A Tale of Two Chairs

When I first saw this picture, published on the Holland Sentinel website, it blew my mind. The blazing inferno is relevant to this story so bear with me.

Mid Century Modern! Clean lines, quality materials, superb craftsmanship. Kaare Klint, born in Denmark in 1888, has been called the father of modern Danish furniture design. Klint studied human proportions to design furniture that adapted to the human body and is responsible for some very familiar furniture like the Deck chair and the Safari chair. Form follows function. Maybe Klint himself said that in his factory as he produced the marvelous Danish furniture that endures to this day.

But, this story is not about Kaare Klint.

In 1920, Grete Jalk was born, also in Denmark. She studied at the Design School for Women and also studied with Kaare Klint for a few years, adapting her work to the clean lines and style of Danish modern furniture. She was a close associate of Poul Jeppesen, apparently producing many classic designs under the label P. Jeppesens Møbelfabrik A/S. She is perhaps most well known for the plywood GJ chair.

This story is not about her either.

This is a tale of two chairs, inspired by Kaare Klint, designed by Grete Jalk, manufactured by P. Jeppesens and shipped to the United States sometime in the mid-twentieth century. They came to reside in a house on Lake Macatawa in Holland. I first became acquainted with these chairs when I was approached to sell them for Mrs. D.

At 94 years old, Mrs. D was determined to stay in her house so the lower level was outfitted to accommodate caretakers. The chairs had to go. The upholstery was shot but the frames were absolutely pristine. Geez! What gorgeous chairs!! As I deliberated about details like whether or not to reupholster, selling venues, shipping, and yada, yada, yada, they were stored in a room between the attached garage and the house, carefully stacked and covered with heavy moving blankets.

Fast forward to February 22, 2011.

I received a call that Mrs. D.'s house had suffered a garage fire. Everyone was safe. The main house was still standing, with extensive smoke and water damage. The garage, however, was completely destroyed, along with the two cars parked inside.

The chairs, stacked in the interior room just beyond the inner wall still standing and covered in heavy moving blankets, had also suffered extensive smoke damage but, amazingly, were not charred or water logged.

After sitting in a storage unit for several months to air out the smell of smoke, the chairs were turned over to Richard of Timeless Arts Refinishing. Every trace of smoke damage, poof! gone. Only the straps show the effects of the inferno on February 22...

...and, the tags. I'm still yada-ing about the details of selling these chairs. If they were mine, I'd keep them and appreciate them all the more for the remarkable story they tell. But, they're not mine. So, give me a call. They deserve a home!

Best regards,

Leslie

The Grand Rapids Antiques Market 2012

Not just a show - it's an Exhibition!

I'm not sure how it is that we have not been to the Grand Rapids Antiques Market. In it's sixth year, the Grand Rapids Antiques Market is the largest indoor antique show in Michigan. How did we miss that? Located at DeVos Place in Grand Rapids, a mere 20 minutes from our house, any excuse we might fabricate is, quite simply, lame. That is about to change.


In our quest to take Michigan Antiques Directory to the next level, we have chosen the Grand Rapids Antiques Market as our first foray into the show venue. We won't have any antiques or collectibles. Our booth, located in the Grand Gallery, will consist of two computer kiosks so we can display and demonstrate our website. This is all very exciting to us but actually makes for a rather dull blog post. After all, you can see our website any time you want. With that in mind, let's focus on the fabulous show because antiques and collectibles are what it (the show) and we (our website) are all about.


In 2012, the Grand Rapids Antiques Market is bigger and better than ever, with something for everyone. And we mean everyone!


“We are excited to be able to add several new events this year, from on-site buyers and appraisals to on-site repair, record swap, live auction, estate jewelry and gold buyers, fishing tackle consultation and a vintage fashion show,” said event coordinator, Cecily Near of Grand Events LLC. “Over the years, we have noticed a growing interest from a younger demographic in all things retro or vintage. The record swap, vintage jewelry and furniture is a big hit with the college crowd along with new homeowners.”

Vintage clothing is IN! Don't miss the fashion show on Saturday...

You can't find this at Target...

There is much talk of using antiques and vintage as a way to recycle and go green. I remember the pressboard and glue junk that I purchased in my pre-dealer days. I love the fact that I now know that I can buy real quality for the same money. Surrounding ourselves with items with a history gives our homes a personality that cannot be duplicated.

Do you not LOVE these bar stools!?!

“When you think about upscale interior design, antiques and fine art are naturally the first items that come to mind. Antiques have an undeniable ability to add personality and character to the décor of any home. Because of their uniqueness many people opt to incorporate antiques into their living spaces. Whether it is something handed down through generations or found at an antique show many homeowners make “antiquing” a hobby in order to add personal flair to their homes,” said Near.

Picture this beautiful lamp in your upscale design.

The Grand Rapids Antiques Market promises something for everyone. You can be sure that 140 dealers and exhibitors will deliver an antique / collectible / vintage experience that will be fun and informative. Bring your kids - they get in free. College students also get in free with a valid student ID. Admission is good for both days. With so much to see and do, set aside the weekend for the show. Visit the Grand Rapids Antiques Market website for the schedule and details of all the events.


While you're there, visit us, Michigan Antiques Directory, in the Grand Gallery. We don't have antiques or collectibles but we do have one awesome website. Our job is to promote antiques / collectibles / vintage businesses and events in Michigan and assist buyers and collectors in their love of the hunt. To help our businesses, we are having a drawing to give away four of our products:

• Business Listing
• Business Package (Listing and Mini Website)
• Dealer Listing
• Dealer Package (Listing and Mini Website)

If you are a business owner or dealer, stop by and drop your card in our vintage tin. Drawing winners will be announced on January 15. If you're a lover of the hunt, sign up on our email list. We hope to see you there!

Best regards, 

John & Leslie

How Many Hits Do You Get?

Website analytics explained

Page views on first, visits on second? Or is it hits on first, visitors on second? Actually, it's more likely that “I don't know!” is on third.

You've probably heard the famous Abbott and Costello “Who's on First!“ skit and felt like Costello when it comes to the best way to assess website performance. As the owner/operators of a website whose function is to advertise for businesses and inform users of those businesses, knowing the traffic our website receives is of vital importance to us. We are frequently asked “How many hits do you get?” We have an answer to that question but the real question is would that be the right answer? Very likely, it's not the right answer because it's the wrong question. Please allow us to explain.

As we previously said, knowing the traffic that a website recieves is vitally important. In fact, it's everything. Enter analytics. Website analytics is a compilation of data and statistics which analyze and report on the performance of a website. Michigan Antiques Directory is currently using Google Analytics. There are a number of components that make up the analytics of a website: hits, visits, visitors, page views, page views per visit and more. Let's start with definitions.

Hit

Definition: A hit on a website is counted when its web server serves a file. A hit can be any type of file that is downloaded to your browser that makes up the web page you are viewing: images, Java applets, JavaScript files, the html file itself; all the components of that web page.

Example: If a website has one page containing 49 images, every visitor to that page registers as 50 hits on the server (49 images plus the HTML file). This means that 50,000 hits translates to just 1,000 visitors to that website.

Therefore, looking at the hits a website gets within a given time period is misleading. This is the least useful metric by which to measure the traffic on a website.

Visit

Definition: A visit represents an individual session initiated by a visitor to the website from a unique IP address (your computer). A period of time is used to determine when another visit is logged by the original visitor. Google Analytics sets that period at 30 minutes.

Example: Whether a visitor is moving about your site or not during that 30 minute time period is irrelevant. The next time that visitor accesses the website, another visit is counted.

This is much more useful than hits but, depending on the period of time used, this metric doesn't give a good picture of what the visitor is doing.

Visitor

Definition: A visitor is defined as any individual that comes to your website from a unique IP address over a period of time, typically a month.

Example: If John Doe came to your website 10 times over the last month, that would be 10 visits but only 1 visitor.

This metric can be useful but unless we know what that visitor was doing it is still just another number.

Page Views

Definition: A pageview is defined as a view of a page on the website that we are able to track.

Example: When a visitor accesses a page, this is one page view. If that visitor clicks refresh after reaching the page, this is counted another pageview. If that user navigates to a different page and then returns to the original page, two more pageviews are recorded.

We're getting better information now. We can see that the visitor is using the web site now ie. spending time on it. This is something to track and compare to other sites.

Unique Page Views

Definition: A unique pageview counts and totals the pageviews that are generated by the same visitor during the same session.

Example: A unique pageview represents the number of sessions during which that page was viewed one or more times.

This metric simply filters out duplicate page views for the same visitor. It is not as useful as it sounds.

Page Views per Visit

Definition: The number of page views on average that a visitor viewed during their visit. This average is usually generated from the page views and visits identified for a given month.

Example: For a given month, 800 visits occurred resulting in 3200 page views. The average of these numbers equals 4 page views per visit for that month.

This is the number that really matters! Having a large number of visitors that only look at the home page will result in a ratio closer to 1. Having visitors that view multiple pages of a web site will result in a ratio like 3 or 4 or 5 or .. 10! Now we are talking!

Conclusion:

It is important for a webmaster to attrack new visitors to the website. More importantly, the webmaster strives to motivate a visitor to view as many pages as possible before exiting the website. Thus, from a visitor experience point of view, page views are a much more important indication of website quality than hits.

The ratio of page views to visits is the most accurate metric for judging the experience of any single visitor to the web site. A ratio much larger than 1 implies that a web site is doing a great job of maximizing the website experience of the visitors by getting them to view more than one page. It also translates to higher average time on site for each visitor - a clear indication that the website is serving the correct content to the correct type of visitor.


All this being said, here is the answer to the question "How many hits do you get?" Michigan has 83 counties. Therefore, Michigan Antiques Directory has 83 county pages. We have 14 additional pages for a total of  97 pages. Let's assign a number of 50 files on any given page. Some pages will have more, some will have less but let's use 50. If you came to our website and looked at 5 pages on our site, your ONE visit would generate 250 hits. This means that 1000 visitors would generate 250,000 hits. Wow! Sounds good until you understand what it really means.

The bottom line is this: hits on a website does not indicate the actual traffic that the website receives. Don't be deceived by this metric. The most useful metrics are visits and pageviews per visit. This will give us an indication of how many PEOPLE are visiting our website and WHAT they are doing while they are there.

Best regards,

John & Leslie

Home Again blog showcases creative design with antiques

Ghazal Sheei is a photographer and writer living in Milwaukee, WI.  Her fascination for home interiors has inspired her blog Home Again. The friendly folks of Milwaukee have opened their doors to Ghazal and shared their ideas about home decor, showcasing an imaginative blend of comfort and cool.

The blog is a testimony that flea market and art, antiques and modern and everything in between can be mixed and served up in as many different ways as there are personalities. This is really great stuff! What follows is a small sampling of the inventive use of antiques to be found on the pages of the Home Again blog.

Card catalog files serve as a room divider. (...don't tell if you remember these...)

The television stand is an old pharmacy counter.

Check out Ghazal's blog in its entirety for loads of inspiration. We like her blog a lot and have placed it in our blogroll. We'll be keeping an eye on Home Again. Thank you, Ghazal, and thank you to your ingenious friends in Milwaukee.

Best regards,

Leslie

New MAD Places

A feature of our new blog is MAD Places. No, we are not angry. Every now and again we will update our blog with new Full Featured Business Listings on Michigan Antiques Directory. We love full business listings! When it comes to antiques / collectibles / vintage businesses, there is no such thing as TMI. Recently added are:

Burgess Antique Center   Located in Galesburg, Kalamazoo County. Antique mall located in downtown Galesburg within a historic seed company, we have the look and feel of an old time store!

Robin's Nest  Located in Gladwin, Gladwin County. Vintage and antique mall located between West Branch and Gladwin on M-30, we have a high end shop without the high prices!

Welcome to our new stores!

MAD businesses can enhance their Internet presence and visibility with one of our Mini Web Sites. With a slide show of your interior, your storefront and a scroller to detail your events and sales and a large description area to fill to the brim with keywords, a Mini Web Site will deliver a lot of bang for your advertising buck. Lake Shore Antiques was our first Mini Web Site. Click on the image below to take a look.

We are running a special on Mini Web Sites for the month of December. Email us for the instructions to set up your Mini Web Site and mention the coupon code DECBLOG to waive the set up fee and take 25% off the first year hosting cost. This will reduce your start up cost from $144 to $90. A Full Feature Business Listing is required to have a Mini Web Site.

We hope you all have a great month!

Best regards,

John & Leslie

John Fiske "In My Opinion" column worth reading

John Fiske, of Fiske & Freeman, is an antiques dealer in Ipswich, Massachusetts. He specializes in 17th century English furniture and other things from the 17th and 18th centuries. Not only does he run a very successful online antiques business (he has a shop but admits that it's closed more than it's open), he is also an extremely articulate and thoughtful writer with a concise and global perspective on the business of antiques. He writes a regular column, In My Opinion, for The New England Antiques Journal. If you have been pondering the place that Gen Xers occupy in the business of antiques, I highly recommend that you read his latest column The X Factor. While you're there, check out the archives of his past articles. It is, in our opinion, a column worth reading.

Best regards,

Leslie

Welcome to our blog!

Of course we would have to have a blog, right? Personally, I love blogs! There are so many talented, creative and informed people out there and the things that I have learned, the insights that I have gained and the perspectives that I have considered are nearly endless. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not claiming to be talented and creative. However, I am endeavoring to be informed and then to share that information with you.


Let me back up just a bit and clarify what Michigan Antiques Directory or MAD, as we call it, is about. We don't sell antiques. We help antiques / collectibles businesses in Michigan sell antiques... and collectibles and yes, even that controversial vintage. Those businesses are stores and malls, dealers and their web sites, fairs, markets, shows and, to some extent, auctions. Truth be told, we don't know much about antiques per say. I was a dealer for about seven years. I LOVED the hunt and arranging my booths. I really enjoyed hauling items out of a barn or basement and cleaning it up to find the treasure underneath the layers of years of neglect. Truth be told again, dealing in antiques was not my forte. But, while I was a dealer, MAD was born (you can read the very short story of this on our About Us page) and here we are.


So, what are we doing here? This is our place to share with you the fruits of our research about marketing antiques and collectibles businesses. What are the trends? What are other people doing to promote their business? How can we build better relationships with customers? Just who the heck are the customers anyway?! You know, all that kind of stuff. We'll also post for the collectors. What people are doing with antiques these days - decorating, design, cool finds and such for those of you are are not in the 'business' of antiques. This is for all us folks who just plain love antiques whether you buy them, sell them or both. Got something to share? Tell us. Got a question? Ask it. If you're a blogger and want to guest post, just let me know. We are looking forward to this new feature of Michigan Antiques Directory. Talk to you soon!


Best regards,


Leslie