Sink Your Teeth Into Antiques
Sink Your Teeth Into Antiques and Collecting
Antique Dental Model From: Phisick Medical Antiques
We have to eat because we are so very hungry – like everyday 365 days a year. And we have to have variety, we don’t want to eat the same thing everyday…we get kind of bored by the same old same old. So we seek out the exotic – the new, and that’s what we consume.
Maybe that’s OK when it comes to food, variety being the spice of life and all, but what about the way our hunger translates to fashions and furnishings? Is it still OK to always seek out the new? Is it at all unreasonable to continue to demand that new items be manufactured, used a few years, then to load them onto a truck, and cart them to a landfill?
Buying Antiques Is A Small Way To Save The World
Tooth Shaped Drinking Cup Sold By Lyon & Turnbull For £380
It’s this writers observation that the biggest consumers of home furnishings are younger people, somewhere in the age range between 25 and 45 years old. Guess what, they are not buying a lot of antiques, they’re instead making the decision to purchase home furnishings of recent manufacture.
Fashion is the engine of so much new commerce, which is great. New fashions are wonderful expressions of a cultures creativity, and that creativity has a trickle effect throughout the economy – which is great as well. But what about fashion, and the search for the next Big Thing’s effect on the environment? How many trees does it take to furnish a house?
Take a Long Sip From The Past
 |  |  |
| Sold By Cowans $510.00 | Sold By Cowans $206.00 | Sold By Cowans $316.00 |
The Question Might Better Be: How Can You Meld The Old With The New
Yesterday, I was in the San Francisco home of a wonderful woman who is in my opinion, designing her interiors to reflect the past in such a way that they are still clearly useful to today’s consumers. She had an amazing kitchen with all the latest modern conveniences, but it was also decked out with antique lighting and vintage china and cookware. Every wall sconce and ceiling light fixture seemed to come out of an old Moe Bridges catalog. Art Deco furnishing were highlighted here and there throughout her house; paired with objects a’ la Steampunk. Did I mention the Marshall Stacks and Vintage Guitars…?
She is kind of like an Inspired Design Diva…I wish there were more like her. People who can show others how to incorporate antiques in such a visually stunning way, but at the same time keep the feeling of the house fresh and somehow contemporary.
Eat, But Don’t Have Your Hunger Create Negative Effects
Antique Ivory Dental Model with Hinged Jaws Sold By Skinner For $1,293.00
Here Are 5 Environmentally Positive Ways You Can Furnish Your Home…
- Purchase used high end designer furniture from auctions.
- Decide that 50% of all new acquisitions will be vintage
- Tell Antique Dealers what you really want, they need to know.
- Go to Estate Sales, their variety will surprise you.
- Look for deals on Craigslist.
Now Sit Back And Enjoy Your Less Environmentally Painful Surroundings
Antique Dentist Chair Sold By Skinner For an Undisclosed Amount
By
Martin Codina
To Keep Up To Date With Fine Estate:
Follow Us On Facebook
Follow Us On Twitter
Do Your Own Estate Sale | San Francisco Estate Sales  | We Sell Antiques Too!  | Estate Sale Company List  | Prices4Antiques Discount Code | Article Archives  | Write For Us  | Newsletter Sign Up  |
Martin…. Did I mention I’ve found teeth in button tins? It’s pretty horrifying, lemme tell ya! PS – how do you find guitars for your kid who’s about to start a career as a luthier (next week) and was told – go to flea markets and get broken/wrecked guitars to salvage for parts, when its not flea market season? Got any laying around…in pieces is good…
Tracy
I would add a sixth item to the list: attend antiques shows. It’s a great way to meet professional dealers and learn quickly about the range of objects on the market. You’ll also learn how to incorporate antiques into your home, how to spot fakes, how to judge “good, better and best,” and where prevailing prices stand. You might even find something you can’t live without, who knows?
Honestly, with all of the free promotion of auction houses these days (refer to Auction Central News, etc. ) I truly believe that dealers should be promoting dealers, not promoting buying at auction. The auction houses have begun to dominate the market, and dealers have felt it.
It also might not be a great idea for a beginning collector to jump into the auction arena to earn their badge. Lots of expensive mistakes to be made there. Best to start with a dealer who can advise, entertain, motivate and educate. This is what we do best and, to be honest, is our best attribute in competing with the auction houses.
A Discourse On The Arts And Sciences: Mostly when I write a post like this it’s about the “Gee Whiz I didn’t know these were worth so much” factor. I want to inform the average person, to aid and assist them to make better decisions…
I am an Estate Liquidator, that’s my primary business, I work with dealers everyday, and so many of them are just plain awesome. Many Dealer Resources can be found in our Research Antiques Here Section…
Thanks
Martin
Martin,
Thanks for your response and rest assured I’m not questioning your position. After all, I do believe that dealers are ultimately responsible for improving their own marketing message and merchandising in order to remain competitive with the auction houses, who seem to be garnering a larger and larger percentage of the retail market share as time goes by. The key to that, of course, is their superior marketing capabilities. It’s like comparing a big box retailer with a mom & pop corner store in terms of their reach.
However, I also believe that dealers are under immense pressure to survive, even before the economic conditions of the last two years, so it can be painful to read a recommendation to the younger, new collector to buy at auction since they’re not necessarily equipped to buy intelligently without ‘kicking some tires’ first. This is the niche of the dealer, who can inform and develop a collector. Do dealers run the risk of eventully losing them to the auction venue once they feel comfortable enough to wade through those waters? Of course, but they have always had a place, even within that reality. However, it is also safe to say that change, thinking outside of the box and trying other methods are difficult for certain genres of the retail antiques trade and you can see the results of this in the domination by later forms and contemporary art in recent years.
So, yes, I actually do agree with you that buyers should be open and honest about what their needs are… where are dealers perhaps lacking in their inventory or pricing, or marketing? What need can the dealer fill that perhaps the larger auction houses cannot? And most importantly, dealers do need to listen to these needs and adapt to fill that gap.
So, I guess in interest of brevity, I missed a few points. Sorry about that. But I do believe that dealers could use all the assistance they can get, particularly when it comes to new buyers.