THOUGHT PROVOKING EDITORIAL

I'm often asked to appraise items of Wedgwood and other ceramics, frequently dinnerware, and the subject of getting rid of our accumulations of "stuff" comes up. Yesterday I was giving a talk to a group of ladies on a very narrow historical china subject and the dinnerware styles and values subject emerged during the question and answer period. I find myself telling the story of a set of "Edme" dinnerware, about as masculine and classic a pattern as one can imagine. I gave my son a set when he moved into his first apartment after college, of course arriving there dinnerware-less. A few weeks later I was at the apartment seeking a plate, and lo and behold I spotted a set of unfamiliar plain white dishes in the cabinet! When I asked he said, "Oh yeah, I got those at Target, the Wedgwood is in the hall closet boxed up for you to take home." This story illustrates the situation quite a few [million I suspect] of us are facing, our kids don't want the fine things we've collected when we are ready to divest ourselves of them. In my case, my 30somethings won't take their OWN "stuff" let alone the silver, crystal and china I want them to take! This month's Editor's Letter in The Magazine Antiques is a thought-provoking treatise on this exact subject. Elizabeth Pochoda observes that our fretting about the dearth of young collectors may not be so dangerous as we fear. She feels their time to collect will arrive when they are ready. But she brings up another point, that being the possibility that the "culture of collecting" could die out. Her comment that "The digital world has eroded our physical environment" really set me to thinking. Certainly iPods, Kindles and other new gadgets are replacing books; dishwasher safe dishes replacing dinnerware which may require more care and be "fancier" in style and shape is another danger, not part of the digital world, but certainly a casualty of modern technology. She also reminds us that at the magazine they must "worry about how we can widen the circle of people who are passionalte about Shaker boxes and Wedgwood creamware."

Ms. Pochoda suggests to us that giving young people antiques, especially family heirlooms, to help them connect their past to their present and future is a logical step we older collectors can take to encourage the collecting habit. Further she says, "And while there is no digital replacement for a great piece of scrimshaw [Wedgwood] , the habit of accumulating objects may not come naturally to the next generation." This is a valid observation and one upon which I expound often in my business life. Her quotation from Ezra Pound, Canto 81, rings very true:

"What thou lovest well remains, the rest is dross
What thou lov'st well shall not be reft from thee
What thou lov'st well is thy true heritage...."

I've been pondering this subject for quite awhile, and this particular letter ever since my December issue of TMA arrived. However something is absent from her missive, and nearly slipped my own mind. How many of us have chosen to collect something, or many things, not because of the thing, but because of the urge to collect? I'm thinking this is a genetic anamoly, it's in the genes. There are people who just want/need to collect, and if they're lucky, something wonderful emerges from an image, a texture, a scent, a shape, an experience, even a memory perhaps and strikes their fancy inciting them to accumulate that particular thing. Think about the people in your family - I'll bet you'll find another collector hanging around in your family tree....

Me? Oh yes, my kids collect nothing, my mother nothing but recipes because she loved to eat, but that was all. My father? Coins and stamps from his childhood until he died at age 75. My grandmother? Dishes, little boxes, ancestors and matching hats & purses. So, perhaps some of our worry about the lack of young people wanting our china and other "treasures" will turn out to be unfounded, once they have finished their educations, amassed some capital, established their lives, and realized the itch to collect is there...trains, post cards, antique chairs, Wedgwood, they'll all find a way to satisfy that itch! Maybe my girl friends are right, I just have to wait a bit... only worry is that I was already collecting, bottle caps & the color photos on the cover of our newspaper TV listing booklet, by the 3rd grade. Then post cards by 4th, Avon bottles by 7th or so and I had fallen in love with my first Wedgwood (blue jasper of course) by the 8th. Okay, back to my original premise, collecting is in my blood, but probably not my kids'... I often say I wish I had borne more children, not because the two I have aren't wonderful, but for the variety! I wish you all at least one child with the collecting gene! Perhaps if we each give away something old and meaningful this week we'll start a trend!