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| A neat find, a hotel sugar bowl with the crest of Canadian Pacific's Royal York Hotel in Toronto. This is it's pre polished look. The logo is a crossed R and Y. |
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| Book on the left is a near mint copy of a Racing Book put out by Amway International in 1972 with insert poster, decals and 45 rpm record of race action The second book on portages along the Minnesota, Canada border was owned and signed by well known Canadian photographer Bruce Litteljohn as noted by the BHl on the dust jacket. Bruce partnered with author Wayland Drew on several books, the most memorable for me, "Superior The Haunted Shore". |
BACK TO THE WAY IT WAS - WELL SORT OF - BUT WE CAME WITHIN THE HUNDRED MILE ANTIQUE HUNT
WERE WE ABLE TO FIND GOOD VINTAGE INVENTORY OUT THERE, IN SUCH A SMALL AREA?
Suzanne and I call this kind of thing our "old-school," way of doing things. No, not that! I mean antique hunting! We used to make our antique adventures a real family event. An on-the-road social occasion. We had more fun than we ever made as net profit, but we were "living the life you might say!" It's what I had always adored about the antique profession. Getting outdoors and travelling about the towns and villages of our province. Truthfully, we always stayed within the hundred mile limit, we felt comfortable with, and admittedly, at the time, it had nothing to do with environmental concerns. It was what our jalopy could handle. And seeing as we have always had pets, and had to leave the cats at home, we always kept our trips of sensible proportion, such that we could get back to handle homestead chores, and they wouldn't feel abandoned. We take our newest family member, Muffin the dog, with us on our outings, and it's surprising how many shops allow pets to accompany owners; as long as they are controlled of course. And no, we will never leave her in a car in the heat of day.
From Friday morning, until Sunday evening, we did things the old fashioned way, that honestly, we'd pretty much given up on as a shopping option. Getting three days in a row these days, without shop responsibilities is particularly rare. First of all, we set out on Friday morning with the desire to re-discover some of our former values, in the antique profession, that we had without appreciating it, neglected for the past three years of shop operation. We forgot how important it was to hit the open road with a positive, appreciative attitude, for having a day off, and a beautiful snow-laden countryside sprawling out in front of us. A tank full of fuel, some spending money in pocket, and no formal game plan for where we would go, or places to visit. It was all going to be dependent on our general mood, at the time we arrived in places like Huntsville, Baysville, Bracebridge, Orillia and Barrie. It would also very much depend on if the shops we wanted to see, were going to be open on the hour of day we visited. We know where there will likely be items for us to purchase, and just how much exertion we'll have to provide, hunting for "sleeper" collectables, that the vendors may not have valued properly. Every picker does this, and it happens in our own shop. Antique hunters use their specialities and specific knowledge of certain areas of collecting, to their advantage; which works for all of us. We notch the sale, which makes the bookkeeper happy, and the dealer or collectors gets a deal on their purchase. Win, win, as far as we're concerned.
We don't enter these second hand shops, flea markets or thrift stores, expecting to find a Group of Seven painting, or one of King Tut's relics stolen from his Egyptian tomb. Our expectations are moderate, but we do know how to identify antiquities if they happen to show up by some strange act of fate. Funnier things have happened. What we do open our minds to, whenever we enter one of these collectable havens, is the very real possibility, there will be the potential of numerous old and out-out-print books, undetected panels of original, signed art, whether etching, engraving, historic lithograph, abstract, oil, or watercolor. There is very little chance these days of finding antique china, such as flow blue, because a lot of the charity shops insist on silent auctions on a monthly basis, and thus, have siphoned-off the best pieces that we might buy otherwise, and put them in the showcases for auction bidding. The same can be said of a great many other exceptional pieces, that once used to make it onto the floor of these shops as general inventory. It's not the case they make huge amounts of money off them, even in the auctions, but I don't consider auction bidding, part of our hunt and gather adventures. It just means that a lot of possibilities have been removed from the store shelves, that we used to find quite regularly, and potentially purchase, if we came upon it before our competitors. Today we are forced to line up to bid, and then wait a month for a phone call, to tell us we won the items. I hate the whole process of silent auctions, and would prefer, as many of these shops have now opted, to deal with a somewhat inflated asking price from the get-go, to have the items plopped down on a shelf, on the (shop) floor, for the proverbial early birds to wrestle over. It doesn't mean you can't occasionally get a decent price for an auction item, but the inconvenience is having to wait until the end of the bidding, which could be as long as thirty days, if you register an amount early in the bidding.
On the first day, we hit four second hand shops, from Bracebridge to Huntsville. For me, the bounty was in vintage and out-of-print books, that were priced incredibly low. Great for me, because we can then price them moderately for our shop. Several of these are illustrated above today's blog. The artwork was pretty picked over, and all the "sleepers", if there had been any at all, were gone by time we arrived in these shops, north of Gravenhurst. Suzanne found a goodly collection of sewing-related items, fabric remnants for some of her own in-store sewing projects, and a lot of bric-a-brac that no decent antique shop could operate without. Some Corning-ware, Pyrex bowls, vintage glass bowls, and a few dandy cookbooks she didn't have previously. She had one of the best outings in months, when it came to buying small collections of buttons, on sale at four of the dozen second hand shops we visited. We didn't come back with Windsor chairs, pine jam cupboards, harvest tables, a random "cutter" (sleigh,) or a vintage Combine Harvester. We did however, come back with several vintage musical instruments, vintage vinyl for son Robert's collection, forty or so significant texts, for my book room, here in our Gravenhurst shop; a couple of nostalgic afghans from the 1970's, for Suzanne, and some vintage cookware, that we have been selling quite regularly, even including this morning. We love vintage and antique glass, so we picked up a few nice pieces for reasonable prices. Antique and vintage glass is typically under-priced, because second hand shop vendors don't know how to tell the difference between originals and reproductions. I've been collecting old glass since the mid 1970's, and Suzanne wasn't far behind me, having taken an early interest in Fenton glass, made at their Ohio factory. She had family friends who lived near the Fenton plant, and she actually visited the operation once, when down for a visit. So it's true, we always look for "sleepers," in the many shelves of re-sale glass wares. We stay away from Depression and Carnival style glass because there are so many frauds, they fool us. We know what can't be replicated easy with vintage glass, especially the flaws. You just have to be patient enough to study the glass closely, and fall back on both years of experience, and what you have picked up from books dealing with identification of antique glass, its textures, weight, appearance, tell-tale signs of manufacture, and coloration. It doesn't mean we can't be fooled by reproduction glass, but at least we mitigate the possibility as much as possible. There are great vintage glass finds that can be made out there, but it can triple the time you spend hunting for, and identifying it; we leave a lot of marginal pieces behind, and concentrate on the oldest, and most of all, what we think our customers will desire.
Amongst the books, I was able to pick up another four autographed first editions, of non-fiction titles, and some other hard-to-find books I was very surprised to located all in one second hand shop, for an exceptionally low price. Nice relics of Canadiana, which we, of course, choose to specialize. Suzanne picked up several pieces of vintage clothing, and a bag of fabric remnants, that she plans to use for some of her sewing projects, making aprons and small decorative pillows, that she fusses around with here in the shop. She also found a significant number of what we refer to as "smalls," which can include vintage kitchen utensils, cookie cutters, silverware, and other useful and decorative articles, our customers frequently ask for, and are regardless, sensible to stock in a generalist collectable shop like ours. As I noted previously, we didn't come off our three days of hunting and gathering, with pine cupboards strapped to the top of the van, or a vintage juke box, mounted moose head, or shotgun lamp, but we satisfied ourselves, that we had re-engaged with an antique collecting protocol that had always worked for us, and of course, our family; as Andrew and Robert began their vintage music enterprise, working alongside us for all those travelled miles, but instead of buying antiques, they were buying old records, phonographs, radios, guitars, banjos, mandolins, drums and pretty much anything else to do with music. We had a lot of fun in our early days in this industry, and when we got home from trips, it was a real story-book ending, with the crazy mixture of pieces stuffed into, and strapped to the roof racks, garnered from our 100 mile regional hunts.
If there was one thing in particular, with our countryside dawdling, over this past weekend, that was a little bit contrary to our mission of relaxation, and engaging therapeutic enterprise, for folks always with high-high hopes, but a limited budget for acquisition, it was dropping into several very large antique collectives, that in one way or another, tend to overwhelm us after the first hour of exploration. Me specifically. These are the places that continually remind me, on one hand, about the popularity of antiques, (where seemingly there are a hundred times more dealers than when I got started in the trade), yet also of the excesses possible in our industry; and unfortunately, in minor cases, the way in which some dealers can justify their inventory pricing, based only on "it's mine, I found it, and I don't need the money anyway, so I don't care if it sells," strategy, which is bloody ridiculous, and doesn't do our profession a bit of good in the minds of consumers.
You have to be able to justify the price you put on antique and collectable pieces. For gosh sakes, many vendors won't do even the basic due diligence of research, which is afterall expected of us, let alone dig deep for a snipit of provenance, even in a small way, to justify what I know is a huge, huge mark-up, that in many ways, is simply unjustified and unwarranted. Walk a few booths and you'll be able to see similar, if not identical pieces, priced differently, and this isn't in the best interests of patrons of the collective itself. Isn't that the real objective here; to make customers so darn happy with their purchases, and the good value they got, that they'll keep coming back to your venue the next time they're in the market for antiques. What made me mad, was how some of the articles we were interested in, weren't even properly cleaned-up, and were obviously missing pieces and otherwise damaged, and not clearly identified on the sale tag.
Sewing machines interest Suzanne, and we know the averages of pricing, online and in shops, for clean, well maintained and serviced vintage machines. We weren't impressed by much of what we saw, let's just say that; and as we might have come home with several fixer-uppers, if they had been priced appropriately, as it was, we simply couldn't buy any of them. We buy sewing machines based on quality of condition, and we wouldn't have paid the asking prices, even if they had been mint. If we go back in a year's time, I'm pretty sure they'll still be in almost the exact same position we saw them. There sure seems to be an enthusiasm shortfall, with some vendors, and to me, a long time student of antiques, with experience in setting out museum displays, it is pretty obvious when a vendor has just decided to let it all ride, and not fret about how their booth looks, to the parade of customers; which surprisingly seems steady regardless.
This time, I confess, I just didn't enjoy the experience. I did enjoy the indoor walk because it was very cold outside. I also enjoyed the opportunity to see some unusual and unique antiques, and a majority of vendors did put out good displays, in neat and well decorated booths; but at the same time, I always feel so distressed, at the continuing escalation of antique prices, much of it without solid justification. The demand is not that great. The demand for sensibly priced pieces however, is pretty strong, and dealers who are prepared to play the normal game of marketplace, and traditional retail, will always benefit eventually; and me thinks, earn the kind of reputation for the seller, that is beneficial in the long term, as being the kind of vendor who knows what's going on out there, and understands the economics we all have to play by, in order to make a buck. The problem is, without question, there seem to be, at least in my opinion, and discussion with other dealers, too many financially well-off antique vendors, largely based on the successes of their previous professions; and the retirement mantra of these later-in-life additions to the profession, is commonly, less about turn-over, and more the case of "show and tell." I don't know how many times, I've heard these folks claim, "I don't care if it sells or not; it's mine, and I'm happy to keep it." It's exactly what hurts the profession, because it means the asking price was not realistic to start with, and it was sheer speculation for speculation's sake. Why not open a private museum then, to show all the treasures in one really neat collection. I think it's what some vendors want anyway; bragging rights, to having the nicest booths of antiques that won't sell because the prices are too high. What's the point of having a booth in this regard? If you measure attendance at a particular collective of dealers, and your booth is doing less than all the others, but looking really swanky, then three things are not happening. Traffic is up, sales are low. You have collected, and then offered for sale, items no one else wants (or at least, in the region you are located). Or, the prices you are asking are plain and simply too high for the customers to bite. They tend to blame the collective, or the customers for not shelling out their hard earned money for their wares, without assessing that, possibly, their prices are simply not reflective of the market-place demand for those same items.
In the real world, of day to day retail, in order to survive, this has to be addressed, or otherwise bankruptcy occurs. A store that prices its bread products twenty-five percent higher than a neighbor shop, is going to have a lot of stale product leftover. Why is the antique professions so much different than all other retail, especially on pieces that aren't particularly rare or one of a kind?
This is the real nuts and bolts of the issue afterall. There is no shortage of Corning-ware bowls and covered dishes, yet price variations are wild out there. Sometimes even within the same collective. I hate that, because dealers should be travelling around to make sure they aren't out of line with their prices, from the booth thirty feet away, which inevitably comes down to a disservice to customers.
Just so that you know, antique dealers frequently buy off each other, and are extended minor discounts as a sign of support within the industry. This isn't why we visit these shops and malls, and often times today, the discount isn't given as a general rule. We look for items that will suit our region and our customers. We always attend these places with shopping lists to fill, and it's to be expected, we're more likely to find what we're looking for, where there is a larger than usual inventory to choose from. We might find these pieces in second hand shops, but it's more likely we will find them quicker in collective operations. Today, well, the prices seem overall, too high to even consider making the purchase on speculation. We have to feel right ourselves, about the prices we are asking, and we work hard to compare our inventory with the same articles found elsewhere. We hate the idea that customers in our shop, will come back to us, and say they saw the same piece on sale, in another neighboring shop, for five or more dollars cheaper. It means we haven't done our due diligence, in developing a fair pricing strategy. We should all be doing this as a priority in our trade; or at least closing the gap.
Bottom line here, we had great food, from various bakeries and restaurants in the 100 mile zone, and even dined by the freight shed on the water, a stone's throw from uptown Baysville. There's still a lot of snow out there, so we didn't get into all the parketes we used to visit on these adventures; but we did the best we could to re-create the way it used to be, and of course, we had so much fun, and success doing it our way, that we have vowed to take more time off to repeat what has become a long serving family tradition in the antique profession. You see, there are some in our field, who only get excited when they sell something. I have always worked in the opposite fashion. Hunting for Suzanne and I, is much more fun. We like the shop, but it's not the end-all to the story.
If you are planning an antique hunt of your own, for gosh sakes, enjoy the outing. Celebrate the nature of this beautiful region and province, and make it a social / cultural "happening," whether you're on your own, or with friends and family. There's lots of opportunity out there, to meet folks just like yourselves, having fun playing around with the good graces of history.
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