Feb. 7, 2012 is a big day for admirers of Charles Dickens. It’s the 200th anniversary of his birth in 1812. As a postcard subject, Dickens is a rewarding challenge. By the early 1900s, he was a national icon in Britain and appeared in many highly collectible sets. Read More +
Antique Trader editor Eric Bradley appraises a pair of primitive New England scrub boards and an Aesthetic Period glass plate. Read More +
It is tempting to date a piece of antique furniture by looking at a book with pictures of antique furniture and find one that is like the piece you are considering purchasing. But the style doesn’t guarantee the age or that it’s antique. Read More +
When it comes to antiques, price doesn’t reflect value: proper identification relating a good story tells prospective buyers why an item is valuable. Read More +
Columnist Wayne Jordan argues haggling is bad for the antiques business and explains customers and dealers would be better served by negotiating: Haggling is all about price; negotiating is about an exchange of value. Read More +
During the golden years of Paris, Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) was the man who knew everyone and could do almost anything.
Nowadays, he’s probably best remembered by cinema buffs for such artful films as “The Blood of a Poet” (1930), “Beauty and the Beast” (1946) and “Orpheus” (1950), but Cocteau began his creative life as a poet and went on to write novels, critical essays, a scenario for Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes, memoirs and stage plays. He also dabbled in visual art. Read More +
Because we live in a culture fascinated by youth and addicted to everything electronic, there is one species fending off, as best it can, the threat of extinction. I’ll call this genus the antiques dealer. If Darwin is correct, adaptation is tantamount to our species’ survival.
After a trip to England and realizing 90 percent of the antique dealers “across the pond” had gone the way of the buffalo, I was determined to survive. The minute we landed back in the states, our website was updated to a more “Google-friendly” platform and now oozes with SEO keywords, enabling us to be “found” by those persnickety search engines. Read More +
What makes some antiques so valuable? It’s the quality of the story attached to the object. Collectors love to tell stories about the items they have collected.
The better the story, the higher the items value to a collector. Stories create value (don’t confuse value with price; value is a personal issue; price is the intersection of supply and demand). Consistently and enthusiastically shared stories will help your business. Read More +
Did you know dealers can produce a video of an antiques business for next to nothing and increase the chance the business will show up in Web searches? The primary purpose of video promoting your antiques business is to drive traffic to your website or online collectibles store, not to sell your item from the video. Wayne Jordan shows us how easy it is to make a video to take advantage of the low-cost online promotion opportunities: If you can take a digital photo then you can make a video for your shop or store. Read More +
Today as we shop for dolls, the label “Made in China” is ever present but the Oriental influence in the doll world was seen much earlier.
In 1851, Edmund Lindner, a prominent doll merchant from Sonneberg, Germany, visited the London World Exhibition. One of the doll displays that caught his eye was a group of dolls from the Orient. These dolls, unlike any others seen by Linder, were different. Most of the dolls previously produced in Germany and in France represented ladies. These Oriental dolls had youthful faces and represented young children and infants. Read More +