The ‘pure joy’ of antiques: Owner celebrates 40 years at Hanna Antiques Mall

Bonny Hanna Picard, founder of Hanna Antiques Mall in Southside, understands the appeal of antiques.

“It’s the history and the nostalgia of it all,” she told a recent visitor to her store. “They don’t make things like this anymore.”

For example, older furniture is made better than new furniture, according to Picard.

“It’s real wood with dovetail drawers, not particle board that’s been painted over or veneered and painted over,” she said.

Picard is celebrating 40 years of helping customers find this old, cool stuff. She started as a furniture refinisher in 1979 and now rents space to about 100 antique dealers in her two-story, 27,000-square-foot building at 2424 Seventh Ave. S. Hanna Antiques Mall features furniture, rugs, linens and accessories, as well as 38 showcases of jewelry, silver, toys and collectibles.

Picard also has her own merchandise in the store, and she enjoys helping other dealers with pricing and descriptions.

“I’ve been doing this for so long,” she said. “I just know stuff.”

Born in Memphis, Picard grew up in Center Point and graduated from Erwin High School in 1970. She lived in Memphis from 1971-74 and, while there, learned about antiques and furniture refinishing from an old dealer named Bill Gaylor.

“He showed me how to clamp and glue and sand and stain,” she said. “We hand stripped everything.”

Picard also made a valuable discovery. “I didn’t realize I was a salesperson, but I would hang out there and sell things for him,” she said.

She also started buying antiques and going to auctions. “That’s when I got antique pox,” she said laughing, referring to antiques as an illness or addiction. “After that I was hooked.”

After moving back to Birmingham and working an office job at Merrill Lynch for about five years, Picard started refinishing furniture in the basement of a mansion on Cliff Road where she rented a small apartment.

She offi cially opened The Final Finish in 1979 in a rented building on Magnolia Avenue that measured 10,000 square feet.

Her refinishing operation required only about one fourth of the large space, so Picard added an antique mall, a new concept for the area. “Nobody knew about it in Birmingham,” she said.

A woman who owned an antique mall in Huntsville taught Picard the basics of running the facility, including what to charge dealers. Picard also changed the name of her business to Hanna Antiques.

Customers liked antique malls because “it wasn’t just one thing,” she said. “It was a variety of everything.”

The dealers like the concept because they don’t have to be in the store all the time.

“They have the flexibility, plus … I do all the taxes and bookkeeping,” she said. “I have coffee, toilet paper [and] keep the building well lit.”

The business was very much a family affair. Picard’s father and mother, Frank George and Jeanne George, helped out in the store, her dad as a part-time cashier and her mother as the bookkeeper. Her sister, Beverly Francis, also volunteered.

In 1989, she and her husband, Sandy Picard, bought the current building and moved the store.

Picard faced a major adjustment when her mother and husband both died within a year in the mid-1990s.

“The three of us shared responsibility, so I had to learn their jobs,” said Picard, who also raised her two children, John and Lily. “There was a lot of tears and prayers.”

But Picard and the business both endured. Many of Picard’s customers are from out of town, in part because she’s located near UAB Hospital, St. Vincent’s Hospital and the V.A. Hospital.

“I have people from all over the United States and from other countries, occasionally,” she said.

Despite the internet and the growth of online retail, antiques lovers still enjoy hunting for items in person, Picard said.

“They can see the condition,” she said. “They can bargain. They can take it right then and not wait until it ships.”

There’s also an emotional rush in shopping for a special item, Picard said.

“You get a rush when you go to a sale or auction and you try to get it and you do get it, and you feel that excitement and joy,” she said. “It’s pure joy."

Trends come and go in the antique trade, Picard said. For example, blue and white transferware and majolica, a brightly colored pottery, both faded in popularity but have recently generated great demand.

There are also generational shifts. Many older baby boomers are downsizing and selling their antiques and furniture, and many young people prefer a simpler, less cluttered look in decorating than their parents.

The dealers have recently sold lots of furniture, including big china cabinets, Picard said. They also sell a lot of end tables of various sizes and kinds, she said.

After four decades in the business, Picard said she is thinking about retirement, but she still enjoys her business.

“I still love what I do, and I’m good at it,” said Picard, who has worked since she was 16 years old and supported herself since she was 18.

There is currently room in the store for more dealers, Picard said.

For more information about the store, call 205-323-6036 or go to hannaantiques.com.