Why We Collect

Little pitchers, still affordable and what a story they tell of other times and places.

I call my own fascination with collections focused hoarding and I blame my parents who also collected “things” , including smoking pipes, antique beer steins and tea cups. Perhaps it’s a genetic predisposition in many of us? The antithesis of the need to collect seems to be the person bent on shedding every trace of everything he or she ever knew and living basically out of a suitcase which we collectors find very odd.

Recently there has been a move afoot to discard everything and live a scaled down minimal life. It’s supposed to make us happy and light and somehow righteous and fulfilled. I disagree completely with that notion, to collect Things is part of the human condition.

So why do we collect stuff? Is it a leftover from caveman days? Could it be he-or she--who figured out how to collect the most useful stuff, lived to fight more woolly mammoths and raise children with the same bent?  We know accumulation of wealth leads to living longer simply because one is able to have a better standard of living. Could collecting objects one considers to have value have the same effect?

Clever wooden things, hand carved are such fun to find

 People have been collecting things for as long as there have been people with the need to understand and accumulate tangible objects. The world’s oldest known collection was actually discovered in 1925, and the archaeologist who found it was puzzled by the fact that he had discovered a neatly organized batch of even more ancient artifacts from different times and places in one place. It turns out he had uncovered the museum of Princess Ennigaldi-Nanna who collected Mesopotamian antiquities—2,500 years ago. The Mesopotamian antiques she collected were already antiques 2,500 years ago, showing us that collectors have been busy for a long, long time.

If we are collectors it’s probably relevant to understand why we collect what we collect, whether it’s Olympia beer can openers, Pyrex bowls, dolls, coins, books or any esoterica that makes us happy and fulfilled and loving the thrill of the hunt for the perfect object to add to the collection. Understanding why and being able to express it is also the first step in defending yourself against the non-collector who doesn’t get it.

Is it to accumulate wealth in tangible objects? Although few collectors are willing to ever part with a piece of their collections except when a better piece of the same thing comes along. Is it actually a collection if it is acquired simply to sell and accumulate wealth? Now there’s a question for you to ponder.

Oriental cats are really popular right now

Is it nostalgia for a lost time? Do you remember your grandparents’ house and your grandma’s kitchen? Do you crave the things from your own childhood that seem to go ‘extinct’ faster than ever with technology? It’s a way to slow things down and remember good times for some of us.

I like the idea that a collection lets us bring order and control to even a tiny corner of a crazy world. You can dust, catalog and arrange to your heart’s content if it’s your own corner. The dusting thing though, I bought three pretty glass fronted cabinets for my own collections to escape the dust part because it makes me crazy.

Can it be the feeling we get from acquisition of things that are beautiful to us that are being trashed, lost, discarded, forgotten or otherwise left behind by the world in general? Entire groups of people take immense joy in hunting down specific pieces like collectible Pyrex, old glassware, mid-century furniture, American pottery, Italian pottery and sharing that information with each other. If you collect it there is a group on Facebook that collects it too, and those become communities of like-minded people who take pleasure in sharing information and bragging rights. If you collect something and you feel alone, hunt it up on Facebook and join the community. You’ll learn a lot and get to share your special bits too.

For me, a lot of collecting is simply the joy of the hunt and finding something valuable that no one knows is there yet. Finding and stalking the wild kitschy deer statue or more restaurant china makes my endorphins percolate nicely. I take pride in owning amazing bits, and yes I confess to buying the aforementioned three glass cabinets to keep different collections in.

It’s odd how a collection starts, take the aforementioned deer. I started out with a cute little California pottery deer or three from my childhood and suddenly I started seeing cute affordable deer everywhere. It was like my being aware of them made them appear and now I find them and sadly, buy them everywhere.

collecting is going for the dogs, not to them.

Sometimes collections are annoying and accidental. Take the poor slob who makes the mistake of saying, “I love ceramic turtles”, and every birthday and holiday for the next 50 years involves the gift of a turtle. I personally know folks who have accidentally accrued collections of flamingos, frogs, turtles and teddy bears, all by accident. They would really like to stop, but it would mean their families would be deprived of the hunt for the perfect critter for them and most don’t have the heart to do it, they just keep filling boxes that will someday appear at Value Village or Goodwill when they can’t take it anymore.

I collect useful things too. The pieces we used in kitchens and cooking in the 50's and 60's were of much higher quality than the Chinese made disposable crap we buy now that breaks often and is supplanted by the next new thing on a regular basis.

Native pottery is amazing stuff and if you hunt, you can still find affordable pieces.

Take a look at the quality of goods from the past; they are so often better made and made to last. I have a hand mixer that I marvel at every time I use it. The perfect balance of utilitarian beauty and function and it will outlive me most likely.  Vintage Tupperware is amazing, it works great, washes nicely and I love the colors. Mouli graters work better than anything else that has been invented. What’s not to love?

Some goods from the past have become insanely valuable. Early Danish modern and Scandinavian pieces, mid-century and atomic furniture, rare Pyrex patterns and studio pottery are hot right this minute.

Collecting is like a roller coaster, what you love may be hot and then it’s not. Fenton glass, Victorian tchotchkes and cut glass are all seeing a lull but wait, they’ll be back.  Rarity will bring them around again as tastes change through the years. 

 

I still can't explain all the deer.

Collecting is a positive anchor, it ties you to the here and now, declares to the world, this is my stuff, this is my place and this is who I am. It lets you tell others something about you without your ever saying a word. I like that my shelf of vintage fat lava German pottery makes a clear statement about who I am and my personal style. I still can’t explain all those kitschy deer though….