Picture an antiques dealer in your mind and you might come up with someone almost as ancient and dusty as their wares. But a new wave of millennial and Gen Z slash-career (musician/actor/whatever) Londoners are embracing the profession. More unusually, their digital presence is slim to none — not for them the casual impersonality of an Instagram shop. Rather, they can be found on sourcing trips across Europe, stalking auctions and selling their wares in person at antiques fairs such as the Decorative Fair at Battersea Park, the next instalment of which runs from May 12 to 17.
In a milieu where age and experience is a badge of honour, about a fifth of the 130 exhibitors are classed as “young” (read: from mid to late twenties to about 40). But what does it take to trade in rare furniture and art? And how do you hold your own against the seasoned pros? Here, a trio who are new to the trade — relatively speaking — tell all.
“I love that it’s one of the few jobs where I’ll be peaking in my sixties”
Jonny Langer, 41, was a musician until he quit in 2017. “It’s a young man’s game,” he says of his former profession. He worked with 20th-century design specialist the Peanut Vendor for a year before branching out on his own and founding Punch the Clock. “I’ve got so much to learn because I’ve only been doing it for 10 years. I’m just getting started really. I love that it’s one of the few jobs where I’ll be peaking in my sixties,” he says.
His style leans towards French art deco pieces. But as with most dealers, he simply buys what he likes. “Quite simple stuff gets me — nothing too decorative, nothing too gilt-covered,” he explains. Buying trips take Langer to France, Italy and Belgium in search of treasure. From afar he admires the old guard of dealers around Paris, “sitting out enjoying a cigar and a coffee in the mornings, probably talking about what they’re going to buy at auction”.
Langer likens his profession to a “shopping addiction”. Is it tricky to part with the treasure he’s spent so long tracking down? “Of course — but the best thing about the job is I get to live with these things for a little while and decorate my house with a very expensive painting that I wouldn’t usually be able to afford,” he says. “So my place is constantly evolving and changing each month.”
Gilbert Bannerman might be a millennial (just) but he doesn’t have a website or sell via Instagram. Instead, the 31-year-old pitches up to every Decorative Fair with his considered curation of 19th- and 20th-century paintings, tapestries and embroideries and often sells out of his first hang.
“My taste is pretty vague, it’s what interests me at any given moment,” he explains — he currently has a soft spot for Welsh straw works. Bannerman’s parents are celebrated garden designers Julian and Isabel Bannerman; his late grandmother started antiques dealing in her fifties. “A lot of people start later,” he says of the trade. He “fiddled about” doing various jobs, including working in the art department for films, before landing in antiques several years ago.
His day-to-day involves much driving to fairs around the country as well as stalking online auctions. “Everybody’s on them — the Sale Room has become like Rightmove,” he says. He describes the sense of community among the dealers as “wicked” and how: “We’re all geeks in anoraks. Antiques dealers absolutely loathe selling and only get excited by it because it means they can do more buying. And pay the bills.”
“The moment you buy anything you don’t want to have at home, it doesn’t sell”
Bannerman also stays afloat by sourcing pictures for his network of private collectors. He, too, sticks to the mantra of buying instinctively. “The moment you buy anything you don’t want to have at home, it doesn’t sell,” he says. “It’s just weird and completely true.”
Tom Panto is an aspiring actor who has landed the ultimate in flexible, part-time work: helping his antiques dealer godfather, Jay Arenski. The 25-year-old was initially enlisted to help with some heavy lifting in 2024, but his role has blossomed: he can regularly be seen on Arenski’s Instagram account shining a light on their most recent finds.
Panto doesn’t profess to be an expert, but his A-levels in Ancient Greek and Latin occasionally come in useful for translating inscriptions on relics. Arenski is a second-generation, seasoned buyer with decades of experience — “he just knows what he’s looking for, there’s no faffing about,” says Panto — yet he’s never too busy to advise his protégé. “I’m very curious, and I can just say: ‘What’s the crack with these pieces? Why not that one?’ He’ll very happily explain to me his thought process.”
“It’s proved a great well of inspiration for my acting”
An unforeseen upside to Panto’s side-gig is the storytelling. “It’s proved a great well of inspiration for my acting,” he says. “The character studies you can do when you meet some of these antique dealers — they’re incredible!” Should he land a big break, Panto says he will always make space in his life for this new world: “I’d still love to stick around. It’s really brightened up my creative life as well as my personal one.”
