FdV: I’ve wanted to do a book like Objects for a long time. It’s like looking into a window inside my world, as it shows my favorite pieces with descriptions and explanations as to what I think is interesting about them. I also have Jewelry, which illustrates imaginary still lifes that inhabit my mind. With these books, hopefully, readers can have a deeper understanding of the meaning behind what it is that I see and do.

FdV: There is not one particular thing that appeals to everyone. I’ve always believed that each one of these objects belongs to someone and I’m just the caretaker for that moment while they are still searching for each other.

FdV: Most of the objects in the shops are found objects and old, and the jewelry is mostly of my own design. A few artists/artisans are represented and I make sure that they are truly dedicated to their art and doing work that is purely individual. They must understand what context their work is going to be shown in, and, also, all of them are very nice people.

FdV: In this era of constant expansions and mergers, business becomes just about making money. Good taste has become diluted to appeal to mass markets. De Vera will always be seeking to be different, never following trends but always looking for new exciting work from true artists. I want to continue to search for those objects that have been overlooked, and put them together in a unique context.

FdV: I really don’t specialize in one particular field. I carefully study areas of decorative arts that are of interest to me. but, as seems to be the case, one study in a particular field leads to an interest in another one. Nevertheless, in the beginning, there wasn’t a real demand or general public interest in the areas that I specialized in, but I created interest through persistence. I have influenced my clients to see things from my point of view over the years.

FdV: A few years ago, I went back to the location of my first San Francisco store, which is now a used bookstore. On a shelf was a book entitled Aberration, which was filled with what I thought were beautiful landscape paintings, but were in fact slices of a type of natural rock called pietra paesina, or landscape stone. I bought the book and had it shipped home to New York. A few days later on a trip to Paris, while walking on Rue Jacob, I stumbled upon a window display with stones just like the ones in the book. I bought a few dozen pieces. Back at home in New York, I was pleasantly surprised to find they were the same stones as the ones in the book’s collection—of all the sources in the world, they had to come from the same person! It was meant to be.