Maine Antique Digest May 2015

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18-A Maine Antique Digest, May 2015
show in our area. They were
dealers who sold what we had
not ever really known of (high
country) and used their repro-
duction Deerfield saltbox home
as their shop. They went to New
England several times per year
and returned with treasures. Per-
haps most importantly they were
willing to help us learn and al-
lowed us to ask questions, lots of
questions.
Stage 5 – Unbeknownst, you
begin to get serious about it
all. (In looking back, I was ob-
sessed.) My passion for collect-
ing now seems preordained. Of
course I was going to subscribe
to the Ohio Antique Review, The
Magazine Antiques, and Maine
Antique Digest. Loving books,
of course I was going to begin
to read and look. Good, Better,
Best (Fine Points of Furniture:
Early American) by Albert Sack
became my bible. Since these
were the days before the Inter-
net, we began to go to more an-
tiques shows. I do not know if all
collectors who get serious have
a mentor-teacher-guide, but Ber-
nice and Jim filled those roles
for my wife and me.
As devotees of the ancient
and significant reach stage 5 (if
they do), they begin to establish
a unique style. We collect high
country; I collect old iron; Pew-
ter is my passion; Our house is
furnished in a mishmash, but we
gravitate toward antiques with
birds or flowers. They begin to
learn which auction houses may
have what they like, the same
for dealers and shows. They
become aware that they have
formed strong opinions about all
sorts of things: I like mid-level
shows; I like prestigious shows
with the best stuff, even if I can-
not find anything I can afford,
and it helps me train my eye; I
like to go to auction previews to
learn the difference between how
pieces appear and are described
online or in a catalog, versus in
person.
Several hypotheses now. As
I have noted, Bernice and Jim
collected and sold high coun-
try. I think to this day, over 30
years after we met, I am trying
to emulate their collection, taste,
and pleasure in antiques. I won-
der if all serious collectors have
someone, somewhere (a dealer,
a fellow collector, a museum)
who is their model, consciously
or unconsciously. Another part
of becoming serious concerns
money, and a second theory ap-
pears: I think it is the dealer or
fellow collector (someone the
collector trusts) who makes it
safe to take the risk of the first
really big purchase. For my wife
and me the big gamble was a
Roberts wooden works tall-case
clock. (The Millers sold wooden
works clocks; Jim, as an engi-
neer, could repair them.) It cost
a lot of money back then. We
have never regretted that feeling
in the pits of our stomach, that
silent cry of What are we doing?
This is crazy .
Going even further, once a
collector breaks through the bar-
rier and spends a lot on a single
piece, it becomes easier to do it
again. All that happens is that
the numbers seem to go up the
next time. A small walnut Queen
Anne drop-leaf table followed
the clock. It is in this stage that
a relationship with a local fi-
nancial institution and a line of
credit may be necessary, or you
may forgo a vacation or objects
others lust after (stainless appli-
ances) for another antique.
Sometime during this stage, a
collector starts buying from and
working with one or a few deal-
ers. It is this dealer who looks for
you; this dealer you know has the
great eye, a fair price, and your
best interest in mind; this dealer
truly wants to help you build a
collection. For in this stage you
are starting to build a collection,
whether a houseful or one wall
or one shelf. Your tastes have
coalesced and focused. You have
knowledge and fairly well-edu-
cated opinions.
In this stage a collector be-
gins to ask other collectors about
which dealers they like, which
have merchandise that is right,
whom they have heard stories
about. They now know that get-
ting a good buy is not what col-
lecting is necessarily all about.
Oh, a good buy is nice, but we
want the piece to be correct, to
be what it is supposed to be, and
we are willing to pay more for
that.
Another hypothesis: collectors
would buy from the devil if he
had a piece to add to a collec-
tion. There are dealers I really
like, dealers I like, some I have
no feelings for, and a few I feel
negatively about for one reason
or another. I am the sort of guy
who likes to feel good about the
person to whom I am handing a
check. But for a collector at this
stage, the piece comes first. If
Satan and Sons Antiques has the
right piece for sale, I will seri-
ously consider it. I could get the
piece “vetted,” if necessary, by a
knowledgeable dealer. This may
drive the good dealers, the deal-
ers we like and spend the most
time with, crazy, but it seems to
be is the way it is.
A final symptom: in this stage
collectors are looking for specif-
ic pieces but doing so creates a
mystery (like theoretical physics
or making a great piecrust). On
the one hand, I am a bird dog fol-
lowing a scent when I am on the
trail of something to add to our
collection (another weathervane,
redware, painting). It is just as
when you are going to reroof
your house and the whole world
becomes house roofs—look at
that one, I like those textures,
that color, that style. On the oth-
er hand, can pieces really talk to
you when you are that focused?
What other great pieces do you
shut out of awareness when on
the hunt? The fast walk-through
at a well-attended antiques show
(first in one direction and then
back in the other) serves the
very purpose of finding some-
thing one is looking for before
someone else does. Yet it is the
slow stroll through an antiques
show, perhaps later in the day
after the initial crowds are gone,
or the second or third day, that
is the most pleasurable for me.
Finding the piece, enjoying the
hobby—who said collecting an-
tiques is easy? Frankly, there is
an irrational element to collect-
ing fever. Maybe we should ask
fewer questions and enjoy the
outcomes more.
Now, of course, a collector in
this stage follows auctions and
websites online. E-mail allows
him to let dealers know what he
is interested in and looking for.
The casual antiquer has become
a serious collector. The pursuit
and the acquisition of a desired
object affect the bloodstream,
sometimes cutting off the ability
to think clearly.
It is in this stage that collectors
realize they have formed friend-
ships in the antiques world.
Whether dealers with whom
they became close or with fel-
low collectors seen often or as
seldom as yearly in line waiting
for various shows to open or at
auctions, there is a comfort with
these folks.
Stage 6 – You have it bad. (If
one must be afflicted, ’tis a glori-
ous disease to have.) Love of an-
tiques is not necessarily bad. The
conversations with collectors
who are in line for four hours
before NHADA’s New Hamp-
shire Antiques Show opens are
fun. The long road trips required
to go to an auction can be enjoy-
able. You feel intensely. Perhaps
you are depressed when exactly
what you want at a show has a
“sold” sign on it. It can be pain-
ful when a piece you really want
to add to your collection goes to
someone else at auction. Damn
them anyway, how dare they!
Feeling intensely is part of living
life fully. The disappointment of
show after show, auction after
auction with nothing you are in-
terested in (and can afford) can
become maddening. One vac-
illates between despair and the
hope that in the next show aisle,
in the next auction catalog, or in
an e-mail waiting for you is it!
It is in this stage of collecting
that you wonder if you should
attend 12-step meetings for an-
tiques collectors, if they existed.
You cannot imagine not collect-
ing, but there is less and less
you need or want. Having it bad
gives meaning to life, suffering,
too. You value being a caretak-
er for your antiques. You worry
about who will take your place.
You know you bought some
pieces you should not have. You
know you bought some when the
market was very high. You sim-
ply do not care. The pursuit and
the pleasure make up for a great
deal.Your life is what it is. This
is collecting antiques at its full-
est, its best and its worst.
Stage 7 – Culmination (All
good things come to an end.)
There is death and divorce, both
of which are pretty conclusive,
of course (although you can re-
marry your ex). Some activities,
even collecting antiques, may
stop contributing to meaning in
your life. A collector may find
other avenues of satisfaction
(grandchildren, travel, cook-
ing, or crossword puzzles). The
meaning of a collection may
finally lie in giving parts of it
to children or others or selling
pieces to people who are truly
appreciative. It is said, as we age
we must become Buddhist and
learn that things are just things.
We will let others be their care-
takers. The fire that burned so
brightly may dim; for some it
may go out completely; for oth-
ers it may diminish but not die.
A collector may simply tire of
it all—favorite dealers dying or
retiring, the thought of one more
show or auction no longer being
exhilarating, the joy of the chase
turning to toil.
Such is the story of one col-
lector and his observations. As
I journey toward Canterbury, I
agree with my fellow travelers
that love is a torment or a dis-
ease, in my case a love of an-
tiques. In our travels, I hope my
tale fares well in the tale-telling
competition we seem to have de-
veloped. The overriding conso-
lation is that the collector’s life
is richer for the journey. Some-
one somewhere is just taking
that first step. I wish him the joy
of living out the story so many of
us have experienced.
Samplers • Americana • Folk Art
HANOVER TOWNSHIP, PA
570-650-0804
See this Woolie
and Sewing box
at .
Look for us at the East Berlin, PA
Antique Show!! 4/30, 5/1, 5/2
Sail and Steam
Needle and Thread
Stagescontinued from page 13-A
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