Locally Richmond: Guillermina Asian Art and Antiques

Locally Richmond is an occasional series of profiles that highlights the small businesses that contribute to making Richmond a unique community. 

Hidden among 18th century Japanese home ornaments, ancient wooden furniture and modern billboard wall decor, Guillermina Emy LaFever had a hard time choosing her favorite.

“Of course, everything I have here, I love,” LaFever said.

Originally from the Philippines, LaFever is the owner of Guillermina Asian Art and Antiques, an antique shop specializing in Japanese items, but with a growing collection of pieces from all over the world. She began the business in 1981, managing shops in Berkeley, San Francsisco and Oakland, before finding a home for the shop in Point Richmond 18 years ago.

It was a lonely scene back then.

“When we first came here, there was hardly any store or any people in Point Richmond,” LaFever remembered. “We hardly had anybody come in for a whole week.”

That has changed, she said. Point Richmond has become a much more lively retail center, and she now has plenty of company.

Her shop is the only one in Richmond that specializes in Asian antiques, but LaFever is one of dozens of dealers in the Bay Area, which has long been one of the most important centers of Asian fine arts and antiques in the United States. Public interest was bolstered further in 2003, when the Asian Art Museum opened in San Francisco.

Most of the furniture in Guillermina is Japanese. LaFever also offers decorative items from Thailand and Southeast Asia, ethnic jewelry with pieces made of jade and beads. More contemporary items include 1950s dishes and jewelry, as well as a part of a billboard sign from Iowa. Other items include tobacco pouches, wood block prints and even an old wooden Kalimantan paddle.

LaFever also carries jewelry by local Bay Area designer Pam Barry.

“I love her store and I think she’s just a great anchor of really interesting things in Point Richmond,” Barry said. “She’s done a lot for the community. And she’s a lovely person!”

LaFever travels the world to country auctions and flea markets, but pieces are also brought to her store from locals and some long-time customers.

“If I find it and I like it, then I buy it – and hope somebody else will like it,” she said.

Her collection, which has been growing for the last 35 years, is too big to fit in the store. More antiques are held in storage and in her own home. LaFever constantly interchanges the inventory so that her store always carries different pieces.

“Her knowledge and diversity is amazing,” Barry said. “We have the same kind of mix of interests that I think makes her collection more modern and kind of fit in with more homes and more people because it’s not just ethnic. I like her taste.”

LaFever loves history, sells history, lives in history and wears history – literally. As she spoke of her store, she dressed in a 1980s outfit by Japanese fashion designer Issey Miyake and one of Pam Berry’s necklaces.

Although LaFever does not speak all of the languages of the places she travels and buys antiques, she knows the term for each piece in her store. One of her favorite words is “mingei,” a Japanese word which, she said, encompasses the theme of most of the shop’s pieces.

“It means ‘country.’ It’s what people use and what people like,” LaFever said. “(The pieces are) made by people and used by people.”

LaFever uses no advertising other than her website, and relies on residents discovering her store walking by or hearing about it by word of mouth. The store is not open every day. LaFever posts her store hours for the month on the shop door.

“It’s like serving the community because a lot of people would just come and say, ‘I need a gift, can you open the store for a few minutes,’” LaFever said. “I like the community. A lot of houses around here have something from the store, because I’ve been here that long.”