The results of the Palm Beach Jewelry, Art & Antique Show, February 18-21, 2012

My goal is to publish new posts twice a week — Mondays and Thursdays. However, if you don’t see a new post on Thursday, it’s because I was too busy, so please look for a new one the following Monday. Monday’s post will be about the fabulous Tiffany collection of the Morse Museum in Winter Park, Florida.

Monday afternoon, in front of my booth

As expected, Monday’s attendance at the Palm Beach Jewelry, Art & Antique Show was lighter than the weekend’s, but there was still a decent crowd. Attendance is never the problem with this show — it’s qualified buyers. Only a small percentage of the attendees are actually interested in making purchases. Unfortunately for me (and the other exhibitors), most are there for a good time or to appraise their own items.

Tuesday afternoon, 2 PM, in front of my booth

Tuesday was the last day of the show. Surprisingly, there were quite a few people in attendance — not as many as the weekend, but still quite good for a Tuesday. Monday was a bust with total sales of $300. (One dealer said to me that he didn’t even know that I had anything for $300. Yes, I do.) Tuesday was a better day, with a couple of nice sales, including an important bronze and carved wood cat lamp, signed and dated Jean Carrit, 1898, made in France at the dawn of electricity.

A fabulous 1898 Jean Carrit bronze and wood lamp, sold at the show

My show wound up being a moderate success. I sold enough to cover my expenses and earn a fair profit. In addition, I was able to make a private purchase, as a result of the show, that will ultimately produce revenue. Business wasn’t quite as good as the show two weeks before at the Miami Beach Convention Center, but still good enough to make me want to return to Palm Beach next year.

I did ask quite a few dealers about their results and found out the following. A Steuben dealer had a great show, including fabulous sales at the preview party. A majolica dealer, a ceramics dealer and a bronze and ivory dealer had fair shows, just making expenses and very modest profits — none was very happy. A dealer in art glass, lamps and jewelry was disappointed with his jewelry sales, but otherwise satisfied. A dealer in Russian items was disappointed — he did not make his expenses and lost money on the show. Other dealers told me their results were down from a year ago. There was lots of interest, but they just couldn’t close many of the potential sales. An important dealer at the show told me that his results were good, not great. He was hopeful that he would be able to make follow-up sales after the show.

Rob Samuels and Scott Diament (right), owners of the Palm Beach Show Group

One of the show promoters, Scott Diament, told me that some of the dealers had done exceptionally well, including one jewelry dealer who had sold millions (I can’t independently confirm that). He also told me that three important European dealers, who have exhibited at the world-renowned Maastricht Antiques Fair in the Netherlands, had plans to exhibit at next year’s Palm Beach show.

Happy to be back in New York. Our next show is the Pier Show in New York City on the weekend of March 17th and 18th. It’s always fun, so start planning your trip to the Big Apple!

In the meantime, we’re still in business, so don’t be bashful. Call or write!
_________________________________________________________________

Very fine Daum blownout scenic vase with wheel-carved detail

Look around my website. There are many items for sale, sold items with prices and free lessons about glass and lamps. I regularly add Tiffany vases, lamps and desk accessories, as well as French cameo glass by Galle and Daum Nancy and Louis Icart etchings. Here’s the link. chasenantiques.com

The Palm Beach Jewelry, Art & Antique Show is open now and closes tomorrow, Tuesday, February 21, 2012

My goal is to publish new posts twice a week — Mondays and Thursdays. However, if you don’t see a new post on Thursday, it’s because I was too busy, so please look for a new one the following Monday. The Palm Beach Jewelry, Art and Antique Show ends tomorrow, so I won’t post the results of the show until this Thursday.

Saturday afternoon in my booth

The Palm Beach Jewelry, Art & Antique Show opened on Friday night, February 18th, at 6 PM, for a preview party. There were lots and lots of people at the party and many questions. The problem was that most of the questions were from people who wanted to appraise their own items. I don’t mind answering questions if a person is up front with me. What gets my goat is a sneaky person, pretending to be a buyer, plying me for information for his/her own appraisal. Of course, the evening ended with no sales. Nothing like a preview party to put me in a bad mood.

Sunday afternoon at the show

Attendance was excellent on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday was a nice day — busy, lots of questions, and sales in different categories. A good start to the show, but only a start. The Sunday crowd was the usual — fewer knowledgeable people and fewer sales, but not a bad day. So as of Sunday, the show is going okay. If sales develop on Monday and Tuesday, the show will work out fine. If nothing happens in the next couple of days, my show will be mediocre. Some of you may remember that last year I did 75% of my business on the last day. No idea what will happen this time.

Louis Icart Orchids, one of the sold items at the show

Tune in this Thursday for the results. I’ll ask around and see what other dealers have to say. I did see some nice action in some of the booths, so I expect that some dealers will be very pleased.

Happy to be returning to New York this week and thankful the winter is almost over. Our next show is the Pier Show in New York City on the weekend of March 17th and 18th. It’s always fun, so start planning your trip to the Big Apple!

In the meantime, we’re still in business, so don’t be bashful. Call or write!
_________________________________________________________________

Incredible Daum egg with swan decoration, 5½ inches long

Look around my website. There are many items for sale, sold items with prices and free lessons about glass and lamps. I regularly add Tiffany vases, lamps and desk accessories, as well as French cameo glass by Galle and Daum Nancy and Louis Icart etchings. Here’s the link. chasenantiques.com

Results of the Palm Beach Jewelry, Art & Antiques Show, February 18-22, 2011

My aisle at 1 PM on Tuesday afternoon

Read this blog to the end, because it’s amazing what a difference a few hours makes.

I’m writing this blog at 1:15 PM on Tuesday afternoon, so what I’m saying now is subject to modification, perhaps towards the end of this entry. As of now, the show did not go well. It’s an expensive show for exhibitors, so they have to sell more than the usual amount just to make expenses. Sales after that are the profit. As of this moment, I have not made expenses, nor have several other dealers that I’ve spoken to. I’m sure there are some exhibitors who’ve done well, but personally I haven’t met them. Attendance was noticeably lower than last year, when the aisles were crowded each of the four days of the show. Attendance was good on Saturday and Sunday and lighter on Monday and Tuesday.

In asking around, I found out the following. A dealer in Russian objects did not make his expenses. Another dealer in decorative objects and jewelry had a difficult time selling decorative objects but was able to make a profit with jewelry. A dealer in clocks was able to make a small profit. One dealer in paintings did not sell a single painting. Another dealer who sells general merchandise was pleased. He had sold a mirror, a piece of furniture, a bronze, etc.

My booth, with my beautiful wife, Tuesday, 2:20 PM

I’ve got mixed feelings about the attendance at this show. The show promoter is very generous with the distribution of free tickets. Consequently lots of the attendees at the show are there solely for a good time. It’s better than a museum — the admission is free, you can touch or buy anything, and you can ask questions of experts in their fields. My feelings are mixed because it’s difficult to deal with the many attendees who are there for amusement. Sitting in the booth for eight hours, repeatedly putting up with comments and questions like “Are any of these items for sale?” “Did you make these?” “Do you have a pair?” is tough. On the other hand, there is a possibility that someone who had no intention of purchasing anything could get sufficiently motivated and make a purchase.

I’m not sure why I print and distribute business cards. My wife was once in a booth where they sold purses. She asked for a business card and was told by the owner “No, I don’t have any. Cards are for people who have no intention of buying.” I’m not that cynical, but I am realistic. If I take a wild guess, I estimate that I receive one inquiry for every 1-200 cards that I distribute. Pretty low percentage, but if it results in a sale or purchase, it was worth it.

P.S. It’s now 9:30 PM on Tuesday night. The show finished a few hours ago and now we’re all packed up and anxious to get back to New York. We’ve been gone a month, so I’m champing at the bit (can I tell you how many people are wrong when they say chomping on the bit?) to get home. The show ended with a flurry of business for the last three hours — very exciting and very gratifying. We sat at the show for 35 hours of exhibition time and did 75% of our business during the last three hours. Some of it was to people returning after they’d seen something in our booth on previous days, but most of the business was to people who saw us for the first time. Business cut through many categories, a Pairpoint puffy, KPM plaques, Tiffany glass, an Icart etching, a Le Verre Francais vase, but it’s still strongest for French cameo glass. Thanks to each and every one of our clients. Their business is truly appreciated.

If you like my blog, please let your friends know by sending them a link. Then check out my new Tiffany, Daum, Gallé, Webb and R. Lalique acquisitions. I just listed some important Tiffany vases, straight from a private home. Here’s the link. chasenantiques.com

The Palm Beach Jewelry, Art & Antique Show is open until Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Opening day, Saturday, at 3 PM

The Palm Beach Jewelry, Art & Antique Show opened today at 11 AM. Attendance has been very good, but seems off a bit from last year. Business today was fair, with a few small sales. There’s been lots of interest and intelligent questions, so I’m cautiously optimistic that the show will ultimately be good. I gave out lots of business cards, but that’s usually to people who want to make a gracious exit from my booth. They think that if they ask for a card, I’ll think they’re serious. Quite the opposite.

Setup on Thursday

Setup at this show is different from most other shows, because once it begins on Thursday morning at 9 AM, it runs 24 hours a day. It’s nice to be able to choose my own hours and stay as long as necessary to complete the booth. The setup lasts until Friday afternoon because the preview party begins at 6 PM the same night. If you read my blog, you know what I think of preview parties, but this time it was different — I made two sales. Knock me over with a feather! This party wasn’t as stuffy as most. There really were buyers mixed in with party-ers. Lots of interest and questions.

The same view on opening day, Saturday

My next blog will be sometime on Wednesday, as the show ends on Tuesday at 6 PM. It’s strange for a show to run from Saturday to Tuesday, but it makes sense because it’s always held over the President’s Day weekend. Lots of folks travel to West Palm Beach for the long weekend.

If you like my blog, please let your friends know by sending them a link. Then check out my new Tiffany, Daum, Gallé, Webb and R. Lalique acquisitions. I just listed some important Tiffany vases, straight from a private home. Here’s the link. chasenantiques.com

Results from the Palm Beach Jewelry, Art & Antiques Show

A few of the lamps in my booth

A few of the lamps in my booth

It’s Tuesday, 5 PM, and the show is winding down. It’s hard work sitting for so many hours, talking to hundreds of people, but it’s gratifying when the show goes well, and this one went well. I personally talked to about a dozen exhibitors and most were very pleased with the results. One painting dealer (there were many painting dealers at this show) told me he did poorly. One general dealer told me he would have made a profit, had his expenses not been so high. Another dealer in English furniture and objects told me he had a good show. A Steuben dealer had a very good final day for a very good show overall. For the most part, most dealers did well.

Attendance was truly outstanding throughout the show, especially on the weekend. Today, Tuesday, was the lowest attendance, but even that was pretty good. The problem was that all the real buyers already were here, so today’s crowd was out for a good time only. If the show had ended yesterday, it would basically have been the same.

The show promoter did an excellent job. There were banners everywhere around town announcing the show, including a beautiful full-size outdoor billboard. If you lived anywhere in this area, it would have been impossible not to know about the show. Too bad most other show promoters do not put the same effort and resources into promotion.

Original Louis Icart oil painting 'Aux Trianons'

Original Louis Icart oil painting 'Aux Trianons'

Interest was strong in everything Tiffany, including lamps, desk sets and glass. Sales in Icart etchings and oil paintings were strong, a welcome change from the recent tepid interest. Surprisingly, interest in French glass was good, but sales were not.

It appears after several strong shows in Florida that the market has come back in a meaningful way. Besides personal experience, I’ve seen lots of anecdotal evidence. It appears that the economy is recovering nicely and that the statistics will soon reflect the increased optimism I see.

I’m taking a lot of time to add new items to my website. I’ve already listed new items under Gallé glass (including a blownout vase), Daum Nancy glass and Tiffany Studios glass. Soon I’ll be adding many Tiffany Studios desk pieces. Please take a look, as every day I’m adding more. Click on this link chasenantiques.com.

Please send me your suggestions or questions about art glass, lamps, Louis Icart, shows, auctions, etc. If it’s interesting, I’ll answer your question in a future blog entry.

Call or write and let me know what you would like to buy, sell, or trade. philchasen@gmail.com or
516-922-2090. And please visit my website. chasenantiques.com

The show must go on! The adventures of the Intrepid Antique Dealers

Southbound on I-95, south of Richmond, VA, 2/10/10

Southbound on I-95, south of Richmond, VA, 2/10/10

I’m writing this post from the passenger seat of a rented car on I-85, north of Charlotte, NC. Now for the story of how we got here.

Our scheduled departure for West Palm Beach, FL was today. The Palm Beach Jewelry, Art & Antique Show begins setting up tomorrow, with the opening preview party on Friday night. You probably know that a massive winter storm is presently battering the Northeast of the US. Since we had plenty of notice, I personally went to the airport on Monday to change our tickets to leave yesterday, Tuesday. The US Airways agent was very helpful and changed the tickets in five minutes. There was no penalty because all the airlines were permitting changes because of the impending weather. We were scheduled to fly from LaGuardia Airport in NYC to Washington, DC at 3 PM on Tuesday. I asked the agent if he could give us a more southern connecting city, but he said all the seats were sold. I was justifiably concerned about possible weather conditions in DC.

We arrived at LaGuardia on Tuesday at 1:45 PM, with plenty of time to spare. We started to check in, when the agent said he couldn’t find our reservation. Huh?? I had a printout of our flights from the previous day’s agent. When the agent in front of me continued checking, he found out that our flight from Washington, DC to West Palm Beach, FL, had been canceled and rescheduled for the 13th, four days later. Can you believe it? US Airways never informed us by phone or email that our flight had been canceled and rescheduled. I explained to the agent that we HAD to get to Florida in time to set up a show. Our driver was already halfway there with our merchandise and we had paid in full to exhibit there. For an hour and a half, Thomas valiantly tried to find an alternate route to ANY city in Florida on ANY airline, but every seat was sold out on every flight out of the area. My backup plan was to take a 24 hour train to Florida, but when I called Amtrak, I was told that all southbound trains had been canceled.

I suggested to my wife that we go home and get our car and drive to Florida, a suggestion that I really didn’t want to follow, but what was the alternative? My wife suggested that we rent a car one way to a southern city and then fly the rest of the way. Luckily I was able to find a car rental agency with a car left that we could take. We took the shuttle bus to the rental counter and were delayed there still more. We didn’t start driving until 5 PM. The big problem was that all the weather predictions were telling us that we only had a few hours until the storm was upon us. The prospect of driving in blizzard conditions was not appealing and honestly frightening, but off we started.

Right off the bat, we got stuck in rush hour traffic in New York City and were delayed still more. We didn’t reach the speed limit at any point until we got to Staten Island. OK, so far, so good. The first flakes of snow started to fall halfway through the state of New Jersey — WAY TOO SOON! We expected the snow and driving conditions to worsen as we drove south into the belly of the beast — and it did. Driving conditions continued to worsen through Maryland. It was SCARRREEE, but I drove carefully at greatly reduced speed. We needed to get past Washington, DC to somewhere in Virginia before we could find a motel. Amazingly as we got to the Washington, DC area, the precipitation turned to rain and stayed rain until we reached our motel about 50 miles south of Washington. We decided to sleep it out and deal with whatever we had to in the morning.

After a good night’s sleep, we looked out to find only a few inches of fresh snow. This area had been pounded with two recent storms, so the locals were happy about that. The weather reports indicated that the snow was almost completely north of us. We had made the right decision to push to Virginia. We got on the road and headed to the nearest airport in Richmond, VA. I didn’t even know if there would be any employees there, but luckily there were. After 20 minutes of complex changes to the record, we had our reservations to West Palm Beach from Charlotte, NC at 6 PM. What was the name of that comedy movie where the ticket agent keeps typing and pressing hundreds of keystrokes to accomplish a simple task? That was me, watching this woman, talking on the phone to another agent to accomplish this incredibly complex task of changing our plane reservation. We could have flown from Richmond, VA to Charlotte, NC, but most of the flights were sold out and weather conditions were quite sketchy in Richmond. So we elected to drive to Charlotte and catch the plane there.

We’ll be arriving in Charlotte shortly. The weather is sunny and very windy, so I’m hoping that our flight will get to West Palm Beach today. Got my fingers crossed.

So now that you see the lengths we were willing to go to to exhibit at this show, you HAVE TO come and visit. :>) I’ve brought an incredible number of new and exciting items that I did not have at the Miami shows. See you there! The show must go on!

I’m taking a lot of time to add new items to my website. I’ve already listed new items under Gallé glass (including a blownout vase), Daum Nancy glass and Tiffany Studios glass. Soon I’ll be adding many Tiffany Studios desk pieces. Please take a look, as every day I’m adding more. Click on this link chasenantiques.com.

Please send me your suggestions or questions about art glass, lamps, Louis Icart, shows, auctions, etc. If it’s interesting, I’ll answer your question in a future blog entry.

Call or write and let me know what you would like to buy, sell, or trade. philchasen@gmail.com or
516-922-2090. And please visit my website. chasenantiques.com

More follow-up to the Original Miami Beach Antiques Show

Gilded Tiffany Studios 7-light lily table lamp

Gilded Tiffany Studios 7-light lily table lamp

I wrote my last blog entry this past Sunday morning about the preliminary results of the Original Miami Beach Antiques Show. Now that the show is over, I can report the final results. The show was close to a barnburner. Business continued strong on Sunday and Monday, with overall results in the top one-third of all the Miami Beach shows for the last 30 years. I also talked to many more dealers about their results and almost everyone agreed that business was very good. One dealer reported that he had a record show. Fortunately, very few dealers told me they did poorly, but there were a few.

What was even more encouraging was that business was spread out over many clients, including several new ones. That’s always important and gratifying. I feel lucky when I’ve done a lot of business with a few clients, but not with many clients. It’s a sign that business is good and getting better. No one category was especially strong, with interest spread out over many. That too is encouraging. I did notice moderately strong interest in Tiffany lily lamps.

The Palm Beach Jewelry, Art & Antique Show, February 13-16, 2010

The Palm Beach Jewelry, Art & Antique Show, February 13-16, 2010

I held off deciding on whether to exhibit at the Palm Beach Jewelry, Art & Antique Show until I could better gauge sentiment. After the Miami Beach show, I think it’s worth another try, so I’ll be there in a couple of weeks. I’ve always liked to exhibit there, but expenses are high, so it’s not a gamble I’m willing to take if business is weak. This time I’m optimistic. You’ll read my report in a couple of weeks and see if my optimism was warranted. In case you haven’t ever visited the show, it’s a good one. The exhibitors are high-end, with several of them exhibiting at very few shows. The overall quality is several notches higher than the Miami Beach show, with all of the objects vetted by experts. I’ll be bringing quite a few new items that I didn’t take to the Miami Beach show, so come and see me. You’ll surely enjoy the show.

I’m taking a lot of time to add new items to my website. I’ve already listed new items under Gallé glass (including a blownout vase), Daum Nancy glass and Tiffany Studios glass. Soon I’ll be adding many Tiffany Studios desk pieces. Please take a look, as every day I’m adding more. Click on this link chasenantiques.com.

Please send me your suggestions or questions about art glass, lamps, Louis Icart, shows, auctions, etc. If it’s interesting, I’ll answer your question in a future blog entry.

Call or write and let me know what you would like to buy, sell, or trade. philchasen@gmail.com or
516-922-2090. And please visit my website. chasenantiques.com