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Discover Mid-America — January 2009
Toward a sustainable future for the trade
Recently, the owners of, Burlwood Antique Center, a large, famous, and popular group shop in New Hampshire, made a bold announcement. They were shutting the place down throughout the 2009 season (which, for them, lasts from May 1 to Oct. 31) in order to reconfigure the business and renovate the building.
Well, this was simply unheard of, simply not done! Burlwood is a mainstay of the Northeastern trade, not just for retail buyers but also for dealers. The place had just celebrated its Silver Anniversary in business, capping a run of seasons each more successful than the last.
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| This Zuni jewelry suite of turquoise inlaid in silver presents as more modern than traditional, but it’s also more versatile for accenting modern dress than is jewelry made in, say, a traditional Navajo squash blossom style. Fine jewelry of all kinds is an ever popular collectible. And something that looks this contemporary is just the sort of thing that could be successfully marketed to a younger retail crowd. (photo by the author from a family collection) |
People in the trade just couldn’t believe it — a business taking a year off in order to make itself better. Gossip took wing and rumors gathered like cluster flies in an old attic. Somebody said the place had been bought by a national burger franchise. Someone else said what was really behind the announcement was some sort of Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers dance routine, meant to waltz Burlwood out of business gracefully while it was at the top of its game. (Rather complicated way to go about it were that the case.) People just couldn’t imagine that the owners might have had a long-term vision for the business, one sufficiently compelling that they were willing to sacrifice an entire sales season to pursue it.
And therein lies the problem — the trade’s general inability to imagine a different, perhaps better, way of doing business. We live in rocky times, and the future — of the nation and the globe — will belong to those who can imagine it, envision it and call it forth. The future of the antiques trade belongs to those who can live with the artifacts of the past without living in the past.
Trade sustainability
To be sure, some of the Burlwood gossip was fueled by anxiety within the trade. Dealers who had long counted on Burlwood as their main support now found themselves wondering where they would go, and, as reported in a local trade paper, at least one allowed as how she might as well retire as be without Burlwood for even a season.
It’s too bad we don’t put as much stock in old sayings as we do in old things…Didn’t our mothers and grandmothers always tell us not to put all our eggs in one basket? Still, we do it all the time. There’s a paradox here: Even as the trade is so risk averse it can’t imagine taking a step such as Burlwood has, many dealers are content to live on the edge rather than work to develop a sustainable plan for the future of their business.
It would really be a service if one or more trade associations, either existing or yet to be formed, could step up to provide leadership in helping antique dealers plan for the sustainability of their business. There’s a bigger role for these professional associations than printing antique shop guides and running antique shows. Trade associations ought to be a place where members can find the tools and resources they need to plan for a sustainable future for the trade itself as well as for their individual businesses.
I’ve suggested before in this column that antique dealers need to have a business plan. They need to ask themselves were they want their business to be in the next 3 to 5 years (Heck, the Burlwood owners are looking 25 years out!) and then develop a realistic and sustainable plan for getting there. What the Burlwood folks are engaging in is a particularly energetic form of strategic planning: imagining “the big picture” opportunities and then developing strategies to capitalize on those opportunities.
If younger customers are the future of the trade, what are they buying?
To be around for the next decade, let alone the next generation, the trade will need to be able to envision new ways for people to live with antiques — which probably means new ways of thinking about the antiques themselves.
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| This Van Briggle tulip form vase with incised star is done in an unusual white glaze, but it’s from the 1960s, and many “serious” Van Briggle collectors wouldn’t touch something this late. As such, however, it represents a great break-in opportunity for younger buyers, plus it’s contemporary enough in form and design to fit comfortably into a younger people’s living space. But they’ll never see it if Van Briggle dealers won’t deign to carry it – and they’re not about to pay the prices dealers want for the older stuff…Draw your own conclusions! (photo by the author from her own collection) |
In last month’s column, I suggested that tough economic times would lead retail buyers to emphasize functionality in their antique purchases. In a similar vein, Fred Taylor writes, in a recent edition of his syndicated column “Common Sense Antiques,” that your average 30-something isn’t about to plunk down $5,000 for a period piece — but just may be willing to spring for a “newer” piece costing a few hundred bucks. A piece of furniture from the 1920s or ‘30s may even clash a bit with a younger couple’s “décor,” but, says Taylor, they’ll buy it if it is domestically functional within that décor.
That got me thinking of the number of times I’ve seen “period” chairs in antique shops and museums roped off or placard-tented with admonitions not to sit on them! Apparently, the period chair has become so fragile and precious that it has outlived its function and has become a mere artifact. Again, the average 30-something is not about to peel off the hundreds for an 18th century chair he or she can’t even sit in.
It seems to me that the trade has approached Robert Frost’s famous landmark, his proverbial road that diverges in the wood. And you know something? I think the owners of the Burlwood Antique Center, and others of their bold and daring ilk, may just be about to show us that taking the road less traveled does, indeed, make all the difference.
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.
> Good Eye Archive — past columns
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