If you admire antiques and collectibles, this may be a good time to indulge. Recent reports document the decline of businesses in Center City’s Antiques Row on Pine Street, and dealers in Montgomery County must respond to similar market changes in the suburbs.
“Business is off. Tastes change,” says Charles Steinberg, owner of Abington Antique Shop. Steinberg is a purist about antiques, taking pride in the family business established by his grandfather in 1892, and defining antiques as items no less than one hundred years old. “There’s no shortage of money,” Steinberg notes, but buyers seem to be tired of spending it on serious heirlooms. Yet the expert says that for the quality, nobody today can make the equivalent, even for twice as much money.
“Everything is in limbo,” says John Mason, owner of Jenkintown Antique Guild for 38 years. “Business is at the verge and nobody knows where it’s headed.”
David Kirkland is owner of Kirkland and Kirkland in Glenside’s Keswick Village. The retired corporate executive began the business with his wife about 15 years ago. “Flexibility” is their key for buying, selling and serving customers. So instead of downsizing as the market swings, Kirkland expanded into relocation services.
Kirklands offer a menu of activities they perform for adults moving into smaller quarters – from staging a home for sale to finding the best destination for items being discarded. Kirkland says they sell some things over the Internet, direct some items to public auction and purchase others outright for sale in their shop.
Kirkland says he sells to a lot of designers. He also sees furniture being converted for alternative purposes. Small chests and drawers become cabinets for bathroom sinks and old sewing machine consoles become cabinets and tables. A woodworking professional on Kirkland’s staff has helped cut back some old church pews, turning them into facing couches in front of a fireplace and as benches for kitchen corners.
Housed in a remarkable piece of architecture Mason attributes to Trumbauer, Jenkintown Antique Guild offers unusually unusual items. For example, you’ll find a (shortened) propeller from a blimp; a wall of incredible oak and steel cubby drawers from a local hardware store; and vintage equipment from dairy farms and businesses. As cool as the items themselves, are the uses to which Mason suggests they can be put. He envisions the enormous milk and butter vats serving as ice chests for beer parties. The business records case could house an extensive baseball card collection. The hardware case would be a treasure for a craftsperson or a very large jewelry box. Mason believes that for every lid there’s a pot.
But don’t bother asking what items are hot or what makes a good investment. “It doesn’t work that way,” explains Kirkland. “People come in looking for something we don’t have, but they see something else they love and buy it. You never know what somebody will want.”
Steinberg doesn’t recommend buying antiques for investment purposes because the market is too uncertain. Buy items for their charm and to enjoy, the dealers advise.
And right now, many old finds are priced for your pleasure.
