business
1960s rare collection of Abraham Palatnik lucite animals
Inside the Antique Business
Interior designer and antique expert Sally Serwer lifts the curtain behind the trade.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF SALLY SERWER
“I sold on my own,” Serwer recalls, “and then I went to the best store in town, Odd Fellows Antiques.”
Sally Serwer
INSIDE THE BUSINESS OF ANTIQUE DEALING Odd Fellows Antiques is home to some 50 antique dealers. Once a week, Serwer brings in her latest goods to sell at her booth, which includes a wide range of everything from beautiful fine antiques to flea market finds. “I’ve got great artwork and furniture, mid-century chairs, old French chairs,” she describes. “A lot of antique dealers who are there, they specialize in one area, and I don’t really have a specialty because I love too many different genres. I have a gamut for everything.” While Serwer has perfected the art of
ASHLEY ZLATOPOLSKY CONTRIBUTING WRITER
W
hen Sally Serwer was 6, her mother, Adeline Steinman, would take her to antique shows at Temple Israel. “It was in my blood very early on,” the interior designer and antique dealer says. For more than 40 years, Serwer, 67, of Bloomfield Hills, has worked in interior design as the owner of Sally Serwer Designs. She’s also sold items at Berkley’s Odd Fellows Antiques for 15 years as an antique dealer, serving clients throughout Metro Detroit and beyond. At the forefront of Serwer’s unique style and taste is an aptitude for classic and vintage pieces, which she aims to incorporate into any space she decorates. “I have been known to be a person to use
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antiques with all of my designs,” she says. “Even if it’s a very modern house, I feel like you need to have new and old to make it different from everyone else’s.” Catching what she calls the “retail bug” from her father, Alvin Steinman, who owned women’s boutique Alvin’s Bride with several locations throughout the state, Serwer combined that passion with her mother’s love for antiques (another trait she says was passed down) into her business. Throughout her career, Serwer began to collect antiques that she could later sell to her clients. She assembled a vast collection that she stored in her garage, turning antique dealing into a side business that she could add to her main interior design business.
Murray Eisnersigned Woody Allen print
