editorial@auctiontechnologygroup.com
MADAM – I respond to the comments by John Trory in ATG’s new Soapboxsection (Letters, ATGNo 2273).
Having spent most of my life in antiques and owning my own shop Lady Kentmores Antiques, in Callander, Scotland, I am very passionate about the trade.
A few years ago myself, Gail McLeod and Mark Hill set up Antiques Young Guns, in part to give something back to a trade that has been very good to the three of us.
Our objective is to promote the trade to the under-39-year-old demographic and help these young dealers and auctioneers along on their career paths.
We were blown away with the vibrant passion and hard-working ethic we found within this group, but also by the sheer amount of young blood there is in this trade.
The antiques business has always had a young beating heart at its core, whether in the old days of apprentices, the Saturday boy who stayed with the older dealer until he went out on his own or the runners and porters.
To assert, as Mr Trory does, that “we are wasting our time with under-35s” is not only very rude to young members of this great trade but is almost business suicide. I disagree that teenage fads last until 35 and see many 30 year olds with houses and money to spend.
We ignore the next generation at our peril. They might have different tastes and styles, but many have money and are willing to buy the right objects.
George Johnson
Lady Kentmores Antiques Callander, Scotland
