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Discover Mid-America — February 2008
A take on trends in the trade
I worked for several years as desk manager at The Antiques Collaborative, a well known, high-end, multi-dealer shop in Quechee, Vermont. The owners, Bill and Isabel Bradley, have remained dear and valued friends these several years later. Each year, the Bradleys hold a weeklong holiday sale, offering discounts on great merchandise (with the percentage of discount at the discretion of each dealer). Discount percentages are prominently posted in display rooms and cases.
The sale attracts buyers from across several states. It's a great chance for buyers to get a price break on items they may have had their eye on (provided someone hasn't bought it first at full price!). For dealers, it's an opportunity to recoup some of the money they have invested in that year's inventory and to make room for new merchandise in the coming year. I enjoy the festive occasion immensely because I get to spend time with Bill and Isabel in their element, to renew old acquaintances among my favorite dealers, and to see what it is that other collectors are buying.
In a quiet moment during the sale, one of the dealers asked me what I thought was happening in/to the market. She knows I write this column and she wasn't about to let me off the hook! So I told her I thought the market had been soft for the past few years.
She responded, "Well, I think it's not just soft, it's smooshy." Pithily put, I thought. Still, the $64,000 question is why.
The market is not monolithic
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| This Kutani cup and saucer from the Watano kiln, c. 1900, are artist signed and bear an older "Kaga" mark, used before the generic Kutani mark came into vogue at the end of the Meiji period (1868-1912). While the quality of much Kutani circulating on the open secondary market is pedestrian to poor, these two items are very finely painted eggshell porcelain. High-end Asian porcelain is one of the categories insulated from the current softening in the market for antique porcelain and glass. (photo by the author from her own collection) |
The market is actually more complex than this casual exchange with my dealer friend would seem to indicate. Some parts of the market remain solid. Paintings by listed artists, antique silver and art pottery continue to be strong sellers. Even the mid-range items in these insulated categories command high auction prices as the best stuff gets harder to find.
The current market is especially soft in the items I most love: fine porcelain and glass. But even within those categories, authentic antique Asian porcelain with good provenance and art glass by makers such as Tiffany and Loetz remain strong. For the rest, people who collect and deal in porcelain and glass out of passion believe in these media enough to know their day will come again.
Apart from hanging tough, careful attention to several consumer trends can help dealers survive the "smooshiness" in the current market.
Market dominance by decorators and designers
The buyers these days are often decorators and designers, whether they are agents for institutions or for individual clients. This means the end user is not a collector and, therefore, not inclined to love or value the items being purchased beyond their immediate decorative potential. By definition, the value of these items to the user is only temporary, as decorators would be out of business if they couldn't "redesign" spaces every couple of years or so.
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| Anybody remember what year it was when gas was only 14 1/2 cents a gallon? Those were the good old days! Economic pressures in this first decade of the 21st century, not the least of which is the escalating price of gas and oil, have inspired well-heeled investors to look at antiques as tangible assets with which to diversify their investments. (photo by the author, courtesy of Messier's General Store, East Randolph, VT) |
Assuming the items purchased this year don't end up in a dumpster next year (ostentatious disposal being the handmaid of conspicuous consumption), the implications for the trade are a revolving market for many antiques and collectibles. Within the trade, items that keep coming back to the market generate less interest — among buyers as well as sellers — than items fresh to the market.
The investment potential of art and antiques
Affluent folks interested in more than decorative potential are looking for investment-quality art and antiques to diversify their portfolios. As the real estate market tanks, oil prices soar beyond control, and the stock market can't seem to post consistent gains, such consumers are looking for ways to shelter their money from the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.
What this means for dealers is that they will need to buy the best items they can afford. You don't have to specialize in 17th century English furniture or Colonial era American. But if your tastes run, say, to Art Deco, your inventory will need to include the best Art Deco, in the best condition, you can afford to carry.
The centrality of provenance
Because of the money to be made in high-end antiques, fakes abound, from the alleged works of master painters and sculptors to the big names in art glass. That means it's become harder to deal in items that don't come with impeccable provenance — and this concern for where the items came from and who owned them in the past has now permeated all levels of the trade.
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| One supposes an antique wagon such as this, hitched to a cracker-ack horse team, might have been some 19th century farm boy's version of a muscle car! Whether it's an antique buckboard or a classic car, good condition often accompanies good provenance (photo by the author, courtesy of Joel and Amy Messier of Messier's General Store, East Randolph, VT). |
Anyone who watches Antiques Roadshow knows that family stories attributing original ownership of that old beer stein to George Washington too often prove fictional, so, for a sophisticated buyer, family legend will not substitute for verifiable provenance. It isn't enough any more for a dealer to buy a great item at auction and leave it at that. Dealers will need to expend the energy to ascertain from the auctioneer where the item came from and to include that on their resale tags; in the "new market," inability or unwillingness to provide that information will count as a major strike against the object being sold.
Downsizing and simplifying among consumers
Driven by factors ranging from heightened environmental consciousness to the price of gas at the pump, the general culture is trending toward a simpler lifestyle, the corollary of which is that consumers are becoming more discerning in what they buy. The pressures of limited space and economic resources eventually force buyers to prefer the best items they can afford.
This trend to an increasing sophistication of taste among consumers means that the days are numbered for dealers and shops whose booths are stocked with exorbitantly priced "junk" barely a decade removed from the original point of discount retail sale. A conscious effort to systematically upgrade inventory over time will become an essential strategy for survival in a market where even the most modestly heeled buyers are looking for things not just worth buying but also worth keeping.
Peggy Whiteneck is a writer and collector living in East Randolph, VT. If you would like to suggest a topic she can address in her column, email her at allwrite@sover.net.
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