My last couple of entries, musing about the fate of antiques fairs, has sparked a couple of emails, suggesting that, as antiques don’t seem popular with young adults, more must be done to educate them. With few exceptions, most fairs now have some sort of early evening event for so-called ‘young collectors’, usually involving those under 40- that is young, isn’t it?- whose affiliation with a local fine arts museum auxiliary entitles them thereby to be admitted sometimes gratis to the fair, and have a free glass of wine. Actually, we have been at some fairs where young collectors’ nights have attracted as many as two handfuls of attendees.
Sorry for being snide, but, as you will gather, our own experience, certainly in terms of selling English antiques in a young collectors venue has not met with any particular success. When told of a scheduled young collectors event, a dealer of my acquaintance sighed and said, ‘Oh yes- the young and the cheque-less.’ Now that’s snide, albeit clever. An irony, my quoted punster deals in midcentury modern furniture, the erstwhile darling of the young collector.
We hear that, you know, that antiques are out of fashion, that the young have no appreciation of the fine arts, that contemporary is where it’s at. Tell this to a dealer in any contemporary material- he’ll take some exception, and sing the blues, too.
The fact is, in our experience, collectors segue from wannabes to actuals at their own pace and in their own good time- regardless of any manifest effort toward education a dealer may make. We get this all the time from gallery visitors, how much they value our expertise, how educational it is to look at our gallery offerings. Does a sale automatically follow on from these compliments about our being a fulsome didactic resource? Not so far. Or should I say, ‘Not yet.’ I mean no irony here, as I do think that there is some seed planting that all of us do, or should be doing, to allow people to develop their own aesthetic that may then ultimately result in a few purchases.