Meet Antiques Dealer Lidy from French Garden House

I have an office in our home where I can look outside and see the children coming and going to the little school across the street and take a lunch break when my husband comes home and sit out in the garden. I take most of the product photographs at home, both indoors and in the garden. I shop for antiques to sell everywhere and have developed a network of dealers who look for things for me all over the world. I am in my element when one of them calls and asks to visit with “some special pieces” they are sure I will love, and we sit around the table with a freshly baked scone and coffee or tea and “ooh and ahh” over their “finds.” My husband and I also travel for buying trips; our last trip to Europe was extra special as I was able to persuade a Belgian dealer to part with some of her most cherished Madonnas for my American customers.

The most heartwarming part of selling antiques for me is when a customer e-mails or calls to let me know that the piece they bought from French Garden House is just like the one they remember from their childhood or that they are giving it to a loved one for a wedding or the birth of a baby. That’s what makes my business so very rewarding: the customers, their lives, and how the things they buy from me will make memories for their own families.

It’s the people I meet along the way that are the true treasures for me. My business is growing, and I have a base of wonderfully loyal customers. I am thrilled with every order, and we take special care to send each package on its way with the hope that it will delight each new owner.

To learn more about Lidy Baar, read “Enchanted by Toleware,”  on page 43 in the October 2015 issue of Victoria.