ROUND TOP RECOVERY
Antiques dealers regroup to move merchandise
Suzanne Coppola and Bruce Dumonceau are busy arranging antique bistro tables, Louis Phillipe mirrors, champagne buckets and other items outside a Memorial Park-area warehouse they’re using as a temporary holding place for the things they would have sold at The Compound and the Marburger Farm Antique Show in Round Top.
The abrupt cancellation of the antiques shows that spread from Brenham to La Grange along Texas 237 in Fayette County prompted hundreds of antiques dealers to pause and wonder how they’ll move inventory as the coronavirus pandemic continues.
At the Original Round Top Antiques Fair, the Marburger Farm Antique Show, The Compound, Excess Fields and a variety of other tents that pop up in between, vendors sell all kinds of wares, from flea market finds to midcentury gems or even 17th-century fine antiques.
Most dealers shop the world for their wares, investing in shipping containers of goods they’ll sell in a matter of days to collectors, homeowners and interior designers who visit the spring and fall shows in cult-like fashion.
Right now, Coppola is losing sleep. She apologizes for her puffy eyes and rambling conversation. She was up at 2 a.m., thinking about what she should do next, and saw that a friend had posted a goofy video on social media. Apparently, he couldn’t sleep either.
She talks in a serious tone about her options, scaling back her operation, shifting to a store in Round Top, moving merchandise at wholesale prices for cash flow. Then she spies a bottle of 190-proof Everclear liquor, laughs from her belly and talks about her recipe for DIY hand sanitizer.
The past seven days have been a very long week.
Social-media shift
Coppola and others are tapping into Facebook and Instagram, getting better photography for firstdibs.com and chairish.com. Show operators already had websites, Instagram and Facebook pages and a new one — 2020
Round Top Antiques Fair Online Shopping — was launched recently to connect dealers and shoppers.
It’s not just about doing business, it’s about staying in business.
Marburger amped up its presence on Instagram, posting pictures and websites for its dealers. Early on, show organizers met to discuss a plan. First, they’re rolling over all of the fees for vendors’ expenses in the fall, and they’ll honor ticket purchases then, too.
Without knowing how the coronavirus will evolve, show organizers couldn’t plan for a later date, and a summer show would likely dilute the fall shows that start in late September. Besides, who wants to roam through fields and outdoor tents in Texas in July or August?
“Some people do this as a hobby, but a lot of us do it to feed our family,” said Coppola, who owns the year-round Laurier Blanc antiques and decorative arts store on Bissonnet. “Underneath, I’m in full panic mode, but I’m trying to be calm. Some hard decisions have to be made.”
On Wednesday morning, she was busy fielding calls from interior designers who were shopping for clients through texted photos and online hashtags. Interior designer Marie Flanigan of Marie Flanigan Interiors saw an Instagram post with a pair of lantern pendants, and Coppola was measuring them to see if they would work for her.
Coppola has done well in her
Marburger booth in past years and this year was planning to extend her Round Top run by starting early at The Compound, then shifting later when Marburger opened.
‘Creating a circle’
Other dealers had high hopes, too. Pearland friends Emily Besser and Carrie Teague were planning a major launch of their new Plumbing Provisions business from a log cabin at Henkel Square. Textiles vendor Courtney Barton is in the middle of rebranding her own Houston business and was ready for her tent space at The Arbors.
Kay McMurtre had dozens of Louis Vuitton bags enhanced with Western-style trim ready for her popular Leather and Vodka booth at Marburger; Zapp Hall and Lisa Burnett and seven other Atlanta shop dealers had shipped containers of goods for their booths at Marburger.
Barton operated her Melo and Roam — now rebranded simply as Courtney Barton — from space at The Gray Door in Upper Kirby as she readied her own yearround store that should open in Round Top in the fall.
She had plenty of inventory for her booth at The Arbors for the spring show, stocking up on one-of-a-kind antiques, handpoured candles, dohar blankets and decorative pillows. Now she’s taking a deep breath, grateful that she recently spent time upgrading her website.
“I’m so thankful that I put a lot of time into that in the last two months. I’m not in a unique situation, every business is feeling this now,” Barton said. “People really are trying to create a bigger circle around local businesses. One of my clients called me and said ‘what day can I meet you? I want to shop.’ I feel comforted and energized and excited that this will all be OK.”
Besser and Teague launched Plumbing Provisions late last year, creating one-of-a-kind bathroom furniture from antiques, vintage finds and designs of their own. They intend to be a business that works directly with designers and contractors and planned a big splash at Round Top.
The 15 custom pieces they hoped would generate custom work from interior designers and builders are now stored in their workshop behind Teague’s Pearland
home as they regroup.
“It was going to be a big premiere moment, to be sure. To say this is heartbreaking is an understatement,” Besser said. “I know we’ll rebound; we have pieces people will be excited about. Now we have to figure out what stores we’ll be able to put them in.”
Time to strategize
Five years ago, McMurtre, a Huntsville native living in Austin, enhanced a vintage Louis Vuitton bag with new leather and braids, Western style. Others wanted one just like it and a small business was born. She mostly sells her bags online, but you can find them in Kemo Sabe stores in Aspen, Vail and Las Vegas.
They range from $1,250 to $6,000, and people search for her booths at Zapp Hall and Marburger to shop her readymade bags or to bring their own in for custom work.
She brings around 40 bags and sells most of them, so the upside of the shows’ cancellation is that McMurtre has more bags to sell online at leatherandvodka.com.
“But (the spring show) is how we pay taxes. It’s a big deal for us, that our whole spring-tosummer cash flow is on a halt,” she said. “We sold a couple of bags on our website yesterday. That means I can pay people. I’m not too worried because we have so many custom orders in right now.”
Lisa Burnett’s Inner Pieces antiques store is one of a cluster of eight on the same street in Atlanta. They’ve all sold goods at Marburger for years, and they sat down together this week to strategize as a group.
“It’s not just Marburger, our stores could be out of business for months and it’s our sole income,” said Burnett, who specializes in European antiques. “One person wondered if we should spend the money, but I said, ‘do you think people are more likely to go to just your website, or will they go to a website that has eight times the inventory on it?’ ”
“Some people do this as a hobby, but a lot of us do it to feed our family.” Suzanne Coppola, owner of Laurier Blanc