Observations

In my years in the antiquing world, I’ve identified three types of dealers—the snooty dealer, who knows all dates, periods, makes, and models, and has all pristine Don’t- Touch-My-Stuff inventory; the fly-by-night gypsy, who sleeps in his van with his dog, schlepping his wares from town to town; and the housewife, who always has her Burberry tennis visor on, and just so happens to have her tax id number handy when she see something for her grand country estate. Yet, they all have some things in common. They all know each other from the Swinderby’s country market in the U.K. to the Bermondsey market in London, to the Brimfield market in Mass. to the Scott’s show in Atlanta, to the stores of Savannah, Charleston, Birmingham, Charlotte, Miami, and so on and so on. Next, they all carry the same bible (Veranda magazine)! Most importantly, all of them spend an enormous amount of time trying to figure out what people are buying.

Which leads me to today’s topic - trends!

Back in my day when I was stocking my inventory, I would buy bistro chairs, tables, plantstands—basically if it was rustic and iron it was mine. I’ll just call it French junk as others have called it. French junk a trend? Hey, it sold…well and I liked it. Next, one cold wintry day in the countryside in England, my buddy Liz showed up at the tent where we were all sipping our tea and trying to stay warm and showed us the great antlers and some other furry things she had found for the day. My other buddy & I looked at each other in amazement. Looking back, I wished I would have bought my antlers while I was there. I now own two pairs of German Black Forest deer antlers. Moose heads, deer heads, antlers—trends?

Picture coutesy of Veranda

Which brings me to today, foo dogs everywhere! Now a popular retail store has their version of them. In fact, I was out with Cruella and I spotted a pair. I went straight up, looked at the price & thought, not bad I love that color—Cruella just looked at me and moved on (code for she's not interested). I did leave the store without purchasing the dogs, and I even bumped into another pair on one of my many trips out and still passed on them. In the end, I guess, I’m just a Staffordshire kind of girl, and yes, I would buy that moose head if I had my in-laws mountain cabin. Do I follow trends? I don’t know; I do know that I buy what I like!

My Staffordshire Pup!

In retrospect, after categorizing antique dealers last year in my journal, I now look back and think the biggest commonality that all antique dealers share is passion! Oh if your looking for foo dogs just let me know!

My Staffordshire perched on some books!
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