Aug 9, 2008

Antique shops moving onlineBy Janet EastmanLATimes.com

Sharon Lynn Bear can’t be dissuaded by the price of gas, the time it takes to unearth the perfect piece or the disappointment of ending a shopping excursion empty-handed. Whether the Irvine resident is browsing for a 19th century vase or a vintage Italian footed bowl, her venue of choice isn’t EBay or Craigslist but the old-fashioned storefront overflowing with antiques.

“I love to see the items, touch them,” says Bear, whose home is filled with antique store finds from Ventura to San Clemente to Palm Springs. “I even enjoy the stores’ old, musty smell.”

Unfortunately for Bear and others like her, the antique store is becoming something of an antique itself. The number of U.S. shops that specialize in furnishings at least 100 years old — the generally accepted definition of an antique — has been falling since the 1980s, according to Connie Swaim, managing editor of the newspaper AntiqueWeek. Walk the antiquing districts of Southern California these days and you’ll sense the acceleration of the trend here.

Earlier this summer, Cari Markell cleared out her Silk Roads Gallery on La Brea Avenue. Bruce Graney closed his Pasadena store last year after operating for nearly three decades. So did Sally Gould Wright of Richard Gould Antiques, a Los Angeles business her parents started half a century ago.

Many antique associations have seen membership dive, and the Antiques Dealers Assn. of California has kept its numbers steady only after allowing in dealers who don’t have brick-and-mortar stores or who sell pieces that aren’t technically antiques.

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