Origins of an antique shop

By: Stephanie Savage
Posted In: Entertainment

Since 1993, Federico Santi and his partner, John Gacher, have owned and operated their antique shop, The Drawing Room, on Spring Street in the downtown area of Newport. Santi, who grew up on a desolate farm in Georgia, volunteered in VISTA just after college and after VISTA met a lot of acquaintances from the Boston area. Santi fell in love with New England while visiting his friends in Boston in 1971 and has never left. While working in management in Boston, he met Gacher and in 1977 the two men moved to Fall River, Mass. In 1985, they sold their home and relocated to Newport, a town with immensely rich history.

Q: How did you and your partner, John Gacher, get started in the business?

A: Both of our parents collected antiques so in our youth they were always around us. When John and I met, we had both been collecting since the same point in time and would go to flea markets together and actually set up at flea markets in Boston. We also did antique shows and since I was in management, it helped to supplement our income. It was a hobby that we made money with. In 1985, we moved to Stone Street in Newport. We stored antiques at three locations but we always had more things than we had space to display them. This building had always interested us and we always wanted to own it. In 1993 we made arrangements to sell our condos and then rent the shop downstairs from the owner. His wife, who was dying of cancer, had a costume museum in this building. After she died, we finally talked him into selling the building to us in 1999.

Q: What is the best part of your job?

A: The best part of our job, I think, is going on house calls. Going to people’s homes is a lot of fun because you never know what you are going to find. The hunt for new antiques has always been fun and still is.

Q: How is your business surviving during this economically challenging time, as well as Newport’s off season?

A: We’ve been here a long time so everybody knows us so the same people always come back and buy from us. We went online in 1996 with our website, and there are some months in which 50 percent of our gross sales come from our website alone. If somehow the internet were to die, it would be like taking half of our income away–that’s a big difference. If we did not have the internet we would not have been able to survive. I think that’s why when we moved here, there were 42 antique shops in Newport and now there is only half a dozen.

Q: How do you determine the value of a particular item?

A: We read a lot and study a lot. We buy a lot of reference books on antiques and we go to museums, as well as other people’s shops and when you add all those things together.we probably have between 300 to 400 books on antiques; so quite a substantial library. It does not necessarily mean that they tell you what the value of something is but they discuss how rare something is or when it was made and who the important makers were. You simply learn.you are always learning something that you did not know before. We try to learn as much as we can so that when we see something in the marketplace we know what we are looking at and we might actually know who to sell it to and what they might pay for it. Education is critical.

Q: Do you think that today’s pieces are being made with the same sort of craftsmanship as the older ones you have in your shop now?

A: Quite frankly, we are already seeing designer pieces from the 1950’s and 1960’s reaching stratospheric levels. There are pieces selling for a quarter million to $300,000. Even a simple clay pot from the 1960’s can sell for 50 to 60 thousand dollars.

Q: Who is your typical customer?

A: There are two types of people we sell to. One would be a dealer because we sell a lot to dealers and the other would be the true collector who collects a certain category of antiques. Actually, there is a third category of people who are looking to furnish their home and either wants a single object or an antique lighting fixture or an antique table lamp…something to accent an otherwise boring interior.

Q: What can you tell me about your book, Newport Mansions; Postcards of the Guilded Age?

A: I collected postcards for years. We had 800 or 900 Newport postcards and there wasn’t a book on the Newport mansions and postcards. I just thought it would be a great book. So, we approached our publisher that has published other books for us and we sent him the proposal and I said ‘let’s do it’ so we did.

Q: Have you ever watched The Antique Road Show?

A: Yes. Antique dealers hate that show. We all hate that show. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing and it gives people a false sense of value.”

Q: What are your hopes for the future of your business?

A: Finding wonderful things and finding interesting buyers.that’s what it is all about.