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| Folk Art Drum Skin From A Small Town in Ontario Circa 1890; Stage Area At Andrew Currie's Music |
BUY WHAT YOU LIKE - WHAT YOU CAN LIVE WITH - JUST IN CASE YOU GET STUCK WITH IT - THE FIRST RULE OF ANTIQUE AND COLLECTABLE BUYING
FOLK ART IS WHAT I LIKE - BUT IT'S NOT EVERYONE'S FAVORITE COLLECTABLE
One of the most influential books, on collecting, I've kept in my reference collection for the past twenty years, was written by former provincial coroner, and well known collector, Morton Shulman. A colorful guy, who I believe was the inspiration for the Canadian television drama, "Wojeck," played by John Vernon (also principal in the movie "Animal House"), wrote a no-frills book about making money buying and selling art and antiques. I think the book was well received. I do remember that another of his books, on investment, stirred up some debate, but this one, on art collecting, was a rudimentary study of the ways to mitigate a loss of investment....and enjoy, at the same time, the adventures of buying and selling rare antiques and fine art. The premise was a simple one. Buy what you would like to own. Acquire antiques and art because the pieces appeal to you, but always hinged on quality of workmanship. Even if it's a piece that is a little left of centre, or a tad on the outlandish side, was it created to the highest possible standard of craftsmanship? And of course, is it what you could live with, if you found, in several years, no one was interested in buying it from you? Does it make you feel good, when you see it imbedded amongst your other investment pieces? While it is always necessary, in investment terms, to make re-sale potential a major consideration, we in the trade of buying and selling antiques every day, know that we have to be able to profit from our purchases......or close our shops. So while I love folk art for about a hundred different reasons, it is much harder to sell as an investment, when you decided to put it on the market. So if we have some mad money, and we just want something that adds a dimension of magic to our shop, or at home, we will certainly invest in folk art, whether it is Canadian or American. This is usually our limit, and what we know most about.
I did step out of my comfort zone, about ten years ago, and it nearly cost me a lot of money. As soon as I spotted it, in a small dealer booth, in a regional antique mall, I knew it was coming home to Gravenhurst. Suzanne knew, by the glint in my eye, that I was either getting romantic, or ready to make a purchase. I suppose she was disappointed at being bypassed yet again, in favor of my mistress....the antique profession. It was an unusual, ceremonial, three-panel, carved wooden surround...with an insert carved in, for a large spoon-like device, which created a centre pod for what appeared to us, a slight hollow in which to burn incense. It was primitive in every aspect of its construction, and you could clearly see the hand carving of the panels and bowl where it appeared there was residue of inscence. To me, a nut for Canadiana, it could have, on first glance, been a relic from Ste. Marie Amongst the Hurons, in Midland; something the Jesuit Fathers might have taken with them to outpost missions, such as Ste. Elizabeth, which is supposed to have been in the vicinity of present Washago. We ran it by the National Museum, and the Royal Ontario Museum, and various other experts, in the field of primitive religious artifacts, and there wasn't even one defining overview offered. Not one. So what this could mean, is that it was a localized handmade piece, to suit a purpose (of which there are no known duplicates), potentially from Africa or South America, and made in a primitive style, while still being contemporary of age. It would have required extensive dating tests, which would have tripled, in the end run, what we initially paid. It was one of the neatest pieces I've ever owned, and to me, it seemed about three hundred years of age. Inconclusive! Antique dealers who have made these kind of highly speculative purchases, do not want to hear or read the word "inconclusive," in regards to the subject piece that is being investigated. I was able to get our investment out of the piece, after months of failing efforts, and it was acquired by a collector we had dealt with many times before, who enjoyed weird and wonderful art and religious pieces. So for him it was perfect.
It worked out okay for me, but it wasn't a profitable purchase. I did enjoy the folkart piece for the period I owned it, but because it was never clearly identified, I found it frustrating to be its steward. Suzanne kept reminding me that it could be some fertility raising artifact, from a primitive culture, so that I should never light it up, just in case. We've done the family rearing thing.
The best advice is to research as much as you can, about present trends in antiques, art and collectables. I know far too many dealers who make the mistake, like mine, of buying on appearance only. Now here's how things are changing for the better, thanks to technology. If I had taken a photograph of what we believed was a primitive burner, used to hold incense for ceremonies, I would have been able to determine in short order, that it would be a huge expense of time, and money, to chase down the provenance needed, to resell the item for a profit. Today, we could take a photo on one of our many phones, and within ten or twenty minutes, have a pretty good idea, what the investment value would be, over and above the asking price. This happens all the time in our Gravenhurst shop, especially with our vintage instruments, and to a lesser degree, our original art work. Research is being conducted while the folks are still shopping. I've been in the presence of these well armed customers, when they send images to friends and colleagues, who may have a stake in the subject pieces, that have caught their attention. This is the model of efficiency. I've also looked over the shoulders of these patrons, and noticed they were comparing our prices, with parallel collectables on auction sites, like "ebay." Why not? It has sharpened-up a lot of contemporary dealers, who now have to adjust to this ever-widening and lengthening communication highway.....at the tips of our little pink fingers. So if you're being a goof with pricing, expect to be called-on-it, by a customer who enjoys the full benefits of being connected....and knows the investment advantages of networking amongst the experts.
In the olden days, we used to drive around with an assortment of antique guide books, and the last time I looked, we still had a dog-earred copy of the guitar price directory, we bought for Andrew, one Christmas about a decade ago. Today, the book is not only out-dated because of when it was published, but as a result of what both our sons can access now in only seconds, of a huge array of online sources, to research instruments they're presently standing in front of.....and boy oh boy, has that saved us a lot of time and money. What it is also doing, (though I expect some of the old guard to resist it, for a while yet), is creating an outstanding platform, from which to study comparable pieces in shops, with a sampling of valuations from shops and sites around the world. So it will, over time, smarten up a lot of status quo dealers, who simply refuse to connect with the modern age, which I think would even astonish Marshall McLuhan, who coined that famous statement, "The medium is the message." The information highway is antiquating even the antique profession....for those who opt to remain trapped in the traditions of which they have, for long and long, been so comfortable and compliant. Well, by golly, they are being shaken off their perches, by technology-savvy customers, who aren't shy at all, about challenging complacency, especially when it involves out-of-proportion pricing, which honestly, has been a customer complaint heard most often, over the past thirty years, of almost ridiculous and unjustifiable price escalations. Now they're being held to account like never before.....and methinks they aren't enjoying the experience. I've said and written this many times in the past, that dealers must be able to defend their pricing, just as a grocery store has to justify and explain their regular and sale prices. Now think about it! Why shouldn't antique and collectable dealers have to justify their pricing the same way. You can only get along with statements like "Because I can," for so long, before business just evaporates. There are dealers connected with malls where it is clear this attitude prevails, and glaringly so. "It's mine, I found it, and I'll sell it for the price I want!" Well, these are the dealers I avoid, like the plague. I belong to a group of poor-ass dealers, who need to sell their finds to keep the shop doors open. They belong to the ilk of "financially secure" dealers, who really don't care about price equality, because they don't need the money immediately, to pay the rent on their booths. They don't worry about falling short on rent, as a difference between what they've earned in sales. They're prepared to take the loss, and it won't put them out of business. I've never been of that mind, and I will quit the profession, if ever once, the fire to perform goes out below my arse. But they are being quickly out-played by those vendors who know the power of comparison shopping, and unless they deal with the highly unusual, chances are, savvy shoppers are just avoiding their booths entirely. This is called, plain and simply, "just dessert."
Then consider the role of the "twitter-verse," and how, within seconds, your antique shop is getting exposure globally. For good or bad we have tweets coming from here all the time....from customers we've never even been introduced. We look it up daily, and read all about ourselves, from what reviews these customers, and some friends, have sent out to a fairly enormous audience. If they're not happy with us, or what we sell, who knows how it will read as tweets or instagrams. Maybe some disgruntled customers wish to cast doubt on our honesty or our ultra-high pricing, or low quality of inventory....which may be picked up by many of our present and potential customers. The message being, "don't shop there." The closest thing to this, from the dark ages of media, would have been a letter from an unhappy customer, being submitted as a letter to the editor, to the local weekly....or a note sent to the chamber of commerce, which could prove mildly embarrassing. Today we have to be aware how much more precariously perched we are, and how closely we are being monitored by our customer base. Those who wish to get even, for alleged poor service, can trash a business within seconds, and pretty much get away with it. So whether dealers, old and new, give a hoot about the information highway, it's out of their hands if they choose to remain disconnected. It shocks me when I find out how many have opted to remove themselves from technological opportunities, out of the mistaken belief they are too old and set in their ways, to try new things. Even the antique business, is being heavily impacted by resource availability. Remaining loyal to the old ways, will be the death knell for some, and in many ways, as a traditionalist myself, I do, at times, feel a little uneasy.
But when you see information-networking perform, it's absolutely amazing. Our business today, could not survive without our cyberspace relationship, which could represent a majority of our business within the next two years. It's a little bit like being flung into outer space, and feeling the need to anchor onto something firm. Yet eventually, and after some experimentation, you realize the true art of this experience, is to trust the technology that got you there in the first place. So we just roll and tumble our way through cyberspace, having more fun now, than burdening sense of fear and loathing. Our customers are never really far away from us....using the technology available, and that means twenty four hour business days; and not relying on the home town audience, the way tradition has always served it up. It is especially important, living and working in an area, known for its feast and famine; the trappings of a seasonal economy. It's certainly less of a concern than it was even ten years ago, when the boys first opened their one room guitar shop, in the upstairs of this same retired movie theatre.
The point is, the information highway, is something Morton Shulman most certainly would have benefitted from, when composing a similar book about antique and art investments. But what wasn't available to him, before his death, is here for us today. And it is helping to eliminate a lot of buying uncertainty, dealers have had for centuries. It has most definitely been much more convenient for all antique and collectable buyers....and home decorators, who can speedily sample the available parallel pieces they're looking for; and be able to show dealers, how much they could save, just by driving ten miles north, for example, to purchase the same article for twenty-five per cent less. Most dealers will concede, that they've been out-mustered, and see the benefit of working more online themselves, to develop more consistent business plans.
Here's one small example, and it's personal. Son Robert, in the early years of this new century, convinced me to try ebay, as a means of running a more convenient in-house business. At the time, I was working as a freelance writer / historian, and had just put together three regional books and one biography, in a crazy twelve month writing jag. I was also public relations director for the (Roger) Crozier Foundation, and curator of the Bracebridge Sports Hall of Fame, on behalf of the same foundation. We had given up our formal shop in Bracebridge, so I could work with Roger....born in Bracebridge, who of course had been a National Hockey League allstar, with the Detroit Red Wings, the Buffalo Sabres and the Washington Capitals; before becoming an executive with the American bank, MBNA. Roger wanted me to run the hall of fame, and work on his behalf in Muskoka, to promote the fledgling foundation for youth, and I just couldn't fit it all together; especially with Suzanne teaching full time. After Roger died, there were more responsibilities added-on to my role, such as continuing with his biography. Suzanne and I opted to close-up Birch Hollow, and bring much of the inventory home. We only had a couple of months to do this, and we never had any kind of closing sale, to reduce the volume of material we had to store. So Robert decided to upgrade us, into computer savvy onliners, and for most of a decade, we did ninety percent of our selling through ebay. It was profitable and a little bit of fun, but most of all, it was enlightening us to the competition from sellers around the planet.
Before I would list an article for sale, Robert would do a preliminary search, of identical or similar pieces already listed, with or without bids. This was remarkable for an old geezer like me, because it set realistic margins. I lost my "pie in the sky," attitude, about the so-called rare pieces in my collection, and learned quickly that the future demanded cross referencing.....or I would lose a lot of money, investing in antiques and collectables. Checking out online rare and out of print booksellers, through sites like the Advance Book Exchange, brought me back to the earth's atmosphere, when I looked up books I believed were valuable.....only to find I had a common text, worth several bucks, not several hundred. I had my heart-broken many times, but it was a necessary re-education in a business I thought I knew well. So coming back into the shop format today, and doing much less online, has required us all to be in touch with the international "ying and yang" of the antique profession. The rules are changing like the weather did at Woodstock, and some are getting caught off-guard, by their stalwart belief they can exist profitably, without benefit of the latest technologies. I have learned how to make better investments, in antiques and collectables, entirely based on our ability....without consulting even one price guide, to comparison-price, and identify pieces in question; by using nothing more elaborate than a phone. What scared me at first, like the bastard dog "Doolie" that used to chase me before and after school, in our Burlington neighborhood, actually became quite compatible after a little adjustment. Robert helped me deal with new realities of technology on an old business; and my hand, snapping Doolie on the beak, gave him a new perspective of the animal / human relationship....and I dare say, we almost became friends; although from that point, he kept his distance from the backs of my legs, which he once liked to nibble, much to my chagrin.
Photographed above today, is a late 1800's bass drum, that has a folk art scene painted on the skin....from a small village in Ontario. It is surrounded by some of Andrew and Robert's vintage musical instruments, hung off the wall, behind our small back room stage....used for musical sessions featuring some special guests. The bass drum's folk art, is really neat, but a hard sell. There aren't a lot of folk art drum collectors out there, so it's the kind of investment you make, when your own passion trumps profit margin.
Thanks for joining with me today, for this little inside exploration, into the modernization of one of the oldest professions.
Please join me again, for a wee peak under the kilt of the antique trade. It's kind of surprising what you find under there!
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