News & Events
Mid-America
News
Show
Calendar
State Event Calendars
Regular Features
The
Antique Detective
Antique
Detective Q&A
Common Sense Antiques
Editor's Notebook
Reflecting History
Refurnished
Thoughts
Traveling with Ken
Good Eye
Discover
Mid-America
Marketplace
Books
for Collectors
Directories
& Classifieds
The
Finder: Unique Shops
Lodgings Directory
Museum Directory
Aviation Museums
Wineries in the Heartland
Classifieds
Archived Features
Helpful
Hints
for Collectors
Is This An Antique?
Heirloom
Recipes
Discover Mid-America — December 2006
 |
Under the radar
by Bruce Rodgers, Editor/Publisher
It was not an easy topic to tackle, as Discover Mid-America writer Terri Baumgardner found out. Attend some antique shows, browse through the better quality malls, and an antique lover/collector is bound to find religious items for sale. Yet dealer expertise is sparse.
Also, the items aren’t like other categories of antiques. Religious antiques and icons — by the very meaning they hold for believers of a particular faith — have an appeal beyond just age, origin or craftsmanship.
As Baumgardner notes in this month’s cover feature, there’s the spiritual element. And yet, there’s not.
Seemingly going against type in visualizing the typical antique buyer, religious antiques attract a younger demographic.
“I see a lot of younger people in their 20s,” Donna Foulk, a dealer at River Market Antique Mall in Kansas City, MO, told Baumgardner.
“A lot of religious icons have become pop icons; a lot of people collect them as art and not for the religious aspects.”
Foulk said that some people make a sort of shire in their home using religious antiques. She, herself, used to have a shire.
“It’s more the art aspect,” said Foulk. “I think it’s the beauty of the objects. They don’t have the same meaning for younger people; they see it as meaning something to someone before (them).”
Denise Caulkins, mall manager at River Market, said rosaries, crosses and bibles sell well. Other items that attract buyers include religious paintings and images of Mary and Jesus, and such things as holy water receptacles and communion boxes.
“Our clientele is young — 18 to 30; it’s something their grandmother had when they went to her house,” said Caulkins.
A June article in the New York Times stated that with many churches emptying “across the Midwest and Northeast,” religious artifacts are migrating.
Baumgartner said she didn’t find much evidence “churches emptying.” In her interviewing, Baumgardner did find that religious antiques sell well year around, not just during the traditional religious holidays. And the market in religious antiques and icons is growing.
Maybe it’s the troubled times we face as our world shrinks through globalization. That could explain the appeal to younger people. There is comfort in having something from another, maybe less worrisome era, as most every antiquer knows.
* * *
We’re working on putting together the 2007 editorial calendar for Discover Mid-America. If you, as a reader or antique dealer, have any ideas on what we could possibly report on in the antique, collectible or historic tourism area, please let me know.
Bruce Rodgers can be contacted at publisher@discoverypub.com.
> Editor’s Notebook Archive — past columns