Antique Collection - Are You a Beginner?

Collecting antique furniture, decorative items, or even antique hardware is an excellent hobby or even a profession, but buying and selling antiques, while rewarding, can be a complicated undertaking. To be a successful antiques collector you will have to educate yourself on the exact value of antiques in your area of interest

As a general rule of thumb the beginning collector can take the year 1830 as a demarcation line. After 1830 many goods such as furniture and decorative items began to be mass produced. This is not to say that these items cannot be valuable or collectible but the criteria for judging their value will be different than that of earlier pieces.

As a newcomer to the world of collecting you can get a feel for the kinds of questions an astute collector asks when examining a piece by simply watching a few episodes of "Antiques Roadshow" on your local PBS channel. Individuals bring items into the show and experts single out pieces for commentary and valuation. The program will quickly help you to understand the degree of research and understanding that goes into being a smart collector of valuable antiques.

Areas of Antique Collecting

There are many examples of antique goods and collectibles. Most people tend to focus on a single genre but you can find a collector and often a buyer for almost any antique item available. A few examples of antique items include:

Antique Furniture

Antique furniture is much sought after depending on the make and style of the specific item. Tables and writing desks, complete dining sets, chairs, cabinets, and armoires are all popular and motifs vary greatly by period from ornately carved Baroque pieces to the simple lines of Shaker furniture. Individual selection depends entirely on taste.

Antique Kitchen Wares

Antique kitchen wares, like fruit jars, for instance, can be relatively easy to find and are a good beginning collectible. Often times pieces can be found at flea markets or yard sales, especially in areas of the country with a strong farming or ranching background. In such rural areas items that were grandmother's tools of trade oft en wind up being sold as collectibles.

Antique Tools

Along the same lines as kitchen wares, old tools can be an interesting collectible since some of the pieces can be esoteric and intriguing - for instance old hoof cleaners or handles to remove the batteries from Model T automobiles. Free antique price guides available online can help you to determine what to pay for such oddities but they are rarely high dollar items.

Continue to: Value of Antiques from Time Immemorial

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