SET 30 PT HEAD

New Hope Winter Antiques Show

Set 18 pt

Welcome — Twenty-one years of change, but tradition remains the same.

NO CUTS

As I frequent auctions, shows and shops, there is always that constant buzz, “The business is changing, things are not the same.” I guess this truly reflects the old adage that the one thing that is certain is change.

Of course, this is true in all aspects of life and business. Just think how technology over the past ten years has changed our lifestyles. The way we sell and buy, the way we bank, the way we gather information. For the most part this has all been positive change. As dealers and collectors we now have the information highway at our fingertips. We can research that oil painting or that unusual piece of pottery. We can become well informed.

When Peter and I first started our business more than 20 years ago, we were hand scribing entries into ledgers and hand addressing show postcards. Back in the mid-eighties, I thought the fax machine was at the top of technology along with the word processor. Little did we know what was to come. As dealers and collectors, those that adjust to change will reap the rewards.

Other changes in our world include collecting trends. We should not only enjoy the early Americana and European Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century antiques that we have immersed ourselves in over the past decades. Many collectors have expanded their worlds: abstract/modernist art, art pottery, Arts and Craft Movement, postwar and contemporary art, art glass, midcentury modern decorative arts and more. One should know the benefits of all aspects of the antiques world. If you are serious, all must come into play: shops, auctions, quality shows and the Internet.

Even with all of today’s high tech and collecting trends, however, some things will never change. Sometimes it is as simple as four of the five senses. Visualize this — you are out picking, a wonderful object catches your eye (the color, the form, the surface), you reach out and pick it up (the feel, the touch, the weight), you pull it close to your face (the smell), now you bring it closer to your ear as you gently tap on it (the sound). These are the senses of a true collector. These senses will never transfer to even the best LCD screen on your computer.

There are other basic traditions that remain in our “changing” business. The personal interaction between dealer and collector can never be replaced. In many ways we all do remain traditional. A quality antiques dealer with a realistic price can always sell to a collector/customer or a fellow dealer who is willing and sometimes anxious to buy. It is this tradition on which the strength of our antiques show is based.

Join us for our 21st year of the New Hope Winter Antiques Show and visit our wonderful sister river towns of New Hope/Bucks County and Lambertville, N.J. Make it a tradition.

David Mancuso