Antiquing And History Education
Here are some thoughts on the educational aspects of antiquing.
The collecting of antiques has become fairly common over the last few years. One popular reason for this is programs on television such as €Antiques Roadshow€ and other similar shows. More and more people are taking this up as a hobby, not really for financial buy-and-sell motives.
One great aspect of this antiquing hobby is the benefit in learning about our history. Allow me to describe a little scenario showing how this can work very well, along with how it can fail dismally.
Lets assume we go shopping, and we see a nice looking table in an antique store, lets say its among some antique tables for sale. So we enter the store, and purchase the item for $150 (just a sample price for storyline purposes, actual prices vary quite a lot). The antique table is taken home, and put on display in the living room. A lovely and elegant addition to the home.
A few days later, one of your friends pay a visit. He sees and comments on the new table, saying something complimentary about how well it looks, or something like that. You reply €Yes indeed, thats an antique table that I purchased recently for $150€. Moments later your friend begins to chat about something else and the antique table is forgotten about. What a mini-tragedy!
Here is a much nicer version of events, the way it should have happened.
While we were in the store we should have questioned the owner about it. We should discover as much information as possible about the item. Find out its origin, who made it, when was it made, what period does it belong to, who owned it last, and every single little detail that the store owner knows about it. Write it all down in a little notebook preferably, so as not to forget anything. Antique dealers can surprise you with the amount of knowledge that they have on every piece in their shop, and are usually very happy to tell you all they know (provided they are not in a hurry, obviously).
Later on, we can use the Internet to lookup some of these details, to clarify anything or to find extra tidbits.
This time, when the friend pays a visit, its a completely different story. He sees and comments on the table as before. But this time you can describe the table in detail, telling your friend all the history and any interesting points about it. Just be careful not to bore him by talking too much. I am quite sure that your friend will be fascinated, and will most likely learn something from you. Also, it is the type of conversation that people remember, and it is very likely that your friend will pass this little story on to others.
So, one little purchase can easily have the effect of passing some history knowledge on to several people. Nice thought!
The collecting of antiques has become fairly common over the last few years. One popular reason for this is programs on television such as €Antiques Roadshow€ and other similar shows. More and more people are taking this up as a hobby, not really for financial buy-and-sell motives.
One great aspect of this antiquing hobby is the benefit in learning about our history. Allow me to describe a little scenario showing how this can work very well, along with how it can fail dismally.
Lets assume we go shopping, and we see a nice looking table in an antique store, lets say its among some antique tables for sale. So we enter the store, and purchase the item for $150 (just a sample price for storyline purposes, actual prices vary quite a lot). The antique table is taken home, and put on display in the living room. A lovely and elegant addition to the home.
A few days later, one of your friends pay a visit. He sees and comments on the new table, saying something complimentary about how well it looks, or something like that. You reply €Yes indeed, thats an antique table that I purchased recently for $150€. Moments later your friend begins to chat about something else and the antique table is forgotten about. What a mini-tragedy!
Here is a much nicer version of events, the way it should have happened.
While we were in the store we should have questioned the owner about it. We should discover as much information as possible about the item. Find out its origin, who made it, when was it made, what period does it belong to, who owned it last, and every single little detail that the store owner knows about it. Write it all down in a little notebook preferably, so as not to forget anything. Antique dealers can surprise you with the amount of knowledge that they have on every piece in their shop, and are usually very happy to tell you all they know (provided they are not in a hurry, obviously).
Later on, we can use the Internet to lookup some of these details, to clarify anything or to find extra tidbits.
This time, when the friend pays a visit, its a completely different story. He sees and comments on the table as before. But this time you can describe the table in detail, telling your friend all the history and any interesting points about it. Just be careful not to bore him by talking too much. I am quite sure that your friend will be fascinated, and will most likely learn something from you. Also, it is the type of conversation that people remember, and it is very likely that your friend will pass this little story on to others.
So, one little purchase can easily have the effect of passing some history knowledge on to several people. Nice thought!
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