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Anyone involved in the the art and antiques trade who hasn't noticed that there are tricky problems facing our business must have their heads buried in the sand. The problems are both real and ephemeral, the real part being the cost of doing business. It has never been more expensive to show our product, be it in a gallery or at a show. Whose fault is that? You can blame fair organizers or landlords, you can blame the rich dealers who don't seem to care how much a booth costs or you can blame yourself for not being richer and, of course, you can blame the economy. The world has become more expensive in almost every way imaginable--our business model of buying, restoring, creating inventory--seems less valid than ever. Nobody likes high prices and there is always resistance to them--but they go up just the same. There is no restraint and the direction of the trade is necessarily to lure the supra wealthy. And the middle class? For the most part, locked out.
This plays into the (slightly) more ephemeral aspect of the problems we face. How do you reach the people that can afford great things? To begin with the intended buyers need to know your items are among the best of their type. That is best done by a personal introduction hopefully by a satisfied client. A proper introduction and a good interview can earn a buyer's loyalty for a very long time. However, there are plenty of competing sellers--most pointedly auctions as many dealers buy at auction so why shouldn't the private buyer, the end user so to speak,? It is the correct logic until you understand that knowledge is what drives the dealer--and that is more complex than just holding up a paddle. To snag and imprint a (hopefully) repetitive behavior onto a buyer, to make him your client, isn't easy--I might say that it has never been harder as the monied elite are both difficult to recognize and often rather diffident. Trust is very hard to earn.
One way that dealers are working to snag the elusive buyer is to buy the very best examples of the items that they come across. Even though there are very few dealers left, there is always competition for the great items--auction houses see to that of course by talking up what they have (it is their job) but the result is that few great things are inexpensive. Buying a great item is one thing, but bringing it to market is also expensive--restoration, transportation, research, photography and insurance all add up. Ergo, the dealer has an expensive piece ready to sell. Should the dealer take it to a fair and pray that there isn't a recession or a pandemic--the business starts to look less like a business and more like a vanity project. There is only one saving grace and I refer to it again and again--it is the knowledge that dealers have--it is why anyone and everyone should buy from dealers. Our connoisseurship is, I will claim wholeheartedly, irrefutable.
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