Nick Jones, From Fearing Technology to Selling Online

We were delighted to visit Nick Jones at the Battersea Decorative Antiques Fair in London to film our latest client spotlight. Nick is a dealer in European antiques with around 30 years in the trade, and his story is one of passion, a strong eye for beautiful objects, and perhaps surprisingly, an initial terror of technology!

Nick began his journey in antiques selling Art Deco from a small London shop. Over the years, as his knowledge and confidence grew, he broadened his range to encompass furniture, lighting, mirrors, accessories and decorative objects spanning the 17th to the 20th century. His guiding philosophy is a simple but compelling one; we only buy what we love.

What makes Nick's approach particularly distinctive is his view that beautiful objects transcend period and style. Rather than focusing on a single era, he embraces pieces from across the centuries, believing that "beautiful things are beautiful things" and that they will sit well together in a room regardless of when they were made. He is also well known for his preference for muted, toned down colours with no brights in sight, which gives his stock a coherent, considered feel that appeals strongly to interior designers and decorators.

Nick exhibits at the Battersea Decorative Antiques Fair three times a year and he has developed a smart approach to making the most of each event. For every fair, he releases around 100 new items of stock to his website, timed to go live at the moment the fair opens. It means that visitors who encounter him in person can immediately browse and buy online too. If you are curious about the thinking behind this kind of approach, a few of our dealers do this as we have explored in our article on why timing your stock can help you sell more antiques.

Getting to this point was not always the plan, however. When the idea of a website first came up, Nick's reaction was one that many dealers will recognise. "I wasn't computer literate and the idea of a website frightened me to death," he says. "Other friends who were with ph9 said you really should have one." He took the plunge, and today his feelings could not be more different. "It's really simple, even I can do it. Now I can do it blindfolded." More tellingly still: "Now it's instrumental in my business. I couldn't function without it."

Watch the video below to hear Nick tell his story in his own words.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXTR1bxUHJQ

You can view Nick's website here:-

https://www.nickjones.london/