WOMEN IN BUSINESS - Jane Roesch: From a love to a business

SBN Pittsburgh, Mar 01, 2001 by McCloskey, William

Jane Roesch didn't set out to create a business.

Rather, when life handed her adversity, she made a business of an activity that she loved.

Roesch, proprietor of Merryvale Antiques, Shadyside, found herself widowed in early middle age. When casting around for a new direction, she looked no further than her own home, which was liberally adorned with antiques and collectibles gathered as part of a lifelong hobby.

"I didn't have to worry about initial inventory," Roesch says, 17 years after starting the business. "I had quite enough to get myself started in a small way. Its been gradual, and now we've grown to fill three floors of a lovely renovated Victorian home."

Roesch started Merryvale in a small storefront in the East Liberty commercial district, then moved a year later to Ellsworth Avenue. The shop began to show a profit after about two years and has expanded gracefully - to its current size and configuration, which she considers ideal.

Standing out among standouts

Merryvale Antiques is a gem among a glittering array of galleries and antique and specialty shops that grace the "other Shadyside," that part of Ellsworth Avenue east of Negley Avenue and several blocks .north of the more congested Walnut Street bazaar of retail and entertainment establishments. For the connoisseur and gawker alike, to say that Merryvale is gorgeous is to understate the case.

The spacious 1870s dwelling creates an elegant showcase for silver, porcelain, glassware, furniture and other art items But despite the elegance, prices start as low as $5.

Roesch explains that antiques are generally considered to be items that are at least 100 years old, predating modem mass production methods and complex synthetic materials. The attraction of an individual piece may vary, depending on the material from which it is made, the method of its hand-crafting, the reputation of the person or establishment that produced it, its uniqueness of style or oddity of purpose and its historical relevance to time and place.

Though the delicacy and high gloss of much of the merchandise suggests a museum, Merryvale is very much a business, with four employees who acquire, prepare, display and sell exotic wares.

Roesch employs a variety of methods for building inventory, including prospecting and attending auctions. She prefers, however, to make private arrangements, obtaining anywhere from a handful to a roomful of items upon referral from a member of her extensive network of friends, colleagues and customers.

That network is broad and deep because she is also a leader in several local cultural, civic and philanthropic organizations.

Not high tech, but high Intensity

Roesch says the antique business often is misunderstood as a plaything of the idle wealthy.

"My clientele is split just about exactly half male and half female," she says. "Customers come from all parts of town, all walks of life and all levels of affluence. What they have in common is a sense of 'treasure,' whether the item is for themselves, for their business or for a gift.

"My greatest challenge was learning to keep absolutely precise records of the dates, dollars and places that define this merchandise. I learned quickly that it's one thing to be a collector and quite another to be a merchant selling to collectors. For me, the key to the business has been my sense of optimism and persistence."

She concedes that hers is a traditional business, free from most of the hectic, complicated trappings of modem corporate existence. There is no board of directors, no shareholders or leveraged buy-outs, no electronic wizardry.

But though she is far too gracious to say so herself, it's clear that Roesch's business expertise isnt a skill at all, but an art. She simply has exquisite taste, and has made a business out of sharing it.