So You Want To Be An Antique Dealer and Clarence Our Best Customer

ANTIQUE DEALERS WHO HAVE SAVE HISTORY FROM A TERRIBLE FATE

ACTING AS FRONT LINE HISTORIANS, WHETHER THEY KNOW IT OR NOT, DEALERS HAVE KEPT ANTIQUES OUT OF LANDFILL SITES AND IN CIRCULATION

     One of our customers, a senior citizen, who comes in every week, is spellbound by the paintings hung in the corridor of our antique shop. I know he's in the building, because his sighs are very audible, and he pauses to examine each painting close-up, and he makes comments about how interesting they are, and usually remarks on what they remind him of, from his home region. Suzanne welcomes him to the shop, and he smiles and thanks her for allowing him to visit. He is complimentary and always smiles as he walks through the shop, but always on his own. If you heard him, coming down the hall, you'd swear he had a companion, because of the way he explains the paintings, and what he likes about them on a painting by painting tour. It makes our day, frankly, and he relaxes us at the time in the day, when we expect to get busy. In a strange, passive way, he makes us happy to be antique dealers. He never buys a thing. And, we never see him leave. But we know he's too real to be ghost. While he won't do much to enhance our sales figures, he gives us something money can't buy; a gentle, inspirational way to start our day. He appreciates what we have done to showcase history and art, and never once haggles, argues, criticizes, or makes demands, but always passes-on a compliment. We also know he's in the building because he rings our sleigh bells hanging on the wall. He's earned the nickname "Clarence," the angel trying to get his wings, in the Frank Capra Christmas movie, "It's a Wonderful Life." Well, we sure like it when this kindly customer walks our hall.
     When someone casually asks me if I can advise them about opening an antique business, I ask them how many weeks they've got to consume the answer. Every time, I get "the look"! What they want from me, is the thumbnail version, and the "thumbs-up" signal from me, that it takes nothing more to become a full-regalia antique dealer. I've been trying to earn my stripes for a lot of years, and my peers would tell me, I've got a long way to go yet. I accept this! Why wouldn't I? It is a tough profession to master, and the precipice doesn't get any less dangerous, just because we gather more experience. It simply gives us the knowledge that any error in judgement when acquiring antique inventory, can send us hurtling down the cliffside in unceremonious fashion. So offering to explain all the reasons why one should be careful about entering the antique trade, on a budget of time to explain, is entirely absurd. What is needed, and it's hard to come by, these days, is an apprenticeship with a veteran dealer, or network of professionals willing to share experiences. Of course, this demands the want-to-be dealer, to willingly surrender the idea, you can become a qualified antique buyer and seller, with a pat on the back and a wink of the eye. You can lose big-time as a rookie, because there are those who prey on the "fresh fish" of the industry, to sell crap at a premium. Let's just say, that despite all the folks who gave me sound advice, I still managed to squander thousands of dollars, buying "dogs,' as they're known; being antique and collectable items, that despite looking good, are either frauds, reproductions, or simply undesirable due to market shifts. We get this foisted upon us every week, and we send the sellers packing. Eventually, through persistence, they will find a sucker out there, and it's likely, money will be lost, but not at the expense of the original seller. I will always offer to mentor aspiring dealers, but not in casual circumstance, such as while standing at our sales counter. The risks are too high to take anything about the antique business casually.  
     A customer asked us this morning, interrupting Suzanne tending other customers, where we kept the good antiques? He was a dealer! He's made a fool of himself previously, in our shop, so we've learned to turn the other cheek quickly. As he wasn't adverse to hurting our feelings, we didn't have any problem turning away from his enquiry, and tending the needs of customers at the counter, who as a first priority, seemed quite pleased with our inventory options. When someone makes a statement like this, dealer or not, it isn't really a question. It's a cheap shot, plain and simple. They're just trying to show the audience how important they are, and get the opportunity to slap us with a little more sarcasm, as an opportunity of grandstanding, before moving on to the next dealer he wishes to insult. We get a lot of this from associate dealers, full to overflowing with that hubris I wrote about yesterday, who don't worry too much about offending colleagues. Neither do I, but from a very different angle. We have another dealer who comes into our shop, bestowing the virtues of a competitor, for the benefit of our customers. I wanted to ask him, the last time he pulled the routine, why he just didn't wear one of those sandwich boards, to promote dealers he thought were better than us. It's not uncommon for dealer rivalry to go this route, and in my estimation, it's the result of intense competition between many more dealers, than I can remember, fishing-out the same depleted pond. When I overview the antique trade, and the fact it's growing too fast for its own good, it's not because I dislike competition because it hurts our bottom line. Rather, because it hurts all our bottom lines. And on top of this, some activities of new-age dealers, especially as regards unjustifiable price increases, based on current market demand, seems to some of us veterans, of the mom and pop era of antique shops, the proverbial two headed snake, devouring resources and good will from both ends to serve the middle. I am happy to be an antique dealer, but mostly for the reasons listed below.
     Before moving on to other story-lines, (for purposes of this re-booted blog), in the coming weeks and months, I wanted to mention for clarity's sake, that for all the negative attributes, afforded antique dealers and collectors, past and present, and the way they have been portrayed as rogues and tomb raiders, by writers over the centuries, the nitty gritty of the profession, is the glaring reality, historians should be particularly grateful for their existence. Especially for their longstanding tradition, of identifying relics and preserving them from being destroyed.
     I do have my doubts about the new generation of antique dealers, this is true, especially those who think that all you have to do to qualify, is knowing what is old, can be acquired cheaply, and sold for a nice profit. Being an antique dealer, to my way of thinking, has always been an honor. Being part of an historic profession, so rich in its own legacy and colorful mysteries, storied and character-filled, has been a privilege for all these years, that I have never once taken for granted. It's why on occasion, I rear-up against what I believe is a watering-down the unique heritage of our profession, by the recent proliferation of both new antique dealers and venues; and the subsequent reduced focus on the due diligence of responsibility, to represent what they sell, responsibly, and with the highest regard for those who may be purchasing what they offer for sale. It reflects badly on the industry when a dealer goofs up. It is a catastrophe in the making, when we have a lot of dealers doing the same thing, causing buyers to complain and judge us all with the same mistrust based on bad experiences.
     A majority of antique dealers in this country don't belong to industry associations, and at best, they are members of the local chambers of commerce. There needs to be more co-operation between dealers, and mentorship associations, in order to assist the new generation better adapt to some of the basic protocols of our profession. Pricing sensibility is job one. Escalating and unjustified valuations, for antiques that are common and abundant, are hurting the industry as a whole, and will eventually reduce the number of dealers, as customers wise-up to the percentage increases, which, if in a grocery store, would be challenged by angry customers, threatening to take their business elsewhere. Antique and collectable customers just leave the building, muttering all the way out, and may, to carry on with something they love, decide to become pickers themselves to save money. I wonder whether these offending dealers ever think about the fact, their over-pricing of inventory, has created this new "I can find the stuff myself," attitude amongst customers. If you tune in to the "picker" reality shows, on television, you'll appreciate that hunting and gathering isn't rocket science. It can, and is being copied, and in turn, our businesses are being threatened, with what can only be summed up as "Scrooge-like" greed. Greed has capsized a lot of businesses and our boat is getting overloaded.  
     To wrap-up this series of antique related columns, promised for the month of September, I want to set the record straight about dealers and collectors. I think criticism is tailored best, when it comes from the inside. Having a critic, who has never been an antique dealer or collector, but thinks they have the scoop on the inside workings of the profession, is woefully out of their league. It's not to say they couldn't research the industry over years, in an attempt to untangle the inner workings of a profession that has been mysterious for most of its own history. I can't parallel an antique dealer with the secretive professions of magicians and illusionists, escape artists or high wire walkers; but it does fall somewhere close behind, because of the intrigue that is the rich, cultured patina of an enterprise, that in one form or another, goes back centuries. A profession that has been portrayed by literary giants and revered poets, artists and philosophers, because of this mysterious side of what, on the surface, is just run of the mill commercial activity. Nothing special. Retail is retail, right? This is exactly what would throw a writer, unfamiliar with the intricacies of the business, for a proverbial "loop," because there is an inner working that, at first examination, appears Monty Python-esque in operation, more so than anything representing normal retail. All antique related enterprises, from the most elite of the bunch, on the cityscape, to the country dealer selling primitive pine from an old barn, are far more complicated that they look from the outside; just as dealers appear quite ordinary and unassuming. How they get their inventories, and the sources they employ to make finds, and act on them, is the result of vast amounts of experience in not only antiques, but in history itself. To be a truly successful antique dealer, one has to be intimate with history, and its chronicle up to the present, in order to fully appreciate how important relics relate to their time period, culture, economy, politics, geography and influences of war, calamities caused by epidemics, and human migration. How did a particular exotic antique, with considerable provenance and value, come to be found in the attic of a Victorian home, during the settling of an estate, here in the hinterland of Ontario? A trillion questions that need to be answered every week of business, by antique dealers all over the world. Proving an antique piece's provenance, which can represent a huge increase in valuation, demands the discipline of an historian, and the dogged determination of a research / archivist; yet most of the time, a dealer is considered nothing more than a clerk behind the counter, making big bucks off the sale of interesting old stuff.
     Consider the reality of the average country antique shop, and what worldly treasures might come through the front door in any given day, week, month or year. While I think it's better than it was, when I started in the antique trade, there are still way too many people, who assume, wrongly of course, there is little value to old things. They will complain about the price of bread and milk, and of course meat, while shopping at the grocery store, yet they will think nothing, of tossing out paintings, vintage glass, important documents (ephemera), china, antique chairs, tables, dressers, cupboards, and vintage quilts. I have rescued many thousands of antique relics and neat artifacts from being buried in landfill, but it horrifies me to think of the ones that got away, tipped into the mounds of household refuse.     If they had checked around their community, posing some questions to local antique dealers, or even did a preliminary search online, by looking up various pieces on ebay for example, they would have learned, with some joy I would presume, that they could make a fair amount of money, selling what they wish removed from their residences. Instead of having to pay disposal fees at the regional landfill site, the items could be recycled, and local dealers would, if offered an opportunity to intervene, explain the potentials of this fascinating turn of events. Bring them a cup of coffee. Listen and learn. Landfill site space would be saved and money would be forthcoming to buy food at the grocery store; or a speed boat, because some pieces may be worth a great deal of money. That's where antique dealers come in, and thank goodness for their astute perspective, on antique valuations, and for most in the profession, the willingness to invest research time to get it right. And, as in any profession on the big old earth, there are slackers, and undesirables, and those who should be in any other field than retailing antiques. On the much wider scale, I believe there are far more highly skilled and responsible antique dealers running shops, than the fly-by-nighters, who buy and sell antiques because it seems like a good way to make a quick and large profit. There's a lot more to the antique business than building an inventory, renting a venue, and throwing out a shingle at roadside, with the company name painted on the front. There are a fair number of failures, because these keeners didn't think it worthwhile to investigate all the pitfalls, inherent of an enterprise that has all the hallmarks of outright gambling. I've watched as some of my contemporaries made big errors in judgement, buying collections that were hugely over-valued from the get-go, and that they couldn't sell to get their money back. Rookie mistakes are expected, but not so much for veterans. It still happens, and it has happened to me many times. If it can trip-up someone who is experienced, it can be devastating to a fledgling dealer, to the very precipice of bankruptcy.
     I have had the truly exceptional privilege, of having apprenticed with a number of well known collectors in Ontario, who offered me advice on how to side-step these pitfalls; and by golly, some of these falls are nasty and costly. I had many hours of discussion with these folks, who had as much expertise in their fields of antique specialty, as acquired historical knowledge of Canada, and the world; simply meaning, they knew the importance of historical perspective, related to the antique significance, and garnered provenance of the pieces they collected. In other words, they employed the research skills of an archivist / historian, to fulfill their objective to represent the pieces they possessed, and what they hunted for, in their own endless quest to conserve heritage for the posterity, of future generations. And oh yes, they knew how to profit from their performance of due diligence. I maintain, and always will, that in order to be a successful antique or art dealer, you must possess more than just an average knowledge of history, whether local, regional, provincial, national, or national. You need to be enlightened as an antique dealer, and seek insights constantly, because it can make the difference, between spotting a jewel of antiquity, and misjudging it as nothing special. It happens constantly, and it's why other dealers swoop in, and pick-up what others thought were value-less. As I've written about frequently for the past three years, there is no learning curve for antique dealers, trying to succeed at their enterprises. It is just a continuous learning situation, and if a dealer is serious about making money, they would never, ever limit their efforts to self-improve; and age isn't a factor. Veteran dealers with a lot of mileage behind them, want to know what's going on in their field, and are willing to read and investigate their own profession, just in case they've been missing something important.
    Antique dealers, although they wouldn't state this on their business cards, or the sign nailed to the front of their shops, are front-line historians, who have saved a behemoth amount of world heritage, because they intervened, and halted the disposal of so called "old junk" from being tossed into the dumpsters, or carted in the backs of trucks to landfill locations. Major art works have been saved because dealers knew how to employ experts in the respective field, learning in the process, that being a successful antique retailer, hinges on the strength of the network of support; something we all need from time to time, to keep us on our game.
     While antique dealers don't get a lot of credit for helping to conserve heritage, largely because they are seen as the folks who speculate on history for their own gain, they have, by their actions to seek out antiques, been able to identify and safeguard important pieces relevant to our social, cultural, religious past. They've spared what others decided was worthless, and for their efforts deserve our respect. In these cases, they've rightfully earned their margin of profit.
    Let's get nostalgic. Coming tomorrow.