U.S. Antique Shows: What does a typical day look like for you now?
Paul Haig: We’re busier than heck. We have so much internet business and old customers emailing us for jobs. And we’ve got different companies wanting name tags and things made for re-opening, we’re very busy.
U.S. Antique Shows: What are you looking forward to most when the shelter in place is lifted?
PH: A lot more customers and some shows, I love doing shows so I’d like to be doing some outside shows again.
U.S. Antique Shows: Tell us about the first piece of jewelry or antique that you fell in love with.
PH: I was 12 years old, and I was in that the “Pirates Market” in Alexandra, Virginia, and I found a solid 14k yellow gold tie tac with my initial on it for a whole 10 cents.
U.S. Antique Shows: What designer/brand are you most excited to work with?
PH: I love working with all different designers, and all different time periods. I love working with much older pieces because they’re much more of a challenge.
U.S. Antique Shows: What is your favorite time period and why?
PH: My favorite time period is Art Deco, I like Art Nouveau also, but Deco because it’s so strong.
U.S. Antique Shows: Do you feel like you should have been born in another time period? If so, why?
PH: Actually, I love this time period because we have so many innovations, so many new things electronically and digitally and it’s just amazing what you can make now that you couldn’t make 10 years ago.
U.S. Antique Shows: What is one piece that got away?
PH: A lot of pieces that got away but one piece that really got away was that I had a tiffany many colored diamond flower brooch, that I sold very inexpensively, and the guy sold it for about 1,000 times more than I sold it to him for, because I was very young, I had just started, and I thought they were sapphires.
U.S. Antique Shows: What’s one piece of advice you’d give someone who wants to cultivate an antiques collection?
PH: Research research research! Look up and compare, go to auction catalogues, go online, find out what things are, authenticate pieces, double check your authentication and then have fun; there’s lots of discovery out there!
A Message from Paul Haig: Here at Haig’s of Rochester, we’re concerned about your safety, we’re also concerned about our safety. I have a lung condition from when I was a child, I had a childhood disease. We have spray, we have masks, and we have gloves. We have taken these frames off of the textiles and we’ve repurposed them into guards so that our people can work safely behind them, and you can be safe also. We do care, and we will ask people please to wear masks in our store.