No strong intelligence yet on the success of the International Fine Art & Antique Dealers Fair, concluded Thursday of last week. Those intrepid dealers who participated, those we spoke to anyway whose focus is English antiques, seemed to subscribe to the same credo as whoever wrote The New York Times headline, something along the lines of ‘Fair forges ahead despite hard times.’ Well, absent forging ahead, what does a body do?
Time will, as it always does, tell, but news that may at least take the fair’s temperature should be quickly forthcoming, as some material does tend to sell at shows. Jewelry for one, and some smaller items. Copper and brass, prints, and, I hate to use the word, collectibles, certainly pieces at impulse buy level, or, in the case of prints, where an interior designer may seek to create a series of something. Art work and larger pieces of furniture, even irresistible English antiques pieces, are, I admit, a bit tougher, as the purchaser needs just the right space, or with art work, it has to speak to the buyer. In our experience, art work in particular, if it sells at a show, is something that is already in play with the buyer, oftentimes for many months previously. With all that, a fair number of smaller at show sales portends some fairly good aftershow activity for dealers of other types of material that is less of the impulse buy variety.
And, of course, it is getting interested buyers to turn out that is the name of the game, and ultimately, yields a successful show. We haven’t always done well at fairs with a big gate, but our overwhelming experience has shown us, no question, it is a numbers game, and by sheer weight of numbers, the larger the attendance, the better the chance of sales, either at show or following. Keith and I have often laughingly repeated what a show promoter told us during the run of a poorly attended show- ‘Not many visitors, but those who are here are very qualified.’ Hardly good enough- we require lots and lots of qualified buyers attending.
While the organizer/promoters’ promotion is imperative, it is not solely the show promoters’ responsibility to perform this essential task. No argument, those who participate need to have a firm understanding with the promoter what it is that’s planned- and how much the promoter plans to spend to promote the show. Any fuzziness- well, that may not be the show a dealer wishes to do. Still, asking the tough questions is only part of it. Any dealer who doesn’t spend a significant amount of time performing his own promotional tasks gets what he deserves. A dealer who does not mine his existing sales contacts to inform them of his show participation is either lazy or foolish or both. Why on earth would one not just out of sheer politeness inform past customers that they will be in the customers’ neighborhood? Further, all of us anymore sell to interior designers- let them know and search for other local designers who might use your material, and inform them, too, of your impending presence. Likewise institutional collectors. Museums do make the more than occasional antiques fair purchase.
A goodly number of fairs still retain a charity component to them, either a preview gala or part of the gate benefits some worthy cause. That is fine, but, times being the way they are, the participating dealers need to benefit now more than ever from the charity’s efforts. It has been lost sight of, unfortunately, that the charity show has always been considered a symbiosis- the dealers provide an attractive venue that the charity then utilizes as a space for an expensive gala- with the great and the good attending free to make purchases from the dealers. If the charity is not doing their utmost to generate attendance at at least the gala, perhaps a new charity needs to take over, or a dealer might rethink their involvement with that charity’s fair. Moreover, it has always seemed to me that an underutilized strategy is to have multiple fair beneficiaries- with multiple charity evenings for multiple charities. The fair itself is all set up for days and doesn’t cease to be a wonderful venue for events. With all that, if one benefit charity believes that other charity events will create an overlap and compete for possible attendees, charities should think then about making more of an effort to offer sponsorship events to private enterprise. So often, charities will ask for sponsorship, put the donors name in the show catalog, and, upon giving gala preview tickets to the great and the good, decide to call it a day. Why shouldn’t the perk for the great and the good be a private preview for themselves and their own good clients?
Finally, in these days of celebrity interior designers, any good fair that does not have an evening designer only event is not a good fair. Designers need to feel catered to and that their business is worthwhile, and it is. Moreover, designers unless they are shopping for or with a client oftentimes do not always make it a point to attend fairs. We have heard from charities that designer only events in particular are felt to run competition with benefit preview parties. I have never, ever found this to be true. In fact, just the opposite has been my experience. A number of fairs for a number of years have held designer only ‘hard hat’ previews, run in advance of the gala preview, at which designers could attend on their own, have something to eat and drink, and scout out the show. With a typical prohibition against actually selling anything at a hard hat preview, the designer then is obliged to bring his client back at the earliest opportunity. That earliest opportunity is almost always the charity gala. The moral of the story, for those of you who have not already figured it out, the designer and their client(s) would not have attended the gala preview had the designer not had the opportunity to shop the show beforehand.