As mentioned before I have met so many people from around the world, who live or pass through the Islands of the Philippines, which makes me a better person as travel in itself does too.
Recently I have had the pleasure of meeting a new friend here in Davao city , called Tim Walker who has come from a family that was already was in the business, so it really is in Tim’s blood, and his knowledge and experience is outstanding.
His father from a farming family and my mother from a family of working influence but together they started an antiques business in the same years of his birth, which appears to be a secret. He was very fortunate from an early age by the path in which his parents took and he gladly followed blindly.
He started my business at the age of 15 years old, and was known on the antiques show circuit as selling on a card table his parent’s booth from the age of about 9.
Now he is in the Philippines and it is amazing to have someone stand up at an expat meeting and share his total knowledge of Antique furniture and toys. Toys being my favorite subject of his so far.
It made me wonder what the antique market was like here in the Philippines, and I actually visited some places in Manila recently and was surprised by the amount of stock, but had no idea at all if the prices charged were reasonable, I then realized how important it would be to have Tim with his years of knowledge in assessing items for sale and valuations. Can you imagine if you get that wrong!!! What a skill that is to have here in the Philippines.
I wonder if toys from the last forty years here in the Philippines, the baby boom times would be valuable like they are in some of our home countries? He sold vintage farm toys,in the Dyersville Iowa Farm Toy National shows that his father use to drive me there to.So without doubt he knows his stuff.
The reason for writing about this is that Tim asked me is there a possibility of doing business here in the Philippines, domestic and selling and importing from abroad. Honest I have no idea, and would be very interested to hear from the LIP readers if this is something that is “hot” here, and where the hot spots are. This will allow Tim to set up a business here and enjoy the life of living in the Philippines.
Its not just toys, as when he was in the 20’s he ventured into designer furniture and vintage glassware.. By his mid 30s he had collected a large array of antiques for my home from Period Furniture, Paint Decorated Furniture, Fine Paintings and high grade Adirondack antiques as well.
So does Baguio or Manila have the role of antique center of the country? Id love to be able to tell Tim more, anyone have any ideas?
About John
Ha ha ha..I got confused with the title. I noticed that there was no comma between Antigue and Philippines. But I still thought you were referring to the province of Antigue.
Antque collection is a preoccupation of the rich. It is largely unregulated though.
Good Evening John.
It has been my experience that many wealthy people both in the Philippines and here in the US collect art and rare books to do with the Philippines. I believe I posted some months ago how I watched in fascination as some wealthy Filippinos from Bergen Co., NJ battled over a set of book (in Christies,NYC) published during the 1870′s to do with Philippine flowers. The set fetched nearly 35k when all was said and done. Like everything else it is best to become a specialist. Books published in the Philippines during the 1600′s and 1700′s are commanding very high prices in London and NYC. There are also many old handwritten Moslem texts from the Mindinao region that are becoming very valuable and this is an area that is becoming quite hot in the book business. I would also like to put this into a little perspective by adding that it is truly remarkable that only one antiquarian bookseller from the Philippines (maybe 100m pop) has books listed on the Bookseller Database called Abebooks. I know one of the principals and I understand that they are truly making a great deal of money from this business. The collectibles market is vast and my own personal expertise lies only in the book and print areas. Mind you I did buy a collection of very old ivory religious statues with gorgeous glass eyes from a Chinese gentleman in Manilla nearly thirty years ago and my understanding is that they have become very collectible and valuable. I bought the statues on a whim and I certainly had no idea at the time that they would become collectible. I also believe that old photographs (pre American era) from the Philippines are very much in demand. Some of the really old photos by photographers like William Saunders fetch thousand of dollars as evidenced by the prices realised in Swann Galleries this week. The antique business in general is a wonderful way to gain knowledge and make some money but I would also stress there are many hucksters out there and it really is buyer beware.
Best
Jody
Roy
Sorry for the confusuion lol
Jody
That was a terrific reponse maybe I may put Tim in touch with you one day if you agree. You have given me a lot to think about
Jody
Thanks for your very in depth comments,I think Tim would like to contact you direct is that ok with you?
Good Evening John
I have no problem with your friend contacting me.
I have expertise only in the book business and print areas so I am not sure if I can be of any help. I will be attending the Hong Kong Antiquarian Book Fair in January and afterwards I hope to spend a few months in the Philippines.
Speaking only in general terms I believe your friend might be on the right track. Book fairs have been held throughout Europe and the US for many decades. It is therefore interesting that the first antiquarian book fair outside Japan was only held two years ago in Hong Kong.The fair was wildly successful and this parallels the explosive run up in prices for collectibles, that is taking place all over Asia. This of course parallels in turn the more dominant role that Asia is playing in the world financial markets.
There is an old truism on Wall Street that refuses to die which is that “one has to follow the trend”.
I am now an old man with seventeen grandchildren to my credit. I would therefore add that if I were a younger man I would probably try and gain some knowledge of the Asian Art World and then I would specialize.
There is enornomous satisfaction in going home from an auction, (or from doing a deal) with cold clammy hands and waking up beside your sleeping wife and wondering if you had done the right thing. Those thoughts are only known between yourself and God. I have bet the house on more than one occasion in my life. LOL
If I may, I would like to add these words from FDR, that he used in his 1932 inaugural speech :
“let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance”.
Best
Jody
Oooops sorry, Jody, I had always thought you to be a forty-something Caucasian woman with a background in librarianship, such perhaps as having worked at the New York Public Library. Btw, do you happen to know Dr. Allen Thrasher from the Washington, DC area? Dr. Thrasher is the LOC’s South Asia specialist, a dedicated bibliophile who spent some time at the Vatican library several years ago to lend his expertise. He attends antiquarian book fairs quite frequently.
Thanks John for a great post and some great feedback from this posting. I have been an antique dealer all my life as noted here and was born into a family of antiques dealers.
It has taken me to many places, good and bad, and has allowed me to stay here as I have my business running full time in the U.S. with some help from a few people that I employ there.
It was an age old thing as noted above about paying 50% for something and doubling your money, so to say. In today’s world that does not fall true, though many times bargains are had and that can make the playing field level. In modern world if the piece is rare enough I have been known to pay 80% which is alot, but not for something that I will not possess again, ever. In paying that price it of course not long before you have an inventory that surpasses most people’s yearly income.
I see above in the comments as well that there are a few who speak of books. This is a subject that I never understood and never learned. I buy books for their content sometimes when I’m in the U.K. but I have never been a book dealer persay. It has always interested me but seems to be a subject that is somewhat hard to understand and learn for me (to many other things in my pea sized brain taking up space I suppose).
I have been appreciative of the feedback here and hope that sometime I run across some of you out there in the L.I.P. world. Many Thanks…………….
Yikes!!! Did I hear 80%. I have a huge grin on my face.
This will be my last post in this section but I would recommend everyone who is interested in collectibles from the Philippines to start by buying Jaimie Laya’s book titled “Consuming Passions: Philippine Collectibles” which was published about five or six years ago. My own copy has a nice and quite lengthy presentation inscription from Jaimie, which was quite nice of him.
Laya is well known by book dealers all over the world and is truly a nice, gentle man who has enormous passion for books. In my view he was the most influential Philippine book collector of the past fifty or sixty years.
I guess the thriving market in Philippine collectibles that exists today in Manilla and the United States owes Jaimie Laya a great deal, for he truly kick -started the careers of many Philippine antique dealers, writers and artists.
The book not only addresses antiquarian books, but deals with all kinds of Philippine collectibles and would be a start for any aspiring collector. My understanding is that Jaimie has permanently left public service but that he is still active in the private sector which gives these old bones of mine a little tingle of optimism.
I hope that all of you make money, gain knowledge and generally enjoy yourselves and have a good time; that is, those who venture into these waters.
Best
Jody
Holy Cow. I hope the Nazi Grammar Police do not spot my last post.
Sorry about the typos
Jody
Thanks bagain you are full of knowledge and I hope Tim will be able to learn more from the antique books you mention.
Tim
I so wish Jody lived here, what great info you would have.
Thank you, Tim. I’m sure we will see each other soon!
John,
Maybe your friend can meet the folks that run Manna along JP Laurel Avenue in Bajada?
Jon
Roy, I truly believe that collectors come from all walks of life and from all ethnic backgrounds. People collect and many are very passionate about their collections. I recently discovered that some people collect walking sticks and that the old hardwood canes of years ago are now becoming expensive. In other words people collect depending on the resources they have been blessed with.
I have met people who collect comic books and a gentleman who collects old cash registers with the brass fittings. I guess man has an innate tendency to hoard. It is a fallacy to think that only wealthy people have a preoccupation with collecting antiques.
Dealers appear and a market develops when enough critical mass is attained in any collecting field . The internet has also helped develop and mature some collecting areas within the last ten years or so. On a personal level I have to say that I enjoy the wheeling and dealing and the excitement of the hunt.
I know it sounds simplistic but it is also important to note that if you double your money on a two dollar item you make two dollars. If you double your money on a two thousand dollar item you make two thousand dollars. I believe it is this math, that drives people to continually move up the collector ladder, and often times people bet the whole house. I would have it no other way. Knowledge and research is of course key to any decision making process.
Best
Jody
Jody, if I may jump in, money is not the only motivation why people collect things. You’re right that some people from all walks of life collect antiques and other collectible items of interest. Some people collect matches, others school busses. I heard of a guy who collects tanks. LOL Many of these people have no desire to make money out of their collections. They just want to keep them in their backyards or some rented property elsewhere for the sake of keeping them for personal enjoyment and pass them on to their heirs or donate them to the appropriate institutions or foundations. I may be wrong here, but wasn’t the QE bought by an individual and donated it to a city or something? I have no doubt, though, that for the right amount, the collector is likely to part with his prized collection, as demonstrated by the acquisition by the Library of Congress, running into millions of dollars, of the very first world map of the New World that mentioned the word, “America”, which was held by the family of a German prince for hundreds of years. The centuries-old map is now the centerpiece of cartographical research at the Geography and Map Division of the LOC.
Clarification on the word, “America”, on the centuries-old map of the New World, as I have stated above. What was printed on the map was the Old World’s name for what we know today as America.
Good Evening John Reyes. Yes indeed.
I believe that people trade out of their positions to take a more expensive position in their field if that makes any sense. Most collectors have limited resources and so some people trade amongst each other in order to move up the proverbial ladder. Most collectors will part company with part of their collection in order to buy something they truly desire. I do not believe the motivation behind collection has much to do with making money. However every collector will tell you that they are forced to trade in order to “feed the habit”.
There is an old joke that antiquarian book sellers tell, which goes roughly along the line,”that the only thing they seem to accumulate are more books”.
I know a few guys from the Philippines here in NYC who share a passion for collecting knives and specifically knives from the Philippines. They attend most of the knife shows up and down the East Coast. They would tell you the same thing; that they have to trade and trade frequently in order to fund and build up their own collections.
Therein, in my view lies the excitement of collecting, for in reality the guy with the most knowledge and of course pluck will win the day. The collector will always know more than the average unspecialised dealer and invariably holds the advantage in any deal they may consummate.
Markets of course are inefficient and so all openings can be exploited.LOL
Best
Jody
Good Evening John Reyes
I have found the Asian Reading Room in LOC to be a very pleasant place to pass away some hours. I do not know Dr. Allen Thrasher.
Best
Jody
Good morning, Jody:
The next time you visit the beautiful Asian Reading Room, http://www.icm.gov.mo/Activity/1999/roundtable/asian.jpg you may wish to say hello to him. I thought it would be interesting if you get to know Allen because I think you both have the same passion for antiquarian books.
Hi Tim – Just wanted to say “HI” – it’s been ages since I’ve seen you! Hopefully we will run into each other soon!
Many thanks for allowing John to post this. I hope that sometime soon we do run into one another. I was away back in America for awhile to tend to my business there. Have been here 3 months now and just had a baby boy 7 days ago. Keeping with the flow and hope you are too……………….salamat my friend.