Treasure hunting: Ross Urwin on a lifetime of collecting design icons
In the early noughties, he sold Hongkongers on the beauty of combining old and new, despite their resistance to second-hand goods
One dank, unlovely morning in January, Ross Urwin sloshed around a Brussels market looking for mid-20th century furniture. He was sourcing pieces for Lane Crawford, which was planning an in-store exhibition during this year’s Art Basel Hong Kong. Urwin, who is a consultant for the store, says, “It was so bloody cold, so depressing and rainy. But it’s what I do.”
From 2003 until 2007, he’d been buying director for Liberty of London, and would regularly find himself at dawn clutching a flashlight in some market in France or Italy or England, seeking vintage items. “Back in the day, there were a lot of small, independent designers that were not famous but their products were incredible and had so much integrity,” he says. These professional missions are also personal: he’s buying for those who share his desire. “I’m looking for a product that I love – because it’s talking to me.”
“In the house here, I have probably four or five favourite pieces and you connect to them,” says Urwin. “If someone comes in and puts a glass down on the Willy Rizzo table without a coaster, I’m kind of like … how dare you? You’re hurting it and it’s a precious piece! It’s lasted so many years and if it was a person, you wouldn’t be putting a glass on it!”
He’s waving his hands in mild anguish. The Willy Rizzo black-lacquer table was made in the 1970s and has a chrome box set in its middle for ice and champagne, so it’s probably survived a wild party or two, but his instinct is to preserve, and protect, it. As it happens, this interview had to be postponed when Tropical Cyclone Alfred came hurtling towards the New South Wales coast in early March and Urwin and Best evacuated to a friend’s house. A few years ago, the house was flooded, an event about which Urwin still can’t talk (“Traumatic, horrible”), but it survived the storm. The day before Alfred’s arrival, Urwin had considered putting the Willy Rizzo table in the car but it was too heavy; instead, he grabbed photos and paintings, smaller loved items. “Anything I’ve bought from when I was about 14 and going to the markets – whether it’s furniture, art, ceramics – is like part of the family,” he says.