produce them in limited quantities.

Earlier in their career, Hajovsky and Lemire specialized in the crafts and furnishings of riverine cultures of Central and South America, which took them to countrysides occupied by Colombian guerillas and similar groups, "always carrying large amounts of cash," Hajovsky adds. Seven years ago, it was time to "dial it back," says Lemire, "and we decided on Spain." They dealt in furniture, at first, but then they became smitten with the ironwork.

And, with a laugh, Lemire admits to the double entendre within the name she created for their business, which appropriately puts "art/arte" in play with both iron ("fer" for "ferrous," the Latin word for iron, plus the Spanish "i" for "and") and fair ("feria" in Spanish).

Spending winters in Scottsdale and summers in Santa Fe, Hajovsky and Lemire fill their springs and falls with buying trips. "Every piece we buy, we buy ourselves one at a time," says Lemire, "but we're buying with an American eye, so it doesn't work to use an agent there." They visit small communities and engage the local villagers in conversation. "Pretty soon, word gets around that there are two crazy Americans buying antiques," Hajovsky relates, "and we let it build its own momentum."

Swords that date from around the time of Cortez (1500s–1600s) are among the one-of-a-kind finds, but "none of what we're buying is available in quantity," says Hajovsky. If a designer has a specific request for an item, the couple will keep that in mind on their buying trip but explain it is hard to work that way—although, they point out, there are certain items they will probably find again on a trip.

Serving the design community as well as the general public, Hajovsky and Lemire offer a courtesy-to-the-trade discount and after-hours appointments. "We know designers often have special considerations when working with clients," Hajovsky says. "We do our best to make it easy."

FeriArte, 7101 E. Stetson Drive, Scottsdale, AZ, (602) 309-0558; 418 Cerrillos Road, Santa Fe, NM, (505) 699-4506; www.feriarte.biz.

Marie-France Lemire and Ric Hajovsky, owners of FeriArte.