 Antiques dealers find fun and fulfillment
By KELLY A. GOFF
Photography ROBERT FRENCH
How many careers offer an
opportunity to continually
learn, shop till you drop,
travel the world, gab with
good friends and enrich the homes and
lives of others? A number of antiques
dealers in San Antonio have found their
bliss in this business. Their passion has
infected their spouses, children and
friends with their fever for the old.
Perhaps their stories will stoke the
flames for the forgotten in you.
SUZAN MENDLOVITZ
FAN-TASTIC FINDS AT
OLMOS PARK ANTIQUES AND ART
4119 MCCULLOUGH
Growing up in Washington, D.C.,
Suzan Mendlovitz was surrounded by
antiques. “But I never thought in a
million years I’d be specializing in
them for the last 35 years,” she
admits with a smile.
Antiques crept into her life surreptitiously.
She and her husband, Max,
were just starting their lives together,
and money was tight. “Somehow I
found out that my husband had been
buying antiques behind my back and
was storing them at his parents’
house,” she recalls. Later, Max started
refurbishing and selling antique ceiling
fans as a hobby after they purchased
many of the older discarded fixtures
from the University of Texas in Austin.
That was in the ‘70s. “That’s where the name of our business
comes from, ‘FAN-tastic Finds,’”
says Mendlovitz. “Then inexpensive
reproductions from India hit the market
place, and I knew we were in trouble. That’s when we started focusing more
on antiques.”
With 7,000 square feet, Fantastic
Finds specializes in quality. Their mainstay
is furniture, silver, art and small
items. In fact, Max, who is now 70, is
something of a furniture specialist. “But
I think he started to get a little bored, so
he cultivated a love and knowledge of
art,” says Suzan. “My husband especially
likes Texas art. We like to buy art and
furniture that’s unique. It’s an eclectic
shop with a real variety.”
TAG TEAM APPROACH
As with the other enterprises featured
in this article, family plays a big
role in the business. One of their sons
decided to switch careers over 10 years
ago and join the family business. While
he’s still an integral partner, he now has
his own business, Jon Mendlovitz
Antiques. “He has a wonderful eye,”
says his mother proudly. Today all three
share the same shop space.
But it is her husband, Max, who
really has the “fever.” “If we didn’t
have this store, I’d probably be spending
more time reading,” laughs Suzan. “But Max wouldn’t be doing anything
different. He’s always thinking about
antiques — he’s the driven one that
gives me that push. The thing I enjoy
most about it is I’m constantly learning
about new things, and I’ve made some
really good friends.” While Max enjoys
the hunt for new pieces, Suzan likes
customers and paperwork.
FINDS THAT ARE FANTASTIC
“We carry high-quality merchandise,”
says Mendlovitz. “We try to buy
things that are special and unique.
Sometimes we’ll do a vignette and cluster
pieces that go together to give customers
ideas. But mostly I tell people to
be sure to look up and down when
they come into the shop. We keep it
neat and try not to put too much on
the floor, but I think it’s fun for customers
to be able to poke around and ‘discover’ pieces, too.”
Like many of the other shops, they
do less refinishing and restoring now,
partly because of economics, partly
because the market has changed. “Mostly we do cleaning to expose
the natural beauty of a piece,” she
says. Of course, if a piece requires
repair, they restore according to its era
to preserve its authenticity.
Researching pieces is another aspect
of the business that Mendlovitz relishes. “Even if they’re not serious connoisseurs
or collectors, most people want
to know where the item has come
from, how it was made, who owned it,
etc. We try to put everything we know
or can confirm about the piece right on
the sales ticket,” she explains.
“The nice thing about this business
is the flexibility it allows you. Now that
we’re getting older, we’re less likely to
move large pieces of furniture, so we’re migrating to smaller pieces to keep the
business more manageable,” she says.
Like other dealers, they’ve felt the
squeeze of the recent economic downturn. “However, we’re fortunate to
have many loyal local and out-of-state
clients. Every year we say we’re going
to retire, but I can’t imagine doing anything
else. We’re having the time of
our lives.”
 RACHEL TAYLOR HOOPER
TIMELESS ANTIQUES
10151 IH 35 N. AT THOUSAND OAKS
• STARLIGHT TERRACE
A self-professed “newbie” to the
antiques business, Rachel Taylor
Hooper opened Timeless Antiques this
March after three years of leasing space
in antiques malls. “It was my hobby,
and I did well with that arrangement
up until about a year ago, then several
of the properties closed,” she says.
Taylor Hooper was raised with
appreciation and respect for old things. “My parents impressed upon us our
heritage. I have family pieces that I find
priceless simply because it’s part of my
own personal history,” she says. “I’m
fascinated by the beauty and craftsmanship
of antiques.”
Her husband proposed she bring her
antiques into her other business, Alamo
Barter Corporation, where she owns
the building and had a lot of unused
space. “I brought in a few pieces and
set up a mini-showroom so that some
of my Barter Systems customers, who
also love antiques, could shop. Then it
just exploded,” she says.
That explosion amounted to some
6,000 square feet of furniture. She
decided it was time for an inventory
reduction sale. “It seemed like a good
test to see whether the location could
support a full-fledged antiques business,”
says Taylor Hooper. She conducted
a weeklong warehouse sale and
received great feedback. Since then
she’s been working with her husband
to convert the space into more of a
retail setup, with 2,500 square feet of
store space and 2,000 more for storage. “I like to stage my pieces almost
like a furniture store. I set it up like your home rather than stacking things up
because, personally, when I shop, I
want to be able to see the item from all
angles and visualize how it might fit in
my home,” she says.
RICH IN HISTORY
Taylor Hooper is meticulous about
the research and restoration of pieces.
“Different dealers have different
attitudes and approaches. I prefer not
to put anything out unless I’m
absolutely sure of the origin, type of
wood, etc.,” she confesses.
Both Taylor Hooper and her husband
have always enjoyed the learning that
comes with researching new pieces.
She says, “It’s honestly how I got started.
It’s something we can do together
that we both love. I’m hoping with
opening the store next door to my
other business I can reclaim that part of
the process. It took a lot of time hauling
pieces back and forth to antiques
malls, so maybe now I’ll have more
time to be more hands-on with the
retail side as well.”
She says sometimes that hard-won
knowledge helps with a sale: “It helps
a customer see the value, that it’s more
of an investment. A well-maintained
piece is going to grow in value simply
because there’s a diminishing supply.
Knowing the history and what it took
to craft the piece often gives them a
greater appreciation for the piece.”
Most of the furniture she deals in is
American and French from the early
1800s to Art Deco. “Fads come and go,
but classic pieces are always in style,”
says Taylor Hooper. “I prefer the clean,
contemporary lines that you can find
with Danish and Swedish pieces.
Luckily, people aren’t as opposed to
mixing different types of wood in their
home as they used to be, so there’s a
market for almost everything.”
MAKING A CONNECTION
Taylor Hooper finds deep satisfaction
in connecting her clients with the
perfect piece of furniture. “It’s similar
to my barter business. I like putting
people together with what they need
and want,” she says. “The feedback I get from my customers, especially the
younger ones, is that this type of furniture
reminds them of home or their
grandmother’s house. They tell me
their house seems warmer, more rooted
and comfortable. There’s security in
that warmth and familiarity. It makes
me feel good when I know a piece is
going to a good home where it will be
appreciated.”
 TOMME LU RIKLIN
AVALON-RIKLIN ANTIQUES
& ESTATES • 3601 BROADWAY
When you ask Tomme Lu Riklin
when she got started in the antiques
business, she pauses and gives a cryptic
reply. “All businesses take different
forms and shapes. My present antiques
business with my partner and spouse,
Scot, started 12 years ago,” she says. “But my first foray into antiques was
when I was just 8 years old.”
PLANTING THE SEED
Riklin remembers going to an
antiques store with her parents while
on holiday in New Orleans. “I was an
only child whom my parents had late in
life,” she explains. Her father had
given her a crisp $20 bill to spend while
they were in the Big Easy. Her mother
was looking at a pricey chandelier. “I
was told to sit quietly. Right next to
where I sat was a lovely 19th-century
candy box with little bisque dolls inside.
It was the most beautiful thing I had
ever seen,” Riklin recalls. “My papa
saw me eyeing the candy box and told
me to go up to the shopkeeper and
offer her my $20 for it. I gasped and
told him I couldn’t do that because the
price tag said $250. He winked at me
and urged me to try it. I couldn’t
believe it when she accepted my meager
offering. Of course, later on I realized
she was going to work on my
father for the chandelier.”
Riklin’s early exposure planted the
seed that has continued to blossom.
In grade school she worked with
her mother, who dabbled in antiques,
and later with her uncle, Phil
Willbornem, who has retired to
Boerne. She bounced around some
antiques malls but didn’t find them terribly permanent.
For a number of years they had a
store downtown, where they gained
some memorable clients. “It’s been
such an adventure,” says the San
Antonio native. “We’d stay open late,
and many of the NBA players from visiting
teams would shop after their
games. One time Billy Joel’s band
came in, and we had a doctor from
South Africa who would come four
times a year to buy brand-name jewelry
from us. She’d wear it back on the
plane and sell it as a way of augmenting
her income.”
Perhaps Riklin’s most memorable
customer was the late famed tenor,
Luciano Pavarotti. “It was so strange
because he wouldn’t come into the
store; he just sat in the limo in his silk
shirt and makeup,”
remembers Riklin. “He
sent his soprano in to tell
us what he was interested
in. So we walked out
with items on a tray to
choose from. He would
only communicate
through his soprano, not
to us directly.”
FUN BUT GRUELING WORK
After 9/11, business declined sharply
downtown, so they moved to a building
on Broadway she had purchased
with her uncle 28 years ago. Her store
is 7,000 square feet and feels like
something of a mini-mall, with tenants
who specialize in silver and jewelry. It’s
open six days a week.
Riklin likes the fact that there’s
always an adventure to be had in the
antiques business. She also notes it’s a
hard business for women: “There’s a lot
of physical demands with it, such as
moving furniture and packing and
unpacking goods for trunk shows and
just the kinds of people you must deal
with. With this type of business comes
a certain amount of exposure.”
Riklin bills her business as a gallery
of unique silver, estate jewelry and decorative
arts. They specialize in Mexican
silver, fine jewelry, period furniture and
fine art. What really sets Avalon-Riklin
Antiques apart from many other San
Antonio dealers is that she and her husband
are both members of the
International Society of Appraisers.
APPRAISING A LIFETIME
This license qualifies them to
appraise the value of almost any type
of personal property, such as fine art,
furniture and jewelry. Riklin is in the
process of gaining an additional certification
that will allow her to specialize
in rare, antique jewelry. It’s enabled
them to diversify their business so that
it’s not just straight retail, but rather a
mix of appraisals, estate sales, shows
and retail.
“I find it deeply satisfying to work
with estate clients,” says Riklin.
“Sometimes it’s like that moment on
Antique Road Show where the person
has no idea how valuable a piece is and
you get to deliver the good news. You
never know a family’s circumstances,
whether they’re in dire straits, so good
news about a valuable piece can surprise
and delight them.” Of course, on
the flip side, she is sometimes the bearer
of bad news, dashing the long-held
assumptions about a piece that really
holds only sentimental value rather
than market value.
“I like helping families through a
transition time in their life. So often
the last thing they have energy for is
the business side,” she says. “Estate
sales are fascinating. I get to really dig
into a lifetime’s worth of things and
organize records or a history to send
to the family. You’re in the presence of
something very special. It’s more of an
emotional thing rather than object
based. It’s sad when it ends. It’s like
being admitted into a life and not getting
to continue the relationship
because they’ve vanished.”
 JOANN FOX AND
CARMEN INGRAM
BROADWAY & 9TH ANTIQUES •
900 BROADWAY
With 50,000 square feet and three
floors, Broadway & 9th Antiques offers
a sharp contrast to smaller shops.
Carmen Ingram and her daughter,
Joann Fox, established it in 1995.
Ingram was looking for a real estate
investment, and the old Chrysler car
dealership building seemed like a good
commercial prospect. Fox, a self-professed “gypsy” who had bought and
sold antiques out of her truck for years,
saw retail gold. Both women have
always loved antiques and have extensive
personal collections.
Ingram came into real estate investing
quite by accident. As a young nurse
in the ‘70s whose husband had passed
away, she found herself making a good
wage and saved much of her money.
She had moved from one house to
another and made a profit. “I remember
thinking, ‘I’ve got a lot of money
sitting around. What am I going to do
with it?’” recalls Ingram.
She was reading the newspaper and
got the idea to try to do it again.
So she bought another house, fixed
it up and sold it — again at a profit. “I decided I was on to something
and began expanding from residential
purchases to commercial,”
she says.
Meanwhile her
daughter, Joann, had
been fine-tuning her
hunting and selling skills. “I’m kind of the black
sheep of the family.
Everyone else went into
nursing, but I went into
junk,” she laughs. “I didn’t have
money for day care, so my two kids
came with me on weekends when I’d
sell to stores in New Braunfels or go to
sales and auctions.”
Fox says her kids were her secret
weapons at estate sales: “The night
before a big sale I’d make my own ‘sold’ tags and take sheets with me to
cover things I wanted to buy. Then I’d
have one of my kids sit on the sheet so
no one would bother it. It’s funny
because they developed a real eye for
Depression-era glass. We had a lot of
fun for years, even before the store.”
Fox’s hard-core hunting demonstrated
to her mother how passionate and
motivated she was when it came to
antiques. When the old dealership
building became available, Ingram saw
real estate and Fox saw an antiques
business. It’s a dichotomy that’s worked
ever since.
TURNING A DINOSAUR
INTO A DESTINATION
Ingram says the down payment
cleaned out her savings, so they had to
do all the restoration themselves. “Hard work doesn’t scare me and
Joann. We’re used to it with all the
remodeling we’ve done on our
rentals,” says Ingram. We’re not just talking a fresh coat of paint either.
With the help of less fortunate locals
looking for work, they tore down cinder
block divider walls, hauled away
chemicals left over from the Harley-Davidson shop and brought what Fox
calls “the giant dinosaur” back to life.
They converted the basement into a
workshop for Bryant (Ingram’s second
husband) for restoration and upholstery;
the main floor features mostly
furniture; and the third floor, which
they call “the attic,” is where the bargains
are to be found. Ingram’s sister
works part time there, and Fox’s children,
now in their 20s, pitch in too.
Filling the behemoth falls mostly to
Ingram and her husband, although Fox
usually handles estate sales and local
deals. They travel the world from
Mexico to Pakistan, purchasing
containers full of
finds. “I find auctions too
expensive and yard sales
too much work,” says
Ingram, who still works
as a float nurse three
days a week because she
loves nursing. “I prefer to
go overseas and ship
back, although now that the dollar is
weak, it’s not as cheap as it used to be
to do this.”
Day-to-day operations fall to Fox,
who delights in the decorating challenges
and opportunities that the business
provides.
SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE
“The thing that makes our store so
much fun is that we have a lot of inexpensive
stuff too. It’s not that fun for
most people to go into an antiques
store and see a chair that costs
$15,000,” says Fox. “Sure, we have
some high-dollar pieces, but we have
so much space that we buy complete
houses out and also deal in architectural
antiques, such as claw-foot tubs,
windows, garden gates, doors and
knobs and fireplace mantels. We also
have four other dealers who specialize,
so there’s really something for any type
of shopper.”
Another unique feature of
Broadway & 9th Antiques is their resident
artist/handyman, Richard
Manriquez. “He’s been with us since
the beginning, helping with the remodel,
moving and delivering pieces and
creating funky art pieces from odds and
ends throughout the store. His work
sells like hot cakes!” says Fox. “Richard
is a big part of this business and helps
us tremendously.”
With such a variety and an enormous
inventory, Fox says they’re a
favorite of Dominion designers, who
prowl the attic for staging materials.
They’ve also leased to many a production
company, outfitting commercial
or photography shoots for H-E-B and
Taco Cabana, as well as movie sets for
films, such as Secondhand Lions and
The Alamo.
ADVICE FOR THE AVID
Both Ingram and Fox caution against
jumping into something so large initially.
Fox says to start small and grow into
it. “That way it takes the pressure off,
and you can really learn as you go. It’s
also good to take in consigned pieces
so your inventory doesn’t clean out
your pocketbook,” she advises.
“You have to be very financially
secure since all businesses go through
ups and downs,” says Ingram. “It
requires a serious commitment to be
there all day long, week after week.
With Joann’s and my ambition, we’ve
managed to pull it off really well.”
 CHERYL JELINSKI
THE COTTAGE ANTIQUES •
239 W. SUNSET
A husband in the military afforded
Cheryl Jelinski the opportunity to see
the world and all its treasures. With
each post, she found new things to collect. “My mother-in-law really loved
antiques. That’s where I got the bug,”
says Jelinski. “For 28 years we moved
every two years. I looked at it as an
opportunity to add to my collection.”
During one of their tours in San
Antonio, Jelinski worked for Wilkinson-Rhodes, an antiques dealer that imported
directly from Great Britain. “I
learned so much about antiques and
the business behind it while working
there,” she says. “It’s a complex world.
I found out no dealer is an expert in
everything. You have to build a network
of experts you can go to when
researching a piece.”
After San Antonio, it was off to
Turkey, and when they came back to
San Antonio for good, she decided to
make a go of it full time in 1996. Her
first store was on Hildebrand. “I had
$1,500 to buy inventory with and a
dresser, an armoire and stuff out of my
house,” she recalls. “I think that’s why
a lot of people go into this business —
because they have too much stuff in
their house.”
Her business was thriving when her
mother fell ill, and she scaled back to
care for her. That’s when she moved
into her current location on Sunset.
Appropriately named “The Cottage
Antiques,” the quaint blue house has
only 1,500 square feet of floor space.
As a result, Jelinski is all about turning
over her inventory fast. “I specialize in
furniture; it’s what
makes me money. My
store is unique because
we commit to having
new items every Tuesday
and Thursday. I stage a
piece just like it would be
used in someone’s home
so a customer can immediately
visualize how it
might look. I also price very competitively,
so it’s rare for us to have a piece
for more than a month,” she says.
Of course, it wasn’t always like that. “When I first started, I bought things
that I thought people would buy. Turns
out that’s totally the wrong way to
approach this business. It took me five
years to learn that lesson,” she laughs. “It was an expensive one to learn,
too!”
CUSTOMER RELATIONS IS KEY
Now she buys what she loves, from
18th century to vintage. “It’s very easy
to sell a piece that you personally like,”
she notes. “Gradually you start to
develop relationships with people who
like the same things you do, and they
become your clients.”
Although Jelinski loves eBay for buying,
she prefers selling in person. “Online buying has enabled me to
find things without traveling as heavily
as I used to,” she says. “But I prefer
knowing my customers. This business
isn’t just about selling furniture; it’s the
relationship I establish with the customer
that’s meaningful. I love knowing
where a piece is going to go and
that they love it.”
Perhaps it’s her commitment to her
customers that has allowed Jelinski’s business to weather so well the seemingly
never-ending construction on
Sunset: “If I were a new business, I
would never have made it, but we’ve
become a destination. My clients are
so faithful and regular. They know
they can count on new finds each
week, and they’ve gone out of their
way to be supportive. I’m really lucky
in that respect.”
FAMILY AFFAIR
Over many years of buying and selling,
Jelinski and her sister, who is an
antiques dealer in Florida, finally found
a way to temper their desire to “own”
everything they find. “I used to rotate
things through my own house. I’d buy
them for the store but like them so
much I wanted them for myself. When
you start out, you tend to do that,” she
says. “My sister and I used to fight at
auctions about who would get what,
but now we just split things. It’s no
longer about possessing the item personally,
it’s more about winning the bid
or getting the item.”
It’s not just Jelinski’s sister who gets
into the act, it’s a family effort. Jelinski
has three children and a husband who
have all helped at one time or another. In
fact, the oldest of her boys builds furniture
as part of his Austin-based business
called Howl Interiors. Her husband is a
teacher during the school year, but The
Cottage gets his full attention in the
summer. Her daughter loves antiques
and works full time there as well. “She
likes to be in the store, whereas I would
rather be out buying,” says Jelinski of
her daughter. “And she has a younger
eye and a real gift when it comes to talking
to customers.”
FUTURE OF OLD
Jelinski is fortunate to have found
an occupation and hobby that she’s
passionate about. “I see no end in
sight. This business is a lot of fun, and
if you don’t mind working hard, it will
be a success. There are many levels
and ways you can work within it, such
as buying space in a mall or selling a
few pieces at a time online,” she
advises. “I like to think of it as buying
a piece of yourself.”
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