Audrey Lipton wants to correct the record.
First, I had not anticipated that the e-mail message I sent you yesterday would be shared with the entire mailing list or I would have been more diplomatic.

Second, after seeing your photos on line, today I stopped by the Steuben store and was very pleasantly surprised. The selection of Carder Steuben pieces offered for sale was far more extensive than any I had seen there before. And the quality was generally superb. So I must redact my comment to the effect that the store did not offer collector quality Carder glass. Clearly, this is no longer the case. It was a pleasure to see so many wonderful pieces. Certainly the best offered in New York City and certainly better than the offerings one might see at most antique shows. Bravo Steuben store!

Lisa Ackerman, antique dealer of Orange, California speaks for the small antique store and dealer.
Thank you for including me in your Gazette distribution. I enjoy sitting at the feet of such experienced collectors.
As the owner of a small antique store that deals in general vintage glass, silver, china, etc, I can only offer that usually within a week or two of getting a nice piece in, it finds a home. As another dealer used to say, “The Good Stuff always sells!” Add to that the fact that there is no secret catalog of old stock we dealers can order out of to replenish our stock AND the internet, and it is a real challenge to maintain the quality of goods we would like.
Before online auctions, those who were “de-acquisitioning” would generally contact stores to buy their collections. Now it goes online or to an auction that is online.
But I guess the ‘upside’ is that when you DO find a store and they DO have a piece you can’t live without, it is an even GREATER find! And I DO agree that contacts are all important. As is continuing to patronize those stores that are struggling to pay rent to ever greedy land lords, pay fair prices for merchandise to those who are downsizing who are just SURE what they have is Antique Roadshow worthy and want the earth the moon and three satellites for it, etc.
Thank you for sharing your trip with all of us! I’m glad you had an excuse to go to New York! 🙂 Lisa Ackerman in Orange, CA

Finally, a Steuben specialty dealer, Lon Knickerbocker of Dansville, New York provides another point of view.
I find all this discussion on NYC and what used to be, rather fascinating. Audrey is right on in suggesting specialized collectors buy from specialized dealers. This situation has always existed but has become more prevalent with the advent of e-bay and the ever fast world we live in.

I think it is very difficult for the dealer today to do business the way the business has changed. There are so few great high-end pieces available and when they do come available it is almost always through auction. The dealer is forced to back off do to the extreme prices a few collectors have pushed these so-called high-end items up to. The dealer cannot outbid these collectors, who would they then sell the items to. In other cases the dealer would be forced to bid against their own clientele, which makes little sense.

Being from Corning originally and now living with-in an hour of there, I have had the opportunity to both see for sale and offer for sale many great pieces. Often these wonderful pieces just sit in the shops and the so called advanced collectors just ignore them or perhaps they just ignore Corning. This forces the dealer to make a decision, hold the piece or put it in auction, you can see what happens. I myself have tried to avoid this but occasionally one has no choice. A couple years ago I offered a quite rare item to several collectors, no one bought the item. I consigned the item to a prominent auction house and received almost triple what I had asked, the under bidder was one of the people I had offered the item to. I have been told similar stories by many dealers. So often, it’s who you buy the item from or where you buy the item that’s important to the collector, what a shame.

It no longer makes sense for the dealer to have a shop with all the overhead and the cost of the items, particularly in an environment such as NYC. Often dealers end up operating what would seem a museum, so most have left for greener pastures, in other words, e-bay or the like.

No matter what happens in the economy or how many online auction services there are I’ll continue to sell my Steuben the old fashion way. I’ll probably have things available again this year during the symposium if anybody is really interested.