(Very) Young Collectors
Whenever antiques dealers find themselves together with idle time to chat, it does not take long before someone bemoans the lack of young people interested in buying antiques. (Actually there is a huge amount of interest in antiques among the young adult demographic, but it manifests in ways that traditional antiques dealers do not necessarily understand – but that’s a topic for a different cultural analysis.)
Most present-day antiques dealers are upwards of middle age, and have grown into their careers with a strong clientele of baby boomers who are now retiring and downsizing, rather than accumulating antiques. So there have been efforts to recruit “young collectors” with events such as evening parties at antiques shows for young adults, and mentorship programs that encourage older collectors to take young collectors under their wing. The focus of these efforts is on people in their 20s, 30s and 40s who are beginning to furnish and accessorize their own apartments or houses.
But being out and about in the antiquing world during recent weeks (while exhibiting at a show in New York and shopping at the Brimfield Antiques Markets), I witnessed a few scenes that put a new spin on my thoughts about young collectors.
On Sunday afternoon of a garden antiques show at The New York Botanical Garden I watched a 10-year old boy leading his mother around to booths. She was holding his jacket and intentionally standing back as he entered booths and engaged with dealers.
He was keen on figural cement garden ornaments, and finally honed in on one booth that had a huge variety of animals – otters, owls, cats, bunnies, and the like. I watched as the dealer offered to lift one of the figures that the boy was particularly attracted to off the floor onto a plinth to place it beside another one that he was considering. His mother stepped into the booth at that point, not to control the situation, but to ask questions “What do you like about that one?” “Is that the size you want?” “Which one makes you smile more?” She then stepped back to let the boy state his final choice to the dealer – a recumbent stone puppy with floppy ears – and finally engaged with the dealer to pay for the purchase.
They proceeded to the booth across from us, where the boy went directly to a mushroom garden stool that was the perfect height and size for him to sit on – this was obviously his second visit to the booth, as he knew exactly what he wanted. He talked briefly with his mother, and again she physically stood back while he engaged with the dealer. After the transaction was complete (and Jeff was helping the dealer lift and carry the heavy toadstool to the family’s car), the boy proudly told me about the puppy he had just purchased from “that dealer over there.” He seemed genuinely as excited about his one-to-one interactions with dealers as he did about the objects he purchased.
My observations of children in an antiquing milieu continued a few weeks later. On the extremely hot and dusty main road through the town of Brimfield, Mass where thousands of people trudge as they make their way from one antiques market or field to the next, we were walking in tandem with twin boys who were about 8 years old. They caught my eye because they were each holding a large (18” or taller) doll-like figure. One boy’s doll looked like Dick Tracy, and the other’s was a sailor doll such as were once sold as souvenirs on cruise ships.
My first thought was that their parents had brought along a toy for each boy to appease them during the adults’ day of antiquing. Their father walked a few steps ahead of them, a man in his late 30s who looked tired and sweaty, holding no purchases, just doggedly heading for a refreshment stand. The boys, meanwhile, were looking at all of the roadside booths they passed. Suddenly one boy pointed excitedly down a path of booths and said to his brother “That’s where I got the, the, the um…” and his brother matter-of-factly completed the sentence “Popeye.” “Yeah!” responded his brother.
This exchange shifted my understanding of the scenario. It was the boys, not necessarily the parents, who were avid collectors. Their focus was a category of toys and souvenirs that included vintage cartoon/comic book characters and sailor figures. I had witnessed them displaying a key trait for shopping success at Brimfield – remembering and revisiting booths where you once purchased something good. They were becoming antiques detectives.
If their father was also an antiques collector, he was not engaged at that moment. Perhaps his entire purpose for visiting Brimfield that day was to support his sons’ interests, although it is highly likely that he had antiquing interests of his own as well.
What were the key factors that seemed to support the young boys’ enthusiasm for antiquing in both cases? Other than the obvious fact that they had parents who were willing and able to bankroll their purchases, there are at least two other significant factors:
1. Agency. Having a sense of agency means feeling that we can proactively make things happen. Children who learn to believe that they can find antiques that are special to them (i.e., be successful in a treasure hunt), and then be in charge of decisions and business transactions to acquire the treasures, helps develop their independence and ultimately their savvy in the antiques trade, not to mention their motivation to keep pursuing their interest.
2. Social Interaction. A huge part of the enjoyment in antiquing is sharing one’s interests, knowledge and finds with others. Children who learn to interact with antiques dealers and fellow collectors (even if it is just a sibling or parent at first) will expand their knowledge quickly and co-generate enthusiasm for learning and appreciating more about what they collect.
Many other factors surely come into play to influence whether someone becomes an antiques collector or even a dealer. Both nature and nurture play roles. Some people seem to be born with acquisitional instincts – they have a natural spark and drive for collecting, categorizing, curating. One wonders how many young people have that spark lying latent because they are not in a social or familial context that nurtures it?
So perhaps antiques dealers’ efforts at encouraging young collectors might best be focused on school-age children. While dealers would experience the immediate personal gratification of opening young eyes and minds to the richness, creativity and quirks of various cultures through artifacts from the past, their business gratification would be much delayed – 4th graders would not be in a position to open their wallets for a big purchase at the end of a tour in the way that thirty-somethings would be able to do at the end of an antiques show reception.
Antiques dealers’ concern with developing new audiences for their merchandise may be mercenary, but there is actually some greater societal value in expanding antiquing enthusiasm far and wide. Most antiques dealers love history and aesthetic refinement, and they are in business in part to uphold and preserve those pieces of the past. So encouraging young people to love antiques does not just cultivate consumers, but inducts them into understanding material culture and historical narratives.
Finally, every vintage toy that gets saved and every antique garden stool that gets reused also helps reduce both the waste stream and consumption of resources necessary for manufacturing new products. There are thus many good reasons for antiques dealers to encourage legions of young people to collect and enjoy good, old things.
