o – Is it now time for the three main UK Art and Antique Dealers Associations, LAPADA , BADA and SLAD, to unite ?
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Lewis Baer
January 15, 2012
As an American dealer (and specifically NOT a member of any trade organization), I have observed the resourcefulness of English trade organizations. With creatively partnering with trade newspapers like the Antiques Trade Gazette, they have attempted to engage organizations outside their own membership. Creating an Antiques Week is at least a noble attempt to broaden the appeal of dealers to a wider public’s attention.
There is no question that a combination of all interested groups in the industry could benefit it. However, fitting everyone under one roof requires creating a broad consensus of the membership to a common vision, and that requires strong leadership. This will require not just a creative individual to unite dealers, but direct money, resources, and modern management skills to represent the industry effectively.
These are challenging times for dealers, and the opportunities for a united, creative approach as to how the trade is perceived by the public, government, and wrestles with auctioneer domination make this point almost a necessity. Unfortunately, in the US, the worlds largest antiques market, dealer organizations are rudderless and fraught with insular members that can’t
get beyond their own exclusivity.
http://www.newel.com
Andy Blundell
January 15, 2012
i dont think it really matters as all the organizations like BADA and LAPDAD are still stuck in the past and their own exclusivity, AT the last BADA conference which i think was 4 or 5 years ago, they were told by 3 expensive marketing analyst’s, 1. Remarket Antiques. 2 Advertise the remarketing and 3. Learn how to use a computer, and what did they do? Nothing.
A good example of this happened to me, a LAPADA dealer i knew ( usual type, a second hand car dearler who thought he knew a thing or two about English Oak, opened a shop and stocked it with the left overs from Bonhams.) bought a oak 75% original 17thC Serving Table for £800 from Bonhams Chester, put it in his shop with a ticket which read ‘Oringinal 17thC Oak Refectory Table £10K’ after a period of 4 months and not selling 1 piece from his shop, he was complaining about not selling anything, even dinning tables in the run up to Xmas. I told him i’d just sold three in the last month, i told him to sell the Serving/Refectory Table to the tade or Auction it, he’d get £800 back for it and i’d sell him a french pine topped refectory table for £500 and he could get £1500 in his shop. His answer in a self important tone was ,’ If I cant sell English Oak I wont sell Antiques’. His shop is now closed.
In the past twenty years BADA and LAPADA dealers have over inflated prices by buying between each other and now the market like the housing markets needs to come down to be affordable. At the moment buyers will compare prices between antique, reproduction or a modern eqivalent, if the antique price is double they will go for the cheaper alternative.
At the end of the day the trade organizations are stuck in the past and the image of these organizations does not appleal to the the modern consumer, the evidence lies in the fall in foot fall at the major antiques fairs like the NEC and the number of avaiaible stands as dealers pull out. Events like antiques week where a waste of time and publicity ideas like ‘Antiques are Green’ are all very well, but still promote antiques as boring, old, fuddy duddy, BBC Antiques Roadshow ( which no one under the age of 65 finds intresting) Flog It pompous and expensive. Until these organizations realise this then forget it.
http://www.phoenixantiquesbarn.co.uk
Ian Harris
January 15, 2012
It is a pity that a trade which benefits this country’s balance of payments and has a turnover of billions and pays a lot of tax is disregarded by UK governments, who make little effort to help or promote it. They have never strongly enough resisted EU laws harmful to UK dealers like droit-de-suite and the 5% import VAT. The UK has by far the largest art and antiques turnover in Europe, which some EU countries have resented for years. These taxes and regulatory observance drive dealers and buyers elsewhere.
Of course LAPADA, BADA & SLAD should merge, but they all have their own idealogical positions. I was a dealer-director of LAPADA for many years, and observed how LAPADA did the most for its members on a shoe-string, whilst BADA did the least for the most. However, it was considered prestigious to belong to, so their subscription was almost double whilst SLAD and LAPADA fought the battles. This may have changed, but I doubt it. I left BADA when at the introductions of the buyer’s premium they described auctioneers as our ‘colleagues’ whom should not be upset, whereas I foresaw them as our enemies. Although LAPADA has some high-end members, it is a broad church and the snob end of the trade don’t want to be seen in the same company.
So BADA restricts its membership, but it is pathetic how few members LAPADA has. Recruiting dealers was, and is, a struggle. All prospective members seem to want to know is what’s in it for them, never a thought as to how a strong and well-financed Trade organisation can promote it to everyone’s advantage. Times have been hard, and still are, but if one cannot afford £125 a quarter one probably should not be in business at all.
The salerooms have the financial muscle constantly to publicise themselves. Dealers could too, if they would get together. Some hope!
http://www.nbloom.com