Last week my coworker Tom Adams, CPF sent me a framing book he found at a sale. Titled The Picture Store and Frame Shop and published in 1906, it is a collection of articles and article excerpts from The Picture and Art Trade.
While it is interesting to read about some of the old framing techniques, very few of them are anything I'd use or recommend today. Tom and I were both struck though at how relevant much of the business, sales and merchandising advice is. I think that when we are all inundated with people like Viviam Kistler, Rob Markoff, Jay Goltz and Greg Perkins giving us advice we tend to tune it out or it just becomes part of the background noise. But if so many people repeat the advice and it's the same as what was written over a hundred years ago, maybe it should tell us that it's just plain good business sense that never changes.
If anyone's interested I'll post some tidbits over the next few days.
Hints to Salesmen
You cannot make trade when there is none, but you can do a good deal towards injuring trade by always taking a pessimistic view of business. Salesmen too often get in the habit of knocking business by saying it is "rotten," when everything does not go easily and smoothly. This remark passed from one to another bears fruit in discouraging others, and it is too often used as an excuse for not putting forth efforts to getting what business can be secured. It is true that the successful salesman never is downed, and always wears a hopeful smile. This habit goes a long way towards contributing to his success in life. And last of all the man who does not like his work will never make a good salesman, and he is fortunate enough if he recognizes this fact and has sense enough to seek other employment.
The Prestige of New Goods
There is such fascination about new goods that it almost pays to sacrifice some of the old so as to get them out of the way. The public is quick to get on to the fact that the dealer has something new to show them. The public is also quick in shunning the store where the same old display continues on from month to month and year to year... There ought to be a constant changing variety shown on the walls and on the easels...
Proper Matting and Framing of Pictures
When a customer brings you a picture to select a frame, don't ask him what kind of frame he wishes, or do as I have seen some art store salesmen do, present almost every sample on the sample board for his inspection. A customer in many cases, if left to make his own selection, will very often select a frame that is not at all suited to the picture to be framed. If your customer selects a flat polished oak frame to put around an oil painting, it is your duty to suggest that the proper frame for such a picture would be a gilt high back, and at the same time you should explain the whys and wherefores, and then if the customer insists on having the painting framed in oak, which he rarely does, you are justified in turning out a freak.
While it is interesting to read about some of the old framing techniques, very few of them are anything I'd use or recommend today. Tom and I were both struck though at how relevant much of the business, sales and merchandising advice is. I think that when we are all inundated with people like Viviam Kistler, Rob Markoff, Jay Goltz and Greg Perkins giving us advice we tend to tune it out or it just becomes part of the background noise. But if so many people repeat the advice and it's the same as what was written over a hundred years ago, maybe it should tell us that it's just plain good business sense that never changes.
If anyone's interested I'll post some tidbits over the next few days.
Hints to Salesmen
You cannot make trade when there is none, but you can do a good deal towards injuring trade by always taking a pessimistic view of business. Salesmen too often get in the habit of knocking business by saying it is "rotten," when everything does not go easily and smoothly. This remark passed from one to another bears fruit in discouraging others, and it is too often used as an excuse for not putting forth efforts to getting what business can be secured. It is true that the successful salesman never is downed, and always wears a hopeful smile. This habit goes a long way towards contributing to his success in life. And last of all the man who does not like his work will never make a good salesman, and he is fortunate enough if he recognizes this fact and has sense enough to seek other employment.
The Prestige of New Goods
There is such fascination about new goods that it almost pays to sacrifice some of the old so as to get them out of the way. The public is quick to get on to the fact that the dealer has something new to show them. The public is also quick in shunning the store where the same old display continues on from month to month and year to year... There ought to be a constant changing variety shown on the walls and on the easels...
Proper Matting and Framing of Pictures
When a customer brings you a picture to select a frame, don't ask him what kind of frame he wishes, or do as I have seen some art store salesmen do, present almost every sample on the sample board for his inspection. A customer in many cases, if left to make his own selection, will very often select a frame that is not at all suited to the picture to be framed. If your customer selects a flat polished oak frame to put around an oil painting, it is your duty to suggest that the proper frame for such a picture would be a gilt high back, and at the same time you should explain the whys and wherefores, and then if the customer insists on having the painting framed in oak, which he rarely does, you are justified in turning out a freak.
