I appear to have invented a new word!
Apparently Brocanterie is not a real word in la langue Francaise, why ever not! It jolly well should be.
I use it frequently in my social media posts, alongside other ephemeral terms such as Kitchenalia and Gardenalia, descriptions much beloved by auctioneers and House and Garden magazine journos.
Here in France my job is known as Antiquiere.
I'd much rather be a Brocantiere though, as I don't feel the official title covers what I do or what I sell adequately. After all, what's antique about an old wooden wheelbarrow or a vintage rolling pin, both of which currently reside in the Cider Barn Brocante inventory.
But it's another word I've made up, and I think it is really rather good, has a ring to it wouldn't you say?
We in the antique and vintage trade are probably most often referred to in the UK as dealers, but my French friend Valerie informs me that over the channel in France this word is only used to describe someone in the drugs business, so it is best avoided I think. Hence a new term is required for the hordes of us who do cross channel trade in vintage, salvage, chateau chic, and all manner of 'brocanterie', and as Antiquiere is really not up to the job I'm going to push for Brocantiere to become common parlance! Will you assist in the dissemination of the word, use it in your posts and hashtag the hell out of it! Let's see how long it is before the social media megaliths are pretending they coined it! And, go....
Love the word!