Maine Antique Digest, December 2016

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Maine Antique Digest, December 2016 25-A
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Miami where, if your house is twelve years old, it’s considered ancient.”
For college, he went off to study art at the School of the Art Institute of
Chicago and then went on to New York City when he was accepted into
the selective Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program.
While he was away at college, his parents moved to Tallahassee, Florida.
“When I visited them, we went to Thomasville, Georgia, where there were
many nice shops, and I started to buy furniture.”
Early on, he said, he was showing in New York City with canvases that
employed oil paint and wax. “I was nineteen and supporting myself with the
sale of my paintings. I had a loft in Tribeca.” He recalled looking for antiques
during those halcyon days. “I frequented the old Twenty-sixth Street flea
market. Everyone went to the Twenty-sixth Street flea market. And Bleecker
Street was such a wonderful run of shops.”
This period was followed by stints in Buffalo, Toronto, and Paris (there was
a significant other involved). He has particularly vibrant memories of looking
for antiques in Paris and Buffalo. “The Marché aux Puces was amazing and
inspiring, and the antique stores in the Marais had the most wonderful stuff
you ever saw. Buffalo had wonderful estate sales because it was originally so
wealthy. Almost every Sunday we went out to the Clarence markets [outside
Buffalo]. This was pre-eBay, and the stuff you would see was amazing.”
After Toronto he moved to a space in NewYork City’s South Street Seaport.
“I moved in almost exactly a year before 9/11. I was home that day.” “Home”
was no more than a dozen blocks from those terrible events. “That was the
impetus to leave New York. A friend had bought an old farmhouse up here,
and she said, ‘You really have to get out of the city,’” he said. And, like so
many other New Yorkers, he did. “It took only one visit.”
Scherer has a website but thinks of it more as an introduction to his business
rather than as a sales tool. “My website’s not a selling site,” he said. “It’s
really hard with one-of-a kind things to keep it up-to-date.”
He also has a Facebook page but isn’t wildly enthusiastic about it. What he
really likes is Instagram. He said, “I’ve been selling off of Instagram. I post
three or four pictures a day. It’s a great tool. For this moment, it’s a great way
to connect. I’ve met dealers from all over the world.”
But he doesn’t just post pictures of his shop or items that are for sale.
“Everything is lifestyle,” he said. “I post pictures of my trip to Mexico City.
You have to sell a lifestyle, a story. People want to be confident in you. I’ve
got 3500 followers, and I came late to it.”
As a dealer who generally carries things that are not extravagantly priced
(after all, there are only so many stuffed zebras out there), Scherer laments
the emphasis on monetary value as a measure of quality. He said, “The
whole advent of shows like American Pickers—flip this, flip that—and even
Antiques Roadshow, are a big part of what’s hurting the business. There are
lots of beautiful things that are not worth a lot of money.”
He wishes there were more outlets for this material, “but there are no shows
that emphasize that.” However, there is this store in Andes, New York, that
does and has been doing that for almost a decade, even though, as Scherer
said, “People think I’ve just opened because they don’t think you could make
a living at this.”
For information, contact Sean Scherer of Kabinett & Kammer, 7 Main
Street, Andes, NY 13731; (845) 676-4242; website
com); e-mail >. Open weekends and holiday
Mondays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. fromMemorial Day to NewYear’s Day. Otherwise
by chance or appointment.
A large, brightly colored framed 1901 school
chart, $550. Just visible under the dome, lower
left, is a taxidermy Victorian-era cobra, $395.
Two very large-scale industrial bulbs. The one
on the left is $45; the one on the right is $75.
The 3' x 5' Lucky Strike ad by Howard Chandler Christy is $550.
The deer is not for sale.
The Dial tobacco ad in a new frame is $155. The vintage colored fruit print in the
Victorian frame is $250. You may think it’s a shame that the incised decoration
on the period frame is in dreadful shape, but Scherer likes it. He wouldn’t think
of restoring it.
Some of the starfish, shells, and seaweed Scherer
sells for $8 to $15. “This is my Miami childhood
coming out.” The vintage grocery store fixture is
not for sale.
A 19th-century botanical chart in green on
black, $200. If you look closely, you’ll note
that the tattoos on Scherer’s arm carry out
the natural history theme. He said that over
the years “my aesthetic hasn’t really changed
much.”
A variety of old painted-tin boxes. “Tin boxes
are one of my specialties,” Scherer said. “I
always have an array of tin boxes.” These run
from about $50 to $75.
Many of the new items—
coasters, notebooks, pads,
matches, soap—that
Scherer stocks display the
natural history aesthetic
found in the rest of the
store.