We have just had our first phone call for 2009- from one of our cadre of restorers, telling us he’s finished a job and needs to be paid. Rent is due, of course, and he’s short of cash, but, frankly, he’s more than entitled, given that he worked over the New Year’s holiday to complete the task.
On the one hand, it disappointed me that the first telephone call was not from a client making an affirmative declaration to purchase, but, on the other hand, it is nice to consider that, what with his working over New Year’s Day, we might look forward to, for a change, one’s trading partners rendered a bit more accommodating. This would be refreshingly novel, would mark something of a change from how things have formerly worked. During our tenure in this business, it has seemed to Keith and me that, with a number of restorers, and other dealers whose materials we have sometimes sold, we were fairly often just made use of. Mind you, we do not tolerate and are disinclined to pay for inferior work, and usually use the power of the checkbook to make certain that we get what we want. As, however, we have always appreciated the fact that anyone wanted to spend their money in our galleries, and have made that appreciation known to our clients, we have found it is with, well, not irritating but certainly hurtful rarity that our trading partners have expressed their appreciation of Chappell & McCullar. On the occasions that we have sold other dealer’s stock- which we do with some frequency- we do not expect to receive thanks- which is a good thing, since we seldom do- but we find off-putting the frequently received oblique comment about what a favor they’ve done us, in allowing us to make a bit of cash from the sale of their otherwise unsold inventory. Mystifying… Although I realize that others somehow have a need to get their own back, our egos, while not completely in abeyance are at least not that deformed. Keith and I would be happy to have another dealer place our stock for us. Interestingly, this has, to date, yet to happen.
You might, my 20 or so readers, think you know where this is leading, and I have to tell you that, unlike the townspeople of Indianapolis in Booth Tarkington’s novel, I do not seek George Amberson Minafer’s comeuppance. We don’t want to see anyone in our business brought low or forced out- except shylocks of whom there are always a few. Not that we are particularly magnanimous, but we wish to see the trade healthy. My hope, apropos of our first phone call in the New Year, is that we do all of us have the time, and, lately, that is something we have in abundance, to meditate on what we formerly realized, but have in the last few years forgotten, was important- beyond just making money. Within the last few minutes, I also had a word with one of my closest friends, Anita Shanahan, whose wisdom exceeds her years. Since she’s well into her 9th decade, one can then imagine how wise she perforce must be. When I told her the subject of this blog, she asked me when it was that I had last entered a shop that had posted that formerly ubiquitous sign ‘We appreciate your business’ ? We both agreed that, times being the way they are, we might thankfully begin again to see such modest tokens of esteem. With all that, let me absent myself from you so that I can make certain our shop Maneki Neko is accurately pointed toward our gallery’s main entrance.