Being an antiques dealer

I never really 'set out' to become a dealer..it's something that happened after I found myself redundant.  I have always been passionate about antiques, my mother was as well and I was already collecting in my 20's.  Why did I become one..well it came in passing with different people, and finally my other half gave me the push I needed, he was already a successful Railwayanna dealer..so it kind of 'happened'.
What's it like being a dealer?  Difficult one that! While I am already passionate about antiques, being a dealer takes a bit of the shine off it, because you are buying to SELL not buying for YOUSELF as a collector.  This means the excitement of going to antique fairs to buy, becomes the absolute nightmare of going to SELL.  Why a nightmare you may ask..well here goes
1) getting up at the crack of dawn is not something for those who love their beds like me
2) being organised...I am the worlds worse organiser
3) packing the car the night before when all you want is to curl up in front of the TV with a glass of Merlot
4) offloading all the stuff when you get there and setting up ( inevitably leads to some really bad arguments)
5) waiting for someone to buy with baited breath, 5 hrs later you are still waiting!
6) toilet break, tea break, lunch break WHAT BREAK?
7) packing up afterwards is even worse than unloading
Then you have to do it ALL OVER AGAIN
Oh my days !!!
But then the good points are
1) you generate an income albeit a small one
2) you are your own boss
3) you don't have to worry about Monday's
4) you can watch TV when you want
5) you get to obtain some absolutely fabulous pieces ( ok you have to sell them but just for a short while they are YOURS)
6) you can slouch around in your onesie and no-one sees you (well except the poor traumatised postman)
Being a DEAF antiques dealer is slightly even worse, because you get dear old gentlemen wanting to buy something mumbling at you to ask the price, and look like a deer in the headlights when you mention you are deaf! Mind you, I usually get a lecture about how they have lost their hearing or their wife's mothers auntie has a deaf dog.
Bidding at auction (hysterical laughter) is...well...educating.  The auctioneer goes so fast and their language is so weird you need a crash course in auction language before you set foot through the door.  I have since learnt anything with the dreaded letters AF (as found) is a pottery equivalence of a car crash (cups with no handles, jars with no bottoms, clocks that don't and never will work again)
(After buying several AF lots myself ) I usually bid online ( oh the wonders of the Internet) although they slap you with a charge for doing so...discrimination you yell...actually in the world of antiques I doubt anyone knows what discrimination means !
However...in the journey I have made many great friends, met many weird wonderful people (like me) gone to many places I never would have, woken up to the fact the antique world is another 'community' with bitchiness, rivalry and backstabbing (which I find so very funny because when in the deaf community I thought we were the only ones who did that). I have experienced  all weather ( and sleeping in the snow) I have sat outside basking in the sun and cursing in the rain, I have learnt how to manipulate, flutter eyelashes and play the little old lady when necessary and of course I have learnt about many antiques I never even knew existed, their background, their collectors and of course their prices!
I have got myself easily identified as "that nice little deaf lady" so I stick out like a sore thumb in spite of hardly knowing anyone's names everyone knows ME! I get the usual thumbs up sign, the usual kiss, hug and of course the goldfish mouthing of 'hello' or 'how are you my dearie' so I have become the antique dealers pet...the only deafie in the village
Would I change it? Well sometimes it's lonely, sometimes I miss the excitement of Fridays, and the team effect, Christmas holidays, bank holidays and so on, but hey I can go in the garden and drink wine in the sun whenever I want, keep lots of animals to satisfy my "mother earth" part of my personality.

All in all it's a challenge, it's not a nine to five job supporting a money grabbing giant, fighting stupid systems and red tape, it's not something you have to dress up for, follow corporate rules with endless pointless meetings.  It's about using your brain for YOU, using your guts for YOU generating an income for YOU.

Well I am now off to feed my hens, ducks, cats and my dog..then I will visit my granddaughter, have a cup of tea then get back to sorting out my antiques for the next fair.  I will forget about early mornings, horrid weather and unloading cars for the time being :-)

The difference between Art Nouveau and Deco

Well first of all it's all about the style and then the time period.

Art Nouveau can be said to have originated in the 1880's and lasted until the start of the First World War in 1914 (although there was an overlap with items in the art nouveau style continuing to be produced into the 1920s)

. It derived its name from Maison de l'Art Nouveau, an interior design gallery opened in Paris in 1896. The style had many different names throughout Europe being known as Jugendstil in Germany, Sezessionstilin Austria, Modernista in Spain, Stile Liberty and Floreale in Italy. It was a reaction against the historicism which had plagued the 19th century.

Art Nouveau has an almost organic feel to it appearing more to have grown than to have been created by man.

The style was most likely to have been influenced by William Morris, the arts and crafts movement as well as the pre Raphelites

Art Deco (or Art Moderne) was itself then a reaction against the Art Nouveau style and was very popular in the 20's and 30's but wasn't actually termed Art Deco until the 1960's deriving its name from the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs Industriels et Modernes. It was an elegant style of cool sophistication in architecture and the applied arts, which ranged from luxurious objects made from exotic material to mass produced, streamlined items available to a growing middle class. The style was crisper and more geometric then Art Nouveau.  The discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamen November 1922was a major influence on the Art Deco style) and Mayan influences and contemporary art deco styling.

This style spanned the boom of the roaring 1920s and the bust of the Depression-ridden 1930s. Art Deco represented many things for many people. It was the style of the flapper girl and the factory, the luxury ocean liner and the skyscraper, the fantasy world of Hollywood and the real world of the Harlem Renaissance. Art Deco affected all forms of design, from the fine and decorative arts to fashion, film, photography, transport and product design. It was modern and it was everywhere

When we refer to articles made for the home the most obvious (and well known) examples of the Art Nouveau style are the glass of Emile Galléand Tiffany, the furniture of Majorelle and Liberty, the metal wares from the German manufacturer W.M.F. and once again Liberty. The sculptures in bronze and ivory by Chiparus, Preiss and Lorenzl, theexquisite glass of René Lalique, the English Odeon cinema's of the 1930's, and the pottery of Clarice Cliff, typify the various styles and movements that come under the umbrella term of Art Deco.

So to sum up my very brief explanation of these two styles, think fluidity, organic and whiplash motifs for Art Nouveau and streamlined, geometric, shiny and "modern" for Art

Deco. Of course not everything made during these periods can be called Art Nouveau and Art Deco. A vase from the year 1900 isn’t automatically described as being Art Nouveau. A table isn't an example of Art Deco just because it was made in 1930. Why not? Well, as I said at the start, it's all about the style...

Technically speaking, or should I say artistically speaking, we should only identify something 'Art Deco Style' or ‘Art Nouveau Style’ if it was produced during the correct dates since that is when the design stylesoriginated.

Many art historians and purists scoff at the 'new' Art Deco/Nouveau. The common sentiment is that the revival items produced today aresomewhat lacking in character and cheapens the meaning and symbolism of the original movemens. I agree to an extent.

I think that the revival pieces when they are created as an homage to Art Deco/Nouveau, as opposed to trying to completely 'knock-off' an original piece, can be just as beautiful and exude just as much character as the work previously produced

More reading

ART NOUVEAU

http://www.scva.ac.uk/education/resources/pdfs/13.pdf

ART DECO

http://www.art-deco-style.com/k/page/a/art-deco/" http://www.vam.ac.u    

http://www.art-deco-style.com/k/page/a/art-deco/