Summer 2007 Newsletter
Collectors News Volume 28•2
Last Updated: June 6, 2007
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WE HAVE MOVED!! Our new address is 2233 Granville Street between 6th & 7th Avenues. We are next door to Petley Jones Gallery and two doors south of Panache Antiques. Everything they say about moving is true and doubly so when you are consolidating down to half the space you previously had. Our arrival now makes five antique stores within two blocks which is the largest concentration of quality antique stores in the city. Although there have always been antique shops below Broadway, this is an area for many galleries both old and new with Uno Langmann anchoring down the north end and Heffel to the south. Our mix of smaller objects is not working quite like it did up the street because we are only one like this here whereas there were several similiar shops in our old block creating a destination area. Naturally, there is an interest in paintings at this new location and we are seeing some focused tourists which is encouraging. Our traffic flow, so far, is substantially less than at 14th Avenue and we are keeping shorter hours because of this and to enable us to search for exciting new stock. We are constantly hunting for interesting items and the following photos will give you a good idea of the type of things we have been purchasing lately. If you have not already paid us a visit at our new location, we'd love to see you again. |
The Market As I pound out this Newsletter on my typewriter, I hear on the radio that the Dow Jones & TSX have hit new highs. The high end antiques and art markets are no different. We are in the midst of the largest bull market in our lifetimes with prices again, like the stock markets, hitting new highs for the right items. Sothebys Auction house clearly don't think the roundabout will stop soon as they just announced recently that they will concentrate all their activities where their best profit margins are and will not accept low value goods under US$6,000. Actually most major auction houses like antique dealers have the same problem - inexorably rising business overheads in an industry that is plagued with high maintenance costs on the products it sells. So it makes rational business sense to handle less goods but of much greater value. This really is in tune with a market where it is the best against the rest. I wrote in a Newsletter this Spring about how the 20th century has really taken over the antiques business and mentioned, in particular, a Chiparus Art Deco bronze which, not so long ago may have made $50,000 but now approaches half a million. Well, just last month in New York a Russian Dancers Chiparus Art Deco bronze group went for just under a million at auction demonstrating how quickly the market is moving for these objects largely because of Russian money. |