We’re just back from participating in the 61st annual Theta Charity Antiques Show in Houston- the nation’s longest running fine art and antiques fair, and, for us, one of the best to participate in. Let me say at the outset that a very large part of this is due to the kindness and professionalism of the Theta ladies who, year in and year out, work to make this a stellar event. Behind the scenes, participating dealers are never so well fed and watered as they are by the Theta ladies. And to the wider world, no other fair is as widely promoted. We saw no fewer than 20 TV ads for the show, and countless print and billboard ads. The preview party is an event of the first order, and for this year, not another soul could have been accommodated, it was that full.
For those venal few amongst my handful of readers, you may ask about the proof of the pudding. So, if you must know, we brought home substantially less gear than we took.
But as happy as we are with the spot sales at the show, Houston has become for us nearly like home, given the numbers of collector relationships we’ve been fortunate to establish. Keith and I arrived several days in advance of the show and tarried for two days after its conclusion to meet with clients. High touch, and we like it that way. Collectors ourselves, we happily engage with those who wish to engage with us.
And I suppose, to reflect on the show itself, that’s what’s crucial to remember- engagement. A number of our clients visited the show several times during its run, attending one or more of the lectures from an impressive roster of speakers, and also taking the time to really look at the material that the dealers had on show. Mind you, we did see a fair old number of interior designers- including show speaker and New York based super designer Elissa Cullman but what we’ve really begun to notice are the increasing numbers of collectors making at-show purchases. This is a happy throwback to an earlier time, with the collecting public establishing, as they did in the old days, relationships with their favorite dealers. We’re happy for the spot sales and the designer driven sales, but it is the relationships that pay the bills year in and year out.
An engaged crowd of attendees may not necessarily make a show successful for dealers in the short term, but I’d venture to say it will in the long term, which is, I hope, how dealers involved with the show would gauge success, and gauge thereby their interest in returning the following year. And so, too, the Theta ladies. Engagement, within the context of certainly the Theta fair involves the dealer and both domestic partners whenever a significant purchase decision is in the offing. When we have both wife and husband in our stand, I know we will have a much, much greater opportunity to sell than if we have either just the wife or just the husband. While the Theta preview is certainly a couples function, we didn’t see husbands in great numbers until the Sunday, the last day of the show. Perhaps next year, the Theta ladies might want to add to their playbook further functions to consistently bring in both sexes during the entire run of the show.
The Theta Charity Antiques Show, held annually at Houston’s George R Brown Convention Center