“The Technological Revolution,” “Globalization,” – these have become familiar terms in the past few years. But in the context of the presidential election upset, these terms have been used with even greater frequency to account for the anger and resentment of those voters whose industries were under siege and whose jobs, if not already eliminated, were being threatened.

Yet even before the elections we could see the effects of the technological revolution and globalization. For example, the traditional print media, with its shrinking advertising revenues, has increasingly gone online, embracing the new technology that it originally eschewed.

Even the art and antiques business, and certainly a bit player like me, has been dragged along by this new age and forced to adapt. For over 75 years our family business has followed a straightforward model – offer a wide selection, personal service, competitive pricing, and deep knowledge – all in the context of the shop experience. The focus was having a New York City shop where buyer and seller and art would all come together and interact. And this is what made us successful. But now the stakes and the rules have changed. And we too must change.

I would not be at this point were it not for my son David. He has prodded and challenged me to come to grips with the new reality. It is no longer sufficient to have a beautiful shop that we are proud of – especially in an age where people buy fragile and expensive items from the comfort of their living room. And I have found, much to my surprise and delight, that more and more people do shop via the internet – and we have been the beneficiaries.

So I have had to get out of my comfort zone and become not only a shopkeeper but an internet-keeper as well - with the vision that this will catapult our 75-year-old business to a higher level and into a new frontier.

And part of entering this new frontier is writing this somewhat awkward introduction to what I hope will be, in time, a continuing blog about art and antiques. I do this with the utmost humility. I love antiques and works of art and I love to talk about them but it’s usually been face-to-face. My task now is to continue to talk about them face-to-face - but virtually as well. And the way to do that is to add an improved internet venue to my physical shop or, to put it another way, to extend my physical shop into the square footage of the internet.

And let me take this a step further. I invite you to take part in the dialogue and the give-and-take and talk to me as if you were in my shop. Talk to me either by email or, before it becomes completely obsolete, pick up the phone and call. You’ll find a welcoming and old-fashioned shopkeeper at the other end.

Jack Seidenberg