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I start to fret about my booth at the Winter Show in the summer, a full seven months before the show will go on. Why is this? As I no longer have a gallery and I am woefully inadequate at social media, it is my sole moment of concentrated enterprise for the year. With luck, I can make a profit--it depends on what I find to bring to the show and it depends upon the buyers who come, of course. The hard part is synching the items you have with the people that will be coming to the show. That is a kind of magic trick that is hard to pull off, but I have been lucky for the last two years at least. In my lifetime of dealing, I have had shows where I have sold nothing at all, those shows being the ones that get you re-thinking your life choice as an antique dealer. Too late for that, quite obviously, but regret is not something with an end date to it. On the bright side, however, it is the best business to be in, bar none. It's the shows that I don't like no matter how likable the people who run them may be, nor how much you sell. They are a form of torture.
I have to add that I have never considered myself much of a salesman so any blame to be passed around for a poor show redounds on yours truly and/or, at times, the economy. I have always been told never to do a show in an election year. I'm not sure if it means that I shouldn't have done last January's show or whether I shouldn't be doing this year's show. Too late for both as one is in the books and the other is paid for. All I can say to any potential buyers out there is that I hope you feel happy enough to snag a pair of important console tables from me, damn the price! If you have to ask which ones, they are the only pure consoles (there are a pair of card tables) on my website and they are the very best neoclassical console tables on the market. There isn't a museum that has or wants English furniture, that wouldn't be happy to own this pair. But you can also buy something for less, as well, and I would be hugely appreciative.
But the part that I hate about the show, any show for that matter, is the paperwork. It makes me think of a knight getting into armor for some reason. I can't imagine how awful that was (think of how cold that steel must have been) but it is almost matched by the paperwork for a show. Not really, but it is painful. And once everything is ready, Christmas gets in the way. It is an inopportune time for Christmas--mid-February would be better. Then I would know if I could actually afford Christmas. I guess that is too much to ask given that most people make their Christmas plans further ahead than I make my show plans. (I shouldn't be quite so selfish.) In any case, all of this is a lead up to who would like to have tickets to the Winter Show? I can leave them at "Will Call", send them or offer them electronically. If it isn't me, it is the Show that will be sending them to you. I'm not too clear on that, just like I'm not clear at all as to what my booth is going to look like. And, it's November. To invoke Charlie Brown, Good Grief!
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