Spring: Time To Plant Your Collection!

by
D.S. Matteau

Have you ever looked at collections the way gardeners look at their little plot of land? If you think about it, a collection and a garden are alike in many ways. Let's take a moment in this lovely March weather to consider this.

The first two things a gardener must do is to consider the use of the garden and also the size, soil quality, and growth season. Is the garden's purpose primarily to beautify the homestead with flowers and shade trees, or is it to provide basic nourishment like potatoes and beans or special, gourmet vegetables and herbs? Does the soil lend itself especially to one kind of planting, and is the growth season likely to be long enough for a harvest?

A collector should do the same thing. First consider the use of the collection: is it to beautify the home, or to satisfy more personal urges? Is it to become an investment or provide an estate? And just as the gardener must think about the soil and climate, the collector must think about resources and storage. Someone with an avid interest in classic cars, for example, would have to own something as big as the Cadillac Ranch in Oklahoma to have the resources for collecting actual vehicles, but in looking around at his actual home, then a collection of fine model cars or die-cast miniatures might be more in order.

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Think about the first thing that impresses you when you see a "complete" collection: numbers! Yes, it is the fact that you are looking at a numvber of related items that first impresses you, whether they are die-cast toys, McCoy planters and vases, salt & pepper shakers, or even old beer cans.

And does it have to be a high number of items? No, it doesn't. The human eye is able to count only to about 10, anything more than that becomes "many" to the eye and the eye tells the brain "there's a whole bunch of stuff there" instead of "there are sixteen pieces."

A good number to settle on, if you want to present an impressive display of a collection, is about twelve related items. They should be related in type so that the eye sees them as a set, and not as just a lot of "stuff".

For example, suppose you want to collect Occupied Japan pieces. That is a big category and you could end up with just a lot of "stuff" that does not seem valuable, because it might include porcelain figurines, lamps, as well as plastic toys, metal cigarette lighters, ashtrays, celluloid jewelry or hair ornaments, etc. You could spend a lot of money on a lot of items and not have a very impressive display.

But if you choose one type of Occupied Japan item to concentrate on, say figurines of dogs, for example, and slowly start building that section of your Occupied Japan collection, before long you will have something that impresses visitors, and you won't have to spend a lot of money to do it. You can still pick up other items that interest you, but making one type the "core" of your collection will give your display some real focus.

By limiting yourself to twelve, (and even only six will also work) you are not robbing yourself of the pleasure of hunting up other valuables. You can start out with items that are less expensive because of slight damage and as you approach twelve, start to replace them with more perfect items. You can sell off the damaged pieces in lots of two or three and use that money to buy better pieces. Many slightly damaged pieces make fine shelf displays and should not be left out.

Now, to return to my garden analogy, there is also the "growth season" to consider. If it is important to you that your collection grow in value, you will want to plan for when you want to realize that value. If you are in your thirties or forties and you are planning to use your collection to provide a lump sum upon retirement, or maybe to provide the inventory for a small shop, you will be looking for things that will grow in value over a period of about twenty years. You might be able to look at newer "vintage" collectibles trather than antiques. This can be risky because not everything that looks attractive now will hold the same attraction to the public ten or twenty years from now. Older items have a better track record of being sought out, but you have to pay more for them and so may see less of a profit. Your collection has a "growth cycle" and it may be dependent on your energy, how much time and effort you want to put into studying and seeking out additions to your collection, just as the gardener must consider which plants will mature within his local growth season and how much work does he want to put into pruning and caring for the more fragile plants.

Well, it is Spring and this is a good time to poke around in the dust of your closets and attics to find a direction for growing your collections as well as to poke around in the dirt of the yard to get some nice red tomatoes or sweet green cukes started on their way!

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