The Hand of Fate

Several years ago our friend Don Buckley gave us a insightful look at the antiques business when he quipped, "All sales are accidental." His words had a ring of truth, and in the subsequent years we've seen his generalization manifest in myriad ways, but never more vividly than in the following incident that happened at the new Equinox Hotel show in Manchester VT last October.

The story begins a week earlier at the Vermont ADA show in the same Vermont village. Ann, a long-time client, had called us a few days earlier. She is building a collection of circa 1800 accessories to replicate an early 19th century inventory of the contents of her Vermont home. Her current mission was to find a blown glass tumbler from the period, and she had called to see if we had one. Fortunately, we had recently purchased a pair, which were priced at about what one might expect to pay for only one. She asked us if we'd bring them to Manchester, and we agreed to hold them until she arrived at the show. She arrived promptly on the first day and bought the glasses.

During the conversation that ensued she showed us a picture of a fork she had unearthed on her property and asked us if we ever got examples of similar ones. We felt that we had at least one pair in stock and promised to check our inventory of period cutlery and e-mail her some images of possible matches.

At home we went through our stock and selected three combinations of knives and forks that we felt might fill the bill, narrowed our choice to two, and e-mailed pictures. Ann asked us to bring both with us to the show at the Equinox Hotel one week later.

We brought with us the two sets we had show her as well as the third set, which was less appropriate to her needs, but otherwise as good. We placed the third set on a table in our booth, holding the two contenders in a drawer, pending her arrival. Ann arrived soon after the show opened, examined all three pair, and chose one. Before beginning to write her receipt, we placed the pair she didn't select on our display table.

Before we had begun to write her receipt, we heard a male voice from the back of our booth. "I think we should have these," he said. I turned to see the knife and fork we had just placed on the table in the speaker's hand. We smiled as we noted the coincidence, but before we could comment, he then reached for the third set and added, "and we should have these as well."

Consider that, had the subject of knives and forks not come up at the VADA show, we probably would not have brought any cutlery to the Equinox. Consider that period cutlery is not high on everyone's list. And consider that attendance at the Equinox show could at best be described as "spotty". So, what are the odds that two cutlery buyers would choose the same moment to be in our booth?

Indeed, the laws of chance worked in our favor that Sunday.

Click to return to this month's newsletter.