In real estate, it is location, location, location. But when it comes to antiques, the buzzword is ethics, ethics, ethics. At least it is to the Antiques Dealers’ Association of America (ADA), which was formed in May 1984 as a nonprofit trade organization to “make more professional the business of buying and selling antiques.”
According to the association’s statement of purpose, the ADA “is composed of professional antiques dealers who are dedicated to integrity, honesty and ethical conduct in the antiques trade.”
That one sentence is the reason why dealers selected for membership in the association prize it so highly and why buyers look for the ADA logo when buying from dealers.
In times past, there was an implicit trust between dealer and client and deals were often sealed with a handshake. Nowadays, buyers often perceive dealers with a skeptical eye.
As in any industry, a few bad apples can spoil the barrel, but the ADA, formed when dealers did not have a collective voice, seeks out and cultivates a group of high-minded dealers who are knowledgeable about what they sell, have a strong business model and are ethical in their dealings.
Membership is by invitation only and it is renewed annually, subject to review by the board of directors. The ADA requires that its members sign a certificate agreeing to abide by the ADA’s bylaws, as well as to guarantee in writing their merchandise on sales receipts as to approximate age, origin, condition and restoration, if any. A standing ethics committee meets to ensure members continue to meet the ADA’s standards.
It is this very guarantee and its members’ commitment to honest business practices that allows customers to buy antiques with a high level of confidence from an ADA member.
“It is very important to me at the end of the day that I can look my customers and clients in the eye. These are the people I work for, many of whom have become lifelong friends,” said David Rudd of Dalton’s American Decorative Arts, Syracuse, N.Y., who joined the ADA after he was recently invited to become a member..
Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, the ADA is eagerly anticipating its annual fall antiques show, which is always scheduled for Columbus Day weekend. The show will take place at Deerfield Academy, October 10‱1, and marks the ninth year of collaboration with Historic Deerfield. This year, the show will feature just over 50 of the country’s leading dealers, who are seen at top antiques shows across the country. ADA treasurer and veteran show producer Karen DiSaia, a recognized dealer in Oriental rugs, runs the show for the ADA.
Jeff Bridgman of Jeff Bridgman American Antiques, York County, Penn., said he feels privileged to be a member of the ADA and “particularly privileged to exhibit alongside the great dealers who participate in the ADA’s one and only annual show in Deerfield, Mass., which is the best quality show that I do all year and I look forward to it with great anticipation.”
Phil Zea, director of Historic Deerfield, serves on the ADA’s board of directors, and was presented with the association’s Award of Merit last spring for his contributions to the antiques trade. The ADA runs two major events a year: the fall show and its awards dinner in April, conducted in conjunction with the Philadelphia Antiques Show, to honor the award winner. Both events are eagerly anticipated all year by members, as well as many in the trade.
The fall show has moved around some over the years and has been presented in White Plains, N.Y., as well as in Springfield and Deerfield, Mass. Its first year at Deerfield Academy was in 1998 and after a stint elsewhere, it came back to Deerfield Academy in 2003, Zea recalled, shortly after he himself returned to work at Historic Deerfield. The show has been there ever since and there are no plans to change that.
ADA membership is at a record high, with around 115 members, all the more noteworthy, given the current economic times. “This group is getting stronger and stronger,” DiSaia said, adding that she was excited to see membership stay high when other groups are losing members.
As with many other volunteer-based organizations, at the heart of ADA is a core group of members who have held or continue to hold nearly every elected position on the board of directors or on each major committee.
ADA President John Keith Russell has been president for 13 of the association’s 25 years. “It’s been a joy. I truly enjoy the other members of the organization and the opportunity to work with people I have such admiration for and esteem for,” he said, noting he has made friendships with people outside his collecting interest that he might not have bonded with otherwise, were it not for the ADA.
That people in the trade think highly of the ADA is not a surprise, but to what extent is best evidenced in an anecdote that the ADA’s Executive Director Lincoln Sander likes to relate about ADA Award of Merit recipient Wendell Garrett, veteran editor of The Magazine Antiques , who was given the award in 2004. In recent years, Garrett was asked to fill in a curriculum vitae for another award he was being given and rather than list the many books he has authored and his lengthy list of accomplishments, he wrote in all areas of the lengthy form, that he received the ADA Award of Merit.
Charles and Barbara Adams, South Yarmouth, Mass., were among the founding members, joining the ADA in its inaugural year, Charles as its founding treasurer. “We believed then as we still do now that professionalism is so important to the antiques business. Becoming a member of a group that stands for honesty and integrity in the business is so important in establishing your credibility with customers. We are proud to display the ADA symbol in our booth and ads and special sections for shows.”
Sander recalled the association’s founding. At the time, there were several powerful show managers (who shall remain nameless) who set strict restrictions on exhibiting dealers as to which shows they could do or not do, and a group of dealers became very upset and decided to meet as a group to talk about what dealers could do.
A few of the initial meetings were in Daniel and Karen Olson’s Eighteenth Century fieldstone home in Newburgh, N.Y., around their 8-foot-long Hepplewhite dining table, which has hosted tens of thousands of family dinners, and is still in use today. The “big” meeting took place in the spring of 1984 at the former Danbury, Conn., Hilton and drew between 50 and 100 dealers.
Elections soon took place for officers and bylaws were written. The issue with show managers soon became a nonissue as the problem went away on its own and the direction of the association became clear: to promote professionalism in the business. And it has remained the focus all these years.
Founding members Arthur Liverant and his late father, Zeke, were eager to join the then-new association that was dedicated to improve ethics and integrity, as well as scholarship, in the trade.
“When we rub shoulders with each other, we all learn and we share information,” Arthur Liverant said. “We are very cognizant that when the dealer can improve his expertise and knowledge, everybody wins.
“In 25 years, we [the ADA] have gained the respect of the antiques collecting world, and I think a lot of collectors look to see our logo in dealers’ booths, dealers’ shops and in dealers’ ads,” Liverant said.
Asked how the ADA inspires buying confidence, DiSaia said the association is careful about who it admits for membership and strives to pick people who will live up the expectations of the organization.
Running the show is most decidedly a cooperative venture, she said, even though the proverbial buck stops with her. “It’s a pretty straightforward job. We’ve been doing it for a while. People are always willing to jump in and help with whatever needs to be done,” she said.
“I, for one, love doing the ADA show. It’s when we all get together in one room, and it’s just a good feeling. We have succeeded in the far-flung organization of individuals that is the antiques business and we are flourishing,” Liverant said.
George Allen and Gordon Wyckoff of Raccoon Creek Antiques, Oley, Penn., said their ADA membership has enriched their business and “the coalition between buyer and seller has the base root of ‘education’ and realizing the importance of an educated consumer is what we in the organization are all about.”
“Exchanging ideas, concepts, values and beliefs helps us all,” they continue, “and belonging to an organization such as this enables us to do this within the best environment †we love the organization and are proud that it exists and that we can be part of it!”
While the association is heavy on Americana dealers and its membership mostly encompasses the Northeast region, stretching from Maryland to Maine with a few Midwest dealers, several directors said they are looking to expand and broaden the scope of the ADA into all fields of antiques from Modernism to Arts and Crafts. Change has been slow in coming in this goal since an ADA member personally vets each potential new dealer before membership is offered and said member must be knowledgeable about that dealer’s specialty and the standards used to evaluate merchandise, meaning it would be hard for an Americana dealer to vet a dealer trading in European Modernism.
In its early days, ADA members ran things for a few years, but the job overtook what a volunteer could do in his or her free time, so an executive director was hired to manage its day-to-day-operations through an ad placed in Antiques and The Arts Weekly. That hire, Satenig St Marie, guided the organization through two decades before she retired a few years ago, whereupon Sander, who wanted to remain active as a dealer in the trade but was not doing shows anymore, stepped in to fill her shoes. “Sat, from behind the scenes, was responsible for guiding the organization to what we are today,” Sander said.
What does the next 25 years hold in store for the ADA? The antiques business, by its very nature, is a conservative one, steeped in history, yet the ADA is looking to the future by improving its website to better communicate its mission to the public as well as redouble efforts at “branding” to make the ADA the go-to source for buyers seeking dealers.
In these challenging times, Sander said a “retailing revolution” is taking place, forcing dealers to be creative and think outside the box to try and keep attracting collectors and buyers into the business of antiques. “We need to change the way we do business,” he said.
Russell agreed, saying, “We have met as groups of people in the antiques industry, to try and develop new ways to put ourselves in front of potential interested parties †new clients, museumgoers, etc.”
“I think we will get stronger, and the need for an organization [like ours] in today’s market grows stronger,” DiSaia said.
Initiatives in recent years in the trade and among ADA members include the “Every Collector Add a Collector,” where an experienced collector is asked to mentor a potential collector, easing his or her entry into the antiques world, as well as efforts to attract young collectors with special programs for young collectors and reduced show admission.
“The interest [in antiques] needs to be sparked, one needs to be exposed to it and have it explained,” Russell said. His own entry into collecting was in his early 20s while working around the globe for Porsche and stumbling across a Shaker chair. He bought the chair, read up on the Shakers, learned more, bought more and eventually a passion and business were born. “I was not anticipating the life I lead today. I was not anticipating being smitten by the material culture of a small group of Christian zealots that came to America in the Eighteenth Century.”
So, too, is the path for many in the trade whose own entries into antiques have been just as circuitous. And shepherding them along the way always is the Antiques Dealers’ Association of America, which has come to signify the best in the business.
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The ADA’s antiques show will take place inside the hockey rink at Deerfield Academy, 7 Boyden Lane. Show hours will be Saturday, October 10, from 11 am to 6 pm, and Sunday, 11 to 5. For more information, www.adadealers.com or 203-364-9913.
