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Discover Mid-America — September 2008

A Higher Calling? Values and best practices for the trade

I'm one of those folks who dares to believe that no job has to be "just a job." Any work bears within it the seeds of a “higher calling.” The truck driver isn't just driving a truck but is indispensably facilitating national commerce, carrying the goods that people need to do their jobs and live their lives.

This Diamond Lace pattern epergne was made in the late 20th century by Fenton Art Glass, but it’s a classically Victorian form used to display flower and fruit centerpieces for the Victorian table. I used to enjoy discussing with my college students what the Victorian passion for frilly things could teach us about that culture, and I often contrasted Victoriana with earlier Americana to illustrate the cultural shifts in American history. Students loved this field exposure to actual artifacts of history as opposed to merely reading about them in a history book.

Perhaps the higher calling of antique dealers is to be the repository of the artifacts of the past and of what those artifacts can teach us, not just about how people lived and worked “then” but how they might live and work “now.” These artifacts of the past, which are the antique dealer's stock in trade, teach us about culture, design — and, yes, that much abused concept "values." And these same values can form the basis for working principles and “best practices” for the trade.

Respect for old things

I’ve often thought that antique dealers could capitalize on the culture’s obsession with “newness” instead of merely carping about it. Sometimes you have to connect the historical dots for people. Ever stop to think how the modern obsession with technology, for instance, could be “channeled” into an interest in what people did before there were computers? Does your shop have old “math tools” like an abacus, a slide rule, even an old adding machine? How about measuring tools for dressmakers and carpenters?

One of the things I incorporated into a college course I was teaching on death and dying in America was a field trip to the classy antique mall where I used to work as a desk manager and cashier. That business happened to have good examples of mourning jewelry and mourning photography, artifacts that my students found endlessly fascinating. This field exposure to Victorian mourning practices gave my students the chance to learn about other aspects of Victorian culture and contrast Victorian silver, furniture and glass with earlier American wares in the shop to better understand the Victorians’ love for elaborate domestic accoutrements vs. the sparer approach to beauty in a previous era. The field trip did what merely reading about the Victorians couldn’t; if a picture is worth a thousand words, an actual artifact is worth a thousand pictures.

Why not invite college and high school teachers to use antique shops and shows as field sites for illustrating course content, for subjects from history to math to art? And if the mountain can’t come to you, what about offering your own “antiques road show,” in which you bring historical artifacts into the classroom and teach students about them? What about offering such a “road show” to general audiences at places such as public libraries?

An active belief in the value of old things gives us a best practice for the trade: We take a leadership role in connecting the dots between modern consumer passions and the old things that are our stock in trade, for the purpose of cultivating a generation of consumers who will buy old things because they’ve been taught that preserving old things matters.

Pride of workmanship

These small, exquisitely painted Erphila jugs based on the characters in Charles Dickens’ novels show obvious quality and the pride of the artisans who worked on them. These were made in Germany, but brought to America by Philadelphia exporters Ebeling & Reuss. The trade name Erphila is composed of the first letters of their last names plus the first two syllables of the city name. Erphila figural jugs of various kinds are in high demand among collectors, with the prices on these small Dickens creamers in the range of $25 to $50 each. (photo by the author from a family collection)

From the Colonial artisans of the 17th century to the Shaker artisans of the 19th, even the simplest of woodworking reflects an extraordinary care of workmanship — yes, even “pride,” though the humble Shakers would hardly have called it that. This value of pride in workmanship gives us another principle for a viable future for the antiques and collectibles trade: Any merchandise carried in the trade should reflect the pride and dignity of the worker(s) who made it, and the manner in which we display this merchandise should likewise reflect our pride in our own trade.

This principle is a practical guideline for dealers to use in sorting their merchandise before putting it out for sale. Yes, it’s a somewhat subjective principle, but many — perhaps most — distinctions between junk and jewel are just plain obvious.

This principle might also cause us to take a second look at fields that purists have traditionally regarded with disdain. Say what you want about Depression glass, one can’t deny that it has endured a surprisingly long time for glass allegedly made “on the cheap.” One can imagine glass workers taking pride in it during tough economic times for America, fooling everybody by making glass that, decades hence, would stand up to the limited expectations of its more cynical critics.

Appreciation for difference and diversity

Not every beautiful art and artifact has to be made in the USA. At the very beginning of the decade of the 1980s, I found myself living in Ecuador (long story), where I was enchanted by the work of indigenous artists, such as this small (6” x 7”) painting of a baptismal scene inside a rural church with an Indian congregation. (Note the line of white hats in the foreground, a common feature of “Sunday best” dress among the Qichua Indians of Ecuador. Note also that whimsical touch, the guy peeking in the window.) The painting is done on animal hide, and the “fur side” of the canvas is visible on the verso.

This value is related to pride in workmanship and is the very opposite of a “cookie cutter” approach to making things. Not every chair or table looks like every other chair or table made in that tradition. Embellishment, ranging from tiny to total, and hand-manufacture, ranging from partial to complete, put the stamp of individuality on items.

So here’s another best practice for the trade: Merchandise and the way we display it should reflect the diversity of its manufacture, even within narrowly defined fields. If you’re a glass dealer, for instance, the manufacturer or era you prefer or in which you specialize would have produced various glass treatments. Whatever your preferred merchandise, take a look at your display space: If it looks pretty much the same as it did last month, or if everything in your booth looks essentially the same as everything else in your booth, it’s time to diversify!

Like the other values discussed here, this one has all manner of broader cultural relevance, in an era when bigotry and xenophobia toward people, places, things and opinions different from our own still hold far too much sway over the national imagination. Not everything good has to be made in the USA or made by English-speaking people. In fact, someone choosing to deal in antiques and collectibles from other cultures would have a certain advantage in the American trade: less competition and a way to stand out in the crowd!

Peggy Whiteneck is a writer and collector living in East Randolph, VT. If you would like to suggest a topic she can address in her column, email her at allwrite@sover.net.

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