Hahaha.

Welcome to the business of antiques where I help you make your passion for antiques profitable.

I'm Tom McLark Haines, CEO of the Antique Steven Company and I'm on a mission to make antiques modern, sexy, fun and profitable.

I hate to break it to you.

If you're not making money in your antiques business, then it's just a hobby.

In this podcast, I interview some of the leading antique dealers from around the globe, getting their advice and sharing my own on how to sell antiques to the modern day antique buyer.

We discuss ways to recession proof your antiques business by developing strategic marketing plans, elevating your brand to attract the right target market and planning for profits.

You make your money when you buy, not when you sell.

So we'll discuss some sourcing tips straight out of my antique Stiva little black book.

I'm teaching you the business of antiques.

You know how they say that the best things happen when the camera is not rolling?

Well, we were having such a good conversation that I just told Mark, stop talking.

We've got to save this until we're on the camera.

Today's guest is is Mark Hill.

Now Mark is a TV personality.

He is a celebrity extraordinaire.

He's an antiques expert, an author, a publisher.

And now I'm so excited to hear everything about your new auction house.

So, Mark Hill, welcome to the business of antiques.

Thank you so much, Tom.

It's always a joy to see you and great to see you again today.

Thank you.

And what a lead in, you know, I feel I've now got to live up to quite a lot now.

Thank you.

I'm convinced that won't be a problem at all.

Okay, tell me everything.

I, I want to hear everything going on in your life right now.

Just, that's everything.

I was born in 1975 and I'm not going to start there, I promise.

So there's a huge amount going on in my life.

Variety is always, for me, the spice of life.

But it's always centered around this wonderful world which we're dealing in.

Of course, antiques, vintage collectibles, collectors items, and of course art.

And it's just sort of different ways to skin a cat, to use a rather horrendous analogy, because I just love handling things.

It's handling things, speaking to the owners, uncovering the stories, not just the stories of the objects, but the stories of the owners too.

So I've been dealing, I've written books, as you said, and I'm lucky enough to do the BBC Antiques Roadshow.

The stories we get there are incredible.

And I was approached earlier this year, actually late last year, probably now, by a business colleague, somebody I've worked with for a little while, and he said, how about setting up an auction house together?

I started my career at Bonhams and then moved on to Sotheby's in London.

And I kind of thought, because I'm nearly 50, I'm 50 next year.

So I'm kind of thinking it's like going back to where I started.

And I guess I really enjoyed it because of the immense throughput of these things and all that information that comes out.

So I thought, you know what?

I've not done that bit yet.

I've worked for auction houses, but I never set one up.

So out went the hand and you're on.

And nine months later, here I am sitting in Mark Hill Auctions in Royal Tunbridge Wells in Kent.

Okay.

The fact that it was nine months later is why I laughed, because I'm like, this baby was born.

It took nine months.

It was like, this was your gestation period.

It really was.

And there's so much to think about in today's world of antiques.

There's all sorts of due diligence and compliance, all the boring things, the leaks, legal side of it that all needs to be set up and really coming back to it.

And of course, I've always been bidding and buying at auction, and I've worked as a consultant for other auctioneers since Bonhams and Sotheby's.

But so much of it is digital now.

I mean, I'm talking to you across continents and across the Internet, and so many sales happen online now.

And that's probably the biggest difference I've noticed since working at Bonhams and Sotheby's, which really was in the very early days of the Internet and the digital age.

Okay.

I just have this memory of you telling me a story.

Do you know the story I'm going to bring up?

Which one, Tom?

Which one?

I dread.

Do I need to go and hide?

Yes, totally.

No, it is a story about the woman who sat in the front row at one of the auction houses with hairy legs.

Okay.

Can you tell this story?

I know.

Are you able to sell anything?

Well, we were all mesmerized.

So sort of coming from the rostrum or the.

It was just the way the hair sort of poked out through her tights and it was just.

It was the strangest thing.

You know, you're doing your thing and you can't but help but look at these legs.

Basically, the thing is, she was a lovely client and a really wonderful person and a great sort of store of knowledge as well.

And I felt rather guilty, and I think we all probably did, as did the rest of the audience, who were similarly mesmerized.

But, yeah, there they were, these little sort wiry hairs poking out.

I'm so sorry I took, I took you down that path.

But as you were talking about your history at the auction houses, all I could think about was this woman of you telling this story and me thinking, how many times have I thought, no one's going to notice I didn't shave my legs?

And every single time I have that thought, like, I'm speaking at High Point, I don't feel like shaving today.

It doesn't matter.

And I think, no, if Mark Hill were here, he would notice that I did not shave my legs.

So.

The devil's in the detail, Tom.

That's exactly what it's all about.

Exactly.

Okay, so now that I have thoroughly taken this conversation off track, let's get back.

Let's get back on focus.

No, I will say I was so excited when I found out that you were doing this, that you were starting your own auction house, because it is so perfect as a logical next step for what you're doing in your career.

I mean, you've done so many things in the antiques industry that it's nice.

So most of our listeners tend to be people who are getting into the antiques industry for the first time.

And it's always fascinating to me watching how careers flow and change.

And yesterday I was on the phone with Kyle and Stuart, the Fontaine boys.

Wonderful.

And we were talking about their new property and their, their new hospitality business they're going to be doing and just the evolution from antiques into hospitality.

And so for me, watching you as this TV personality that I still remember the first time I saw you on tv, by the way, but having seen this career of yours for the last 20 years and now seeing you with this auction house, people are having access to your knowledge on a level that they've never had access to before.

I think there's one element of that.

I mean, certainly with Antiques Roadshows, we have sometimes 5,7000 people through the door, so there's often a lot of people coming in seeking information.

And these days with the digital age, it's not always information about what something's worth, it's just about tapping that vast knowledge of the sort of 30 odd experts who are on the show on that given day.

But yeah, I'm Sitting here in my office, which has a wonderful sort of glass front, and I sort of feel like I'm in a fishbowl and people see and peer in and bring me their treasures to look at.

So I like to be sharing.

I think one of the things about people who've been in this business a long time is that we like to share the knowledge and we like to share the information and actually share the love and passion too.

I think that's important.

Yeah, that's incredibly important.

Well, you know, I said.

I said that.

I remember the first time I ever saw you on tv.

I was in the Netherlands, and I don't even remember what the show was on, what the TV show was.

You've done a lot of them, but you were talking about glass, and I was living in Berlin at the time, and you were talking about glass, specifically German glass, and then you had a side converse, just a side comment about fat lava.

And because I was living in Berlin at the time, it completely captured my interest.

And then a few months later, I happen to be in the uk, I go into the decor fair, and the second I met you, I was like.

I was so smitten.

Oh, bless you.

I was equally smitten with you, dear.

Of course.

Thank you.

But, so you also have been a glass dealer and do you want to talk a little bit about that?

Yeah, it's.

There are so many new areas to be uncovered.

I mean, the market always changes.

And when you look across the centuries that we've been collecting old things, it's.

You get fashions, they go up and down, things come into fashion, they go out of fashion, sometimes they don't come back into fashion again.

And I think for me, it's the excitement of the new.

I never thought that the world needed another Royal Worcester expert, for example.

That's what we've got, you know, sadly, the late John Sandon and Henry Sanders, I'll say that again.

So I don't think, you know, for example, that the world needed another Worcester expert, because, of course, sadly, the late Henry Sandon and his son John Sandon, they were the world experts in that.

So I always like to find the thing that nobody knows about, the thing that shouts design quality, manufacturing quality, that says, hello, I've got a story to tell, come find me, come uncover my story and tell the world.

It's those things that really make my heart skip a beat.

And fat lava, West German pottery of the 1960s and 70s was really one of those things.

Then after that, you're absolutely right, glass is Just so close to my soul.

I adore.

It was Bohemian glass, so Czech glass of the post war period as well.

And there were these incredible narratives to be told, these forgotten or ignored sections of history that needed to be told.

So I've done that through a book and also through dealing.

Because the only way you can truly know an object is by handling it.

And the more you handle, the more you learn, the more you understand.

And for me, that's vital.

And dealing allows you to do that.

As does, indeed, working in an auction house.

Yeah.

As does taking an Antiques Diva tour, actually.

Indeed so.

And I highly recommend them.

I've heard wonderful things.

Thank you.

And of course, our mutual friend Gail as well, of course, is one of your divas.

I don't know how we have not mentioned Gail thus far in this.

So I met Mark through my colleague who's vice president at antiques diva, Gail McLeod, who is a very dear friend of Mark's.

Very.

She's a wonderful, wonderful person.

Incredible intelligence, just emotional awareness and knowledge.

Oh, my goodness.

And a joy and a delight to be with, with all the time.

I always jokingly say that Gail is the Queen of England.

And so now she's got her consultancy with Queen Bee.

And I'm convinced that it's.

It's 20 years of me calling her the Queen of England.

One day we were on the phone with a client and I didn't introduce her as the Queen of England.

And so she goes, ahem.

Tom usually introduces me as the Queen of England, but she didn't this time.

I was like, I apparently forgot to give the title.

It was very cute.

But to know, going back to this, touching it, feeling it, seeing it in real life.

One of the reasons that I think what we do at Antiquestiva is important is in this day and age, anyone can be sourcing online and sourcing around the world.

And I think it's important for people to be sourcing through a variety of ways, but there is no better information than you can gather than when you see with your hands.

Like, you're not just seeing with your eyes, you're touching it, you're feeling it, you're opening drawers, you're looking inside of.

It, you're flipping it over, you're using that phrase.

I use it all the time when I do lectures with the art society.

Seeing with your fingers, I call it.

You said seeing with your hands.

Seeing with your fingers.

It's the same thing.

It's all to do with the weight, you know, how does it feel in the hand?

What are the colour tones like.

And when you see another thing that's not quite right or might have been modified, proportion, shape, all of those things.

The mind is an incredible thing and we know we don't understand a lot of it and I think these things sink in.

I've got my wonderful colleague Guy in the back of the auction house who's doing photography at the moment and being very new to the business.

I was explaining that.

Yeah, it's a tiring, tiresome, in many cases process but what it does allow you to do is to handle authentic objects and that stuff sinks in.

So you've got to handle the stuff.

Yeah, it's an education I think about whenever I walk into an antique store.

I want, especially with furniture, I want to feel the furniture, I want to feel the wood and see if it's machine cut versus hand cut.

Is this hand carved?

I want to pick it up and feel the weight because an antique chair is always going to be older or it's always going to be heavier than a newer chair.

And there are things that it may look right to my eye and.

But the mind knows things with the body, knows things that you're.

That you can't articulate, that you can't put into words.

And so I think there's, there's absolutely no better experience to have than touching things in real life.

Even going to a museum so that you can see or going to like TAF in Teifaf in Maastricht gives you this opportunity to touch things that maybe you're not allowed to touch in, in museums.

You get in trouble when you.

I think that's important and you're absolutely right.

I mean museums and really top end fairs can be scary places to go.

But for me that allows you, even if you can't touch it, to see what really great quality looks like.

Yeah.

And then when you see a comparable object you can, it's sort of.

Do you.

You're far younger than me.

You will never remember Rolodexes, Thomas.

But it's kind of like, I think.

Hold on, I have to interrupt you because you said you were born in 75, I was born in 73, so I'm two years older.

Oh, we're similar, we're very similar age.

In that case we'll leave it, we'll call it that similar age.

But it's like a Rolodex, I always think so you see something, you see the quality, you understand it and you put it in here, then you see a better one and you put the card further along and then you see a worse one and you end up building this sort of Rolodex of things.

You think, well, okay, that one was £100, but this one's got better detail and quality, so it's probably 150, but it's not quite as good as the one I saw that was too.

Do you see what I mean?

And I think handling and even seeing the very best in museums or at top fairs just allows you to build a visual knowledge and understanding as well.

It's like tasting wine.

When you taste the good wine, your tongue is educated, your mouth is educated.

So one of my favorite wines is Quentin Fronsac, which is opposite hill of Saint Emilion.

Well, everyone knows Saint Emilion like you.

Yes, but Saint Emilion is expensive.

Quinton Fronsac, nobody knows.

It's the same hill, it's the same terroir, it gets the same sunlight, it just, it's on the opposite side and it actually tastes in the mouth very similar to Saint Emilien.

But the only way you know that you can buy the €6 bottle versus the €30 bottle is, and if this were America, it would all be much higher prices than that.

But the only way you know is by having tasted it, by educating your mouth so that you know, oh, this is actually quite similar.

It's similar enough that it's worth paying €6 versus 30.

And that same knowledge, that same hands on experience applies to antiques.

Really?

Yeah, it's a great analogy.

It really is.

And just building that up and it is hands on and just sight and keeping on doing it as well.

If you're bored or just, you know, feeling a little tired, sit down, open a book, you know, look at a catalogue, look at a museum catalogue.

Somehow it all sinks in in the end.

And it's not about having to read giant dusty tomes of visual knowledge is one of the most important things.

I have a slight issue every now and again on a roadshow when I see something and a little bell goes off in my head and I think, now I'm remembering it because it's a really good thing.

Or am I remembering it because I thought it was a really good thing and it's not.

And then you go to the object and you look at the object and that's where what you and I are talking about really comes into play.

And that solves a lot.

Let the object tell you, it sounds pretentious, but it's all about seeing, looking and then involving all the senses.

I mean, the smell of an antique teddy bear can Never be reproduced.

All the baby vomit dragged around in the dust, stored on a shelf.

You can't, you know, you can't buy it in a bottle and spray it on.

So that's often the best way.

You're smelling with your senses, looking, touching, feeling with your fingers.

The texture, it's so important.

You're using everything.

When you look at antiques, have you.

Ever taken any, like, art lessons, painting lessons or, or anything like this?

Dreadful.

Toma.

Dreadful.

I'm gonna stick with buying it.

The world doesn't need any more bad art, I can assure you of that.

When I lived in Amsterdam in my early 30s, I took an oil painting class for about a year and a half and I painted.

And what's funny is it's actually literally behind me here, I'll have to show you when we get off camera, but I painted the I lit.

So I was living in Brooklyn, in the Netherlands, just south of Amsterdam, and I painted the church in the town square opposite my house.

House.

And in taking the art lesson, I had taken a photograph.

And then I brought the photo into the oil painting class.

And then I was meticulously recreating it.

But what taking art lessons taught me to do, it taught me how to see.

I never had noticed that there was something funky with the numbers on the clock I had knit.

Like there were all these details.

I never noticed there was a door on the side of the church.

I later found out that that door was just to let the royals in.

It was a specific door only to you be used by the royals.

But until I was trying to recreate it piece by piece, detail by detail, I never really saw it.

And so now, often what I will want, often what I'll do when I'm trying to learn about a new subject or I'm preparing even for a speech, I will sketch out.

I will just open up and sketch out rococo furniture.

Because all of a sudden some detail that I've never noticed before will send me on this entire journey of, wait, why is that there?

What is the reason for this?

What is the significance of this?

What does that mean?

And by sketching, by drawing, by painting, and by the way, I'm not a talented artist either, by the way.

You'll be better than me, I can assure you of that.

I always say when it comes to singing, I make up for with enthusiasm a lot.

That I what I lack in talent, I make up for enthusiasm.

It's the same with, with painting, but it really, it's changed my way of seeing.

I've learned how to see and sketching.

Sketching imprints it almost on my memory in a way that it's just taking the senses a deeper level.

Do you know, it's really interesting you bring that up, that sort of taking things to pieces and noticing things.

My father is a retired Formula one engineer, and he taught me that in order to understand something properly, you have to understand how it was made.

So obviously you get materials.

Gold, silver, platinum, wood, you know, bronze, whatever it may be.

There's that, and there's an element to the working of that and the value of the material itself.

But there's also, if you sort of reverse engineer something, pull it to pieces in your head, just like you were doing when you were talking about painting and drawing and pulling out elements, you kind of then understand how long it might have taken to make something, something.

So you've got the amount of time that went into it, the material that went into making it, and also the amount of time that went into the design and the actual working of that material.

And that can indicate a lot of value.

If something was expensive in a good material and it was incredibly well worked, it's likely to be valuable today, just as it would have been then.

So I've always gone through with that as well.

I mean, it's not always true that the cup I'm.

Cup and saucer I'm drinking out of at the moment are.

What have we got?

I think got Davenport, I think that is.

And you've got the typical sort of imari color scheme of blue and gold.

Oh, there you are, you see.

Good Italian.

But I mean, the amount of work that had to go into making that.

It's gilded, it's hand painted, it's absolutely beautiful.

The gilding had to be burnished.

Utterly wonderful.

That's before you start thinking about the potting of.

Of the porcelain piece itself.

This is probably not really worth much more at auction than 30, 40 pounds or something like that, perhaps even less.

But still, having that understanding of taking something to pieces in your head, just as you said, is so vital.

You know something you told me early in my days of starting antique Stiva, I said, I am never going to be an expert like you are.

Like you're Antiques Roadshow expert.

Like I'm.

Like, I'm never going to have this knowledge.

How do you do it?

And you said, you're talking.

Of course you can do it.

You've got.

You've got a good eye.

And I remember you telling me the story about when people come in on the Antiques Roadshow you looking, looking through the box and picking through and saying, oh, this is the best object in the box.

And it's like, even if you don't know anything about that object, it's like you understand quality.

And that understanding quality was a starting point for maybe it's bringing it to another Roadshow host and saying, hey, you're the expert in this.

Let's get another opinion.

Or having that as the launch point for you doing your own research.

Absolutely true.

And, I mean, we're incredibly lucky working together.

There's literally centuries of expertise, and that's the thing you don't often see on the Antiques Roadshow.

We are often zipping from table to table, certainly with something like miscellaneous the tables I sit on.

It's a little bit like an old game show called the Generation Game.

You get a teddy bear, a Molinex food mixer, a hair dryer, you know, bronze sculpture.

It all come flashing past.

And we're not experts in everything.

If somebody tells you that they know everything, made by man since the dawn of time, run away fast, quick.

And we share information, and it's.

It's so important.

So we're often seen zipping from table to table to ask each other about certain things that we know someone has a passion for or an expertise in.

But yet building that eye is so important.

And I think it's about those to do that.

I think it's about the things we've just discussed, really looking, handling, seeing the best, seeing the worst, and just getting out there.

It's.

I think one of the big sadnesses, I think, of the digital age is that it doesn't encourage people to go out and handle the objects and meet the people and hear the stories.

And that's partly why Gail and I and a colleague founded Antiques Young Guns to try and bring younger dealers, auctioneers, collectors, people interested in the business, together to experience the objects, but also have an experience together of the objects and to share information and contacts.

It's easier.

Yes.

And I remember being at Bonhams and Sotheby's and certainly at Bonham's when I was just a lowly porter.

And then junior catalogue a sticking label on envelopes and stuffing envelopes with catalogs.

You know, we'd send these things around the world.

It would cost a fortune.

Now I can publish my auction catalogs online, seen by many more thousands of people, and it hasn't cost me that time damage to the environment with the catalogs and all that stuffing and labelling.

So it's great, but nothing beats Being in person and handling the object.

Now, you.

In addition to having worked with the Antiques Roadshow, you also worked with Judith Miller.

I did one of my.

I miss her so much.

One of my dearest, dearest friends and an incredible work colleague.

I was incredibly lucky to work with her for 15 years or so, really, on all manner of different books.

So I co authored the Collectibles Price Guide with her for dk, the publisher, and then with Millers.

She was just the most wonderful human being.

Incredible knowledge.

Just wonderful.

Greatly missed.

And also a lot of fun.

Oh, my goodness.

Oh, my goodness.

Yes.

We were both members of the Groucho Club.

And the fun and laughter and jolly japes we had in there, I can tell you.

I mean, my goodness gracious.

Sometimes the morning over was a little difficult.

Judith instituted something called a duvet day.

Really useful if you'd had too much fun at the Groucho class.

I remember.

So the first time I met Judith was at the Bath Decority Fair, which our colleague Gail is one of the coordinators, organizers of.

But I remember Gail had me come in to do some event at the Bath Decority Fair, and I was so nervous because it was you, Kirsty Alsop.

Oh, yes, I remember this.

And Judith Miller.

And I was so intimidated to be walking around the fair with the three of you.

Like, I was so completely intimidated because I felt out of my element.

And as we're walking through the fair, I noticed two things.

I remember Kirsty, she had this moment of, like, calm before she turned and started facing people.

And I realized she's building her emotional energy to go out and maneuver the crowds because everybody was so excited to see her and Judith.

As we went through, Judith had a kind word for every single vendor, for every.

Like, I know she must have heard the same story so many times.

And she just responded like it was the first time with each person that she had ever heard this thing.

And I said something, and I remember I was kind of standing back because I was nervous and, like, just staying behind the scenes a little bit.

And I made a comment that, oh, well, this.

It was a Moroccan table.

And I said, oh, this table I would completely use to set my wine glass next to the bathtub.

And she goes, I knew we were gonna be friends.

That sounds like Judith.

Yes.

I think of many, many fun and long nights with Judith.

But Judith also revolutionized the business on a more serious note, publishing Miller's Guides, which were in.

In so many ways the first and most successful fully illustrated guides that gave people an idea of what something was and also what they might have to pay for it or what it might be worth.

You know, they went all over the world.

I mean, she did well over a hundred books.

I mean, just allowing so many of us to open up this business, can you imagine?

So, so many of us wouldn't have got to know what we know or had the availability of the information from trusted sources if Judith hadn't done what she did with Miller's Price Guides and Miller's Books.

She was an icon.

I mean, really, the queen of antiques.

She was a trailblazer.

I mean, truly a trailblazer.

Yeah, my heart.

I know.

Yes, yes.

Same here.

Okay, so I want to switch gears because we've been talking kind of professionally, kind of weaving around all over the place.

I want to go back to your personal life.

Life now.

So we started with you being born in 1975.

We skipped over immediately to the auction house.

So how did Mark Hill become Mark Hill?

This is the question.

I want to know, like, what was your path like in life?

Like, did you always know you wanted to work in antiques?

Did you do something different before antiques?

Oh, that's a question and a half story.

If you were to tell me that, like, you were flipping burgers in McDonald's or something, I'd be really, thinking, thrilled.

Actually, I've never flipped burgers yet.

I made a burger two days ago.

Oh, true.

I've made some at home every now and again, but my partner's a much better chef than me, so I tend to leave it to him, and he guards the kitchen like a sort of, you know, so I don't really get the opportunity to do, you know, I've always loved a good story.

I mean, that's the root of what I love.

I mean, I loved reading as a child.

I loved, sort of, I was the nerdy, geeky kid who.

You had general knowledge.

I used to love general knowledge.

I answer questions on TV game shows.

You know, the acquisition of knowledge, learning.

We all love that.

That's part of just being human.

We like to learn and understand, but for me, it was always about things.

Why does it look like that?

Why was it made like that?

Who made it?

Well, who were they?

Then?

These were the questions I always kind of wanted to know.

And my dad was a retired.

He's a retired Formula One engineer, and he basically pursued his passion.

So in 1963, he got on a boat on Auckland harbor and came on a boat to Britain to seek effectively work in the formula of growing Formula one team.

So he Encouraged me, always both my parents did to do what I wanted.

So he came from a little town called New Plymouth in New Zealand where they had a farm.

And he'd sort of taught himself in many ways how to repair things.

He had a motorbike, so he had built up his own knowledge.

And I suppose in some ways I mirrored that really.

I sort of wanted to know the stories behind objects.

I collected things.

One of the first things I ever bought was a LeCoultre Swiss pocket watch.

And I.

I thought I made a £40 profit to cut to the chase.

And I thought not only have I Learned about who LeCoultre are about pocket watches and when they became fashionable and popular and when they did, and I also made some money.

So my father, kind of like he was encouraged to go and pursue his dream.

He encouraged me to pursue my dream.

So even before graduating at university, I did history of art there.

I started working as a portrait in an auction house, dragging things around.

And really you're doing everything, you know, the hoovering and.

But again, you'll get.

Excuse me.

But again, you're getting to handle the objects and listen to, you know, the specialists and that sort of thing.

And honestly, Tom, as soon as I started to work at Bonhams, I realized this is what I want to do.

I won't be happy doing anything else.

And it was just being surrounded by so many different things with so many different stories.

The quirky people, the crazy wonderful people that inhabit this world, that's a bonus too.

So all of those things really came together.

But it's.

For me, it's been a lifelong thing.

I've always been interested in collecting.

I've always wanted to know about history, story quality, and for me, the antiques business and certainly auctions and dealing, that's.

That's where it is.

What are you personally collecting?

Oh, gosh, how long have you got?

What am I?

No, I always joke that I collect people, that that's really what I collect.

I happen to have a lot of 18th century Swedish furniture.

However, my real collecting is the various people I meet along the way.

But it's true, you're right.

That means one of the great things about this industry.

It's true, you're right.

One of the great things about this industry is these incredible characters that you meet.

You learn from them, you laugh with them, whatever it may be.

What am I collecting at the moment?

Well, I mean, Czech glass, Post war Czech glass is always a thing I'm interested in.

I collect early vintage writing equipment, so propelling Pencils by Samson Morden, who was one of the great silversmiths and innovators of the propelling pencil.

You know, like we call vacuum cleaners hoovers.

They used to call the little silver propelling pencils Mordens.

So it was very much the same sort of analogy there, because he was the sort of market leader.

I'm collecting the work of an artist no one's ever heard of of, and probably no one cares about but me.

But that means at least I can afford them.

What else am I collecting at the moment?

I've just started working on a really interesting textile artist who.

I mean, the story is just remarkable.

I bought a piece at auction just before COVID hit us all and did some research, found out the amazing story.

So I've been trying to find more of those.

I've got three so far.

I think it's probably to end up with just being three, but fascinating story behind that.

I see what I mean, I could go on.

I mean, I tend to.

I.

The way my brain works is I'll go down one rabbit hole all the way to the end, then I'll see that there's actually more warrens to go down, and then suddenly I'll go down another one.

I had an instance a little while ago when I was collecting stainless steel and I was buying this particular sort of effectively Lakeland Rural Industries L R I otherwise the beer, basically pieces produced around the Lake District.

And I was buying it inexpensively, and I opened my cupboard door and it was like that cartoon moment.

It all came crashing down on top of me.

And I thought, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, you've got a problem here.

You've got to stop.

Because all I did was came home, thought, that's a lovely thing.

Looked at it for a while and put it in a pile on in the cupboard.

And then, yeah, as I say, out it all came one day.

Ludicrous.

So, in with working in auction houses and the Antiques Roadshow, what is the strangest thing you've ever.

You've ever come across or that's been handed to you?

The strangest and most amusing thing I can think of right now.

I should have stories prepared for this.

But the one that really brings to.

Mind questions because I figure I love it when people come off the cuff.

Well, okay, this is a good one.

So I had a couple, couple who came along to my table on the road show, and they were sort of looking around them as they came along to the table, and they were very sort of almost embarrassed and shy looking, and they Were sort of speaking to me in a whisper and they said, we've got this thing.

I won't whisper to you, Tom, but we've got this thing.

And out of the bag they bought basically like an arm.

And then it was.

It sort of had a plastic hand that was like this.

And then there was like a pneumatic part here, and it meant that it did that.

And there was a bracket and fixing about here, and they put it on the table.

And they were very aware that with the Roadshow, you get a lot of people surrounding the experts tables and they're very aware that they didn't want other people to see it.

And I said, oh, okay, do you know what this is?

And she went bright red.

And he just looked in the other direction and they said it was.

How do I put this?

A marital aid.

No.

Okay, that.

How did you even hold it together?

I kid you not.

A marital aid.

So I pick up this piece of technology and go, okay.

I'm there by now incredibly embarrassed because people have heard and I'm trying to keep a straight face.

What we're actually looking at is not a marital aid or some form of sexual.

Hilarious that it wasn't.

What it actually is, is a trafficator.

And you would stick it effectively on the window of or car door of your car and you would push little pneumatic bit and it would indicate which direction you were going to go in.

I'm turning right, I'm turning right.

Of course, they were utterly and completely relieved that they didn't have a set toy that they'd bought to the Antiques Roadshow.

Okay.

In my living room, I have a curiosity cabinet of.

And it's mostly filled with, like, shells and corals, and I have quite a few pieces from Asia.

And on the top shelf there is a phallus.

And when my father came to visit, I looked up the Curiosity cabinet and the phallus wasn't there.

And I thought it was so strange because I was like.

Like, where would it be?

And so I am standing there looking at the cabinet and I realized my father has taken the phallus and he phallic symbol here, and he's moved it and hidden it back behind so it's not this gigantic thing on the top shelf, which I thought was amusing.

And so I asked dad, I said, dad, did you move me?

And he's like, yes, I just can't believe you'd have that in your living room.

And I said, well, you.

You know, this is actually.

That's a couple of hundred years Old.

Like, this is actually a very special piece.

And he's like, my God, Tom, pull it together.

Don't talk about this.

Well, they've made them since ancient times because of fertility and giving birth.

Fecundity.

It has so many different meanings.

Survival of the human race, for a start.

Absolutely.

Okay, so places that you recommend for just antiquing, for going out and about.

I know you have great sources in Berlin.

I don't know if you're willing to share any of them, but also just around the uk, anywhere you're willing to share could be anywhere in the world.

And then I.

I have a question, because I'm going to be traveling for Christmas, and I think you may have a tip for me there.

I don't know if you.

I will do my best.

I mean, yes, I.

So my partner has a job in Berlin, so I spend a lot of time in Berlin every month as well.

I mean, the markets there are great.

They're strassed as ipsi nuni.

In fact, you and I met just a couple of years ago down there when you were still living in Berlin.

That's always very good.

There's a place called Arkoneplatz, which is much, much smaller, in the north of Berlin, just near Mitte.

That's very, very good.

There are also some other fairs which are extremely good, but I'm not going to tell you.

You don't have to tell all of them.

Just a little bit.

So where I'm going for Christmas is Budapest.

Yes.

Okay.

I've.

So I've been to Budapest once, probably 15 years ago, and funny enough, I was actually writing an article for what was Home and Antiques at the time.

It was BBC's Home and Antiques.

I don't think they're BBC anymore.

I don't remember who owns them, but I was writing an article for them on Budapest, but that's the only time I've been there.

So now it's 15 years later, and I'm going, and I'm going to have 10 days.

And the most amazing thing happened that, you know, like, normally when you have hotel points, they just let your points expire.

And you.

You're like, oh, crap, I lost all my hotel points.

They expired.

Well, Ann and Tara called me and said, you have 30,000 points that are expiring.

And they said, they expire in January.

And I said, well, can I extend them?

And they said, well, you've already exp.

Extended them because this was from before the pandemic.

This.

They're going to be gone.

And we Just wanted you to know you're going to lose 30,000 points which equal to 10 days in Budapest, nine nights in a five star hotel for free.

So I may mostly be lounging in the five star hotel and spa.

However, when I'm wanting to go out and about and do some shopping.

Do you have any.

Do you know anything about Hungarian antiques?

Because I literally.

I know nothing.

Do you know?

I know a little bit.

I mean, for me one of the great joys of going to Hungary is the architecture.

So you get a crick neck from sort of looking up at the amazing buildings just like you do in Prague.

So outside Budapest there's a market and please, Hungarians, forgive me for my mispronunciation.

It's called Escheri, so it's E S C E R I you have to take, I think you take an.

An underground train and then a bus or you can just get a taxi.

I'm very cheap, so I just take public transport.

That is huge and diverse.

You will find everything, as my New York friend said, from soup to nuts.

They're literally everything and anything, quite a lot of it is brought into the country, so I'm told.

But you get a huge diversity.

There's also one street which I think is up near the parliament building.

So there's two auction houses on there and then all down the sides.

There certainly were last time I was there.

Numerous antique shops up and down.

And then finally, if you're looking for a sort of real bargain basement things, they have the equivalent of sort of like not charity shops, but they're like consignment shops and there's a chain of them.

So there's a whole chain of them.

If you look them up online you'll find the name, but each one kind of.

It struck me last time I was there.

I don't know whether it's still true.

Kind of specializes.

So some seem to have more glass in, some seem to have more furniture in, some seem to have more clothes in, some seem to have more homewares in.

So I printed out a list and ticked them all off as I went round.

I did really, really well.

I love Budapest and I did very well buying that.

You're going to have a ball.

Well.

And I love the fact that I have enough t time to really, I can print off the list and systematically work my way between Buda and Pest through.

Through the cities.

I knew you would have tips for me for Budapest, like I was convinced there would.

It might have changed, but I'm pretty sure Esheri or Ashiri or whatever it's called, will still be there and you've got to see it.

I mean, it's outside of Budapest, but it's, it's just, it's bonkers.

It will be on my list without a doubt.

And I remembered what I was going to say.

So talking about these charity shops, first of all, I love going to charity shops in the UK too, but here in Italy, have you been to the Mercato del Usada?

I haven't, no.

I haven't been to Italy for too long.

So first of all, you've got to come, you know, you know, I've told you forever, you have an open invitation in Vienna.

In Vienna, you.

An open invitation in Venice.

I've been on my mind because I think when I go to Budapest, I'm going to take the train first to Vienna and then stay a day or two, then go on, that's.

But you know, you have an open invitation here in Venice anytime.

But now I have the house in Chianti and there is.

So we have.

I.

I'm doing the house with a friend, English girlfriend from St.

Albans.

So she and I are.

Have partnered up on this house and clients.

Amazing there.

We're doing an artist retreat there.

We've got some great activities planned.

But we have a mission for the house to make, to do everything from a very sustainable point of view.

And so we're trying not to just go out and go to Ikea when we need something basic.

Of course, any house of mine is going to have be filled with antiques, but of course, you fall in the trap of doing IKEA and antique simply because it's it.

You get the bookshelves that are behind me, they solve an immediate need.

And she and I agreed on the house.

We're not, we're not doing that.

But there's basic things you need to function.

So we started going to all of these Mercato de Uzata.

I think I'm going to furnish the house with 90% things from the Mercato de Uzata.

Wow.

The prices are incredibly good, the pieces, fabulous antiques and knowing things that you specialize in, they are on the shelves.

Oh, my gosh.

It's been incredible.

And I had an amazing.

Hold on, I'll show you one thing.

Oh, yes, dude, this.

This has nothing to do with antiques.

However, what you cannot see behind the camera is my entire desk is filled with mountainous piles of vintage Fortuny.

Oh, my goodness.

Fortuny.

Good Lord.

This week I had.

They were not in the Mercato de Yusata.

This week I got an invitation to a secret sale.

Fortuny has never done a sale for 80% off.

And they did a sale 80% off.

And I will tell you.

So my house is going to be secondhand goods and 80% off.

Fortuni in Chianti.

All this to say you must come not only now to Venice, but also to Chianti.

And we will go to the Mercato de Uzata in.

In Sienna, which is the best.

I would love that.

Sienna's incredible.

Beautiful, beautiful town square, if I remember rightly.

And then you've got fantastic historic buildings beside it.

Absolutely wonderful.

No, I haven't been to Italy, so a while.

I'll see you there.

That's all I'm saying.

We'll sort it out.

We will, honey.

It has been so wonderful seeing your face.

We've only recently started adding the video element to the podcast and it's a little nerve unnerving for me because I keep catching my reflection in the corner and.

And that stresses me out.

But I will say I'm really happy it was a video call and I got to see your beautiful smile.

You too.

It's great to see you.

It's been far, far too long, Tom.

It really has.

I think next time I'm in the UK is probably not until March.

I was actually supposed to be there this week.

Gail told me.

Yes, it ended up being better to come in the new year.

So we make a date.

I'll see you in March and then we're going to get you on the calendar.

Coming, Coming here.

I'd love that.

That would be fantastic.

I've still got this auction house to deal with.

Time's very, very busy.

I mean, it's interesting seeing the amount of people coming in.

And at the moment I've got an awful lot of people coming in where relatives.

Mum, dad is gone upstairs, let's say, or gone into care or something like that.

And they don't know what to do with their collections.

You know, their parents lovingly collected these things.

They remembered, you know, the love of.

And care and attention that their parents put into building this.

And maybe they're not so keen or they've kept one or two pieces, but they want to disperse the rest.

So I'm finding at the moment I'm getting a lot of that coming in and it takes up time because I go down these rabbit holes of sort of fascination and interest that really pull so many stories out.

But, yeah, it's.

It's an interesting point that there's a sort of boomer stuff.

I don't know whether you've heard that phrase before.

That's all beginning to come in at the moment and I think working with auctions is one way of dealing with it.

We've got this avalanche, this impending avalanche maybe younger generations don't want, and we have to find them new homes.

So, yeah, I'm really busy with that at the moment.

So tell our listeners how they can, one, where they can find you online, two, how they can work.

Work with you.

I.

A lot of our listeners are going to be trade and I know you're going to be an incredible source for them.

I've never before seen inventory, which that is the gold our clients are looking for.

So tell, tell them how to find you.

So we're easily found on markhill auctions.com we're based in Royal Tunbridge Wells in Kent.

But the thing that I think will appeal to so many people, trade members of the public, whoever you are, is that our rates are amongst the lowest in the country.

So this is really sounding like an advert, but it is very important.

Most auction house, most auction houses will charge anything from sort of 20% to sellers and then maybe 25, 30% to buyers.

We're 15% down to 10% based on value on both sides.

So rather than taking kind of 50% or more or with extra fees like insurance and photography out of the value of an object, we really, we're taking 30, which is nearly half.

So we're considerably less expensive, which is why I chose the sort of tagline for the moment of returning more value to you.

Because ultimately we're not taking the value in fees at 15% down to 10% on both sides.

We're allowing the object to be bid on higher.

And we take plentiful photographs and we also have in house shipping.

We live in the digital age, the Amazon generation, Tom.

People expect things to arrive.

Bam.

Bam.

Seriously, I'm so proud of you and I'm really happy seeing this dream come true and I look forward to seeing you in the new year.

It'll happen.

I'll look forward to it too.

I give you kisses and I'll see you later.

Okay, bye.

Ciao.

Bye.

I hope you've enjoyed this episode of the Business of Antiques.

I'm Tama Clark Haines, the antiques diva, and I'm helping you make your passion for antiques profitable.

Talk to you next time.