Antique Dealer resume examples by experience level

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An antique dealer resume is an evidence document for a trade that runs on two things: what you can authenticate, and what you can get your hands on.

It is an unusual resume, because most people in this trade are not employees. A dealer resume is written for a partnership, a consignment relationship, a gallery or shop post, an auction house specialist role, or a collection manager's job. The reader might be an employer, but might equally be a prospective partner, a consignor deciding whether to trust you with their family's furniture, or a saleroom deciding whether to take your business.

A conventional resume proves you did the work. A dealer resume proves you have judgment, access and a clean record on title.

Resume guide for an antique dealer resume

This guide and the corresponding antique dealer resume example will cover:

• How to write a dealer resume when you are self-employed, section by section
• Naming your categories: what you can authenticate, and to what depth
• Your sourcing channels, and why they are the scarcest thing you own
• Three adaptable summaries: assistant, dealer and principal
• Title, provenance and restricted materials

How to write an antique dealer resume

Six sections: contact header, profile, categories and connoisseurship, trading history, sourcing and channels, and credentials with compliance. One to two pages; two is normal here.

The ordering is the point. A generalist reads as an amateur in this trade, and naming three categories you can defend beats claiming forty you cannot.

Choosing the best resume format for an antique dealer resume

Reverse chronological, one to two pages, single column, no photograph.

Self-employment is where people reach for a functional format, and it is the wrong instinct. Write your own business as an employer: trading name, years, format, categories and numbers. "Pemberton Antiques, Charleston, SC, 2017 to present, sole proprietor" is a job. A skills-first layout with no dates reads like someone hiding a thin decade. Keep a separate, longer document for inventory and your fair record.

Include your contact information

The second line is doing real work. A period range and two categories tell a reader more in eight words than a paragraph about a lifelong love of old things. If you have a gallery, a booth in a multi-dealer center or a stand at a recognized fair, name it.

Make use of a summary

Four lines: categories and period, years in the trade, one number on what you sell or turn, and one line on credentials.

Antiques assistant with three years split between a Charleston gallery and a regional saleroom, cataloging and condition-reporting American furniture, silver and works on paper. Wrote 640 catalog entries across 11 sales, including measurement, marks, condition and provenance notes, and handled consignor intake for estates valued between $8,000 and $190,000. Trained in hallmark identification and in Art Loss Register searching before consignment.

Independent dealer in Southern furniture and Anglo-American silver of the period 1720 to 1860, trading nine years from a Charleston gallery and four national fairs a year. Turned inventory an average of 2.4 times a year on a stock holding of roughly $310,000, with a gross margin of 41% across the last three trading years. Every object over $2,500 leaves with a written condition report, a provenance file and a database search result.

Principal of a Charleston gallery with 19 years in Southern furniture, Anglo-American silver and Lowcountry works on paper, and a second trading strand in single-owner estate purchases. Bought and placed 14 estates in five years, including two museum placements and one private collection of 340 objects, and grew annual turnover from $640,000 to $1.9 million. Certified appraiser, and the gallery's provenance and restricted materials procedure is written and auditable.

Right vs wrong: the same antique dealer summary, twice

The right column can be tested in about two questions. The wrong column is what every booth sign in America already says.

Outline your experience

Trading name or employer, city, format, dates, then three to five bullets. Values, volumes and margins belong here.

Principal, Pemberton Antiques, Charleston, SC, March 2017 to Present
Trade Southern furniture and Anglo-American silver of 1720 to 1860 from a 1,100 square foot gallery and four national fairs a year.
Turn inventory an average of 2.4 times a year on a stock holding of roughly $310,000, at a gross margin of 41% across the last three trading years.
Issue a written condition report, a provenance file and an Art Loss Register search result with every object above $2,500.
Maintain a restricted materials procedure covering ivory, tortoiseshell and protected timbers, with no item sold across state lines outside a documented exemption.

Name the categories you can authenticate and the channels you can source from

This is the section that separates a dealer resume from a retail resume, and it is two lists rather than one.

Categories. Write them as material, region and period, and be honest about depth. Three tiers works well.

Attribute and authenticate: Charleston and Savannah cabinetwork 1760 to 1830, Anglo-American silver 1720 to 1860 including provincial hallmarks, Southern portrait miniatures
Buy and sell with confidence: English and American brass, period lighting, Lowcountry works on paper, early Southern ceramics
Buy with outside opinion: Continental furniture, Asian export porcelain, arms and militaria
Method: hallmark and touchmark identification, secondary wood analysis, tool mark evidence, ultraviolet examination, comparative auction records since 1998

Three tiers is credible in a way a single long list is not. Every experienced dealer has categories they call a friend about, and saying so is a mark of judgment.

Sourcing channels. Access is the scarcest asset in this trade and the hardest to copy, so it deserves its own block.

Restricted materials and title. This belongs on the page, briefly, because it is where a dealer career ends when it goes wrong.

Elephant ivory is the clearest case. Under the Endangered Species Act an item qualifies for the antiques exemption only if it meets all four conditions: 100 years or older, composed in whole or in part of an ESA-listed species, not repaired or modified with any such species after December 27, 1973, and imported through an endangered species antique port. A separate de minimis exemption covers African elephant ivory where the ivory is a fixed or integral component that is not the primary source of the item's value, weighs less than 200 grams in total, and the item was made before July 6, 2016. Interstate sale is otherwise prohibited, and the burden of proof sits with the seller, met through CITES certificates, qualified appraisals, dated photographs and detailed provenance (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, elephant ivory guidance, accessed September 2026).

Stating that you operate a written procedure against those rules says something most dealers cannot.

Build a snapshot of your key skills

Twelve entries in three groups: connoisseurship, commercial and compliance.

Connoisseurship: Hallmark and touchmark identification, Construction and tool mark analysis, Secondary wood identification, Ultraviolet and raking light examination, Auction record research
Commercial: Estate purchase and valuation, Consignment terms and settlement, Fair exhibiting, Inventory turn and margin management, Cataloging and photography
Compliance: Provenance file assembly, Art Loss Register searching, Cultural property import restrictions, Restricted species materials, Condition reporting and restoration disclosure

List your education, credentials and compliance training

Appraisal credentials first, then conservation or academic training.

Certified Member, Appraisers Association of America, specialization in American furniture and decorative arts, 2021
Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice, Personal Property, 15 hours, most recent update 2026
Bachelor of Arts, Art History, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC, 2006
Continuing education: 40 hours a year in decorative arts and appraisal method

Be precise about what a credential is. There is no license to be an antique dealer, and none for appraising personal property either: the Appraisal Foundation states that "unlike real property appraisal, there is no law requiring personal property appraisers to obtain a credential or designation to practice" (Appraisal Foundation, accessed September 2026). What exists is membership qualification. Certified Membership of the Appraisers Association of America requires ten years of direct marketplace and appraisal writing experience, at least 120 hours of education including 15 hours of Personal Property USPAP, application in a single area of specialization, and a certification exam (Appraisers Association of America, accessed September 2026).

Restoration is the other place wording matters. The American Institute for Conservation's Code of Ethics holds that conservation professionals must maintain accurate, complete and permanent records of examination and treatment, and that compensation for loss should be detectable by common examination methods (AIC, Code of Ethics and Guidelines for Practice, adopted August 1994). If you restore or commission restoration, say that you disclose and document it.

Choose the right layout and design

One to two pages, single column, plain type, no photograph. Objects can be beautiful; the resume should not try to be. If you are applying to an auction house or gallery group the file is parsed before it is read, so avoid two columns, text boxes and graphics. For a prospective partner or consignor, attach a short portfolio as a separate PDF: six to ten objects with attribution, period, provenance line and price achieved.

Antique and art dealing market and outlook

The trade sits inside a global art and antiques market measured annually, and the dealer share is the number that matters.

Source: The Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report 2026, by Arts Economics, covering 2025 sales.

At the employed end, US retail sales workers, the group covering shop-based antiques selling, numbered 4,271,400 in 2025 with a median annual wage of $35,560 as of May 2025, and employment is projected to change by 0% over 2025 to 2035 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, May 2025 wages and 2025-35 projections). Salaried antiques work is a small, flat niche inside a large flat occupation, which is why most people in it trade for themselves or move to a saleroom. For the auction route, see the auction house manager resume, the closest salaried sibling.

What income you can expect as an antique dealer

There is no published wage for antique dealers, because most of them are not paid a wage. Anyone quoting a national average for this job has made it up.

The trade runs on margin and turn, and those are the numbers to put on your resume. A dealer holding $310,000 of stock and turning it 2.4 times a year at a 41% gross margin is describing the business precisely. State all three together: a high margin with no turn is a storage unit.

For the employed roles this resume also serves, gallery assistant, cataloger, saleroom specialist and collection manager, the benchmark is the retail and auction pay scale, and the BLS figure above is the floor to argue from. Appraisal work is the other strand worth naming: fee-based, and where a credential converts directly into billable work.

Key takeaways for an antique dealer resume

1. Name three categories with region and period, not forty with none.
2. Split what you authenticate from what you buy on an outside opinion.
3. Give turn, margin and average ticket together; one alone says nothing.
4. Treat sourcing channels as a section; access is the scarcest thing you own.
5. Write your own business as an employer, with a trading name and dates.
6. State your appraisal credential exactly, with issuing body and specialization.
7. Show a written procedure on title, provenance and restricted materials.

Build your antique dealer resume in 15 minutes.

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Pair it with a matching antique dealer cover letter.