Thought y'all might find this interesting:When you seek antiques, less is more
Skip the junk to add value to your collection
BY PAM HARBAUGH
When it comes to antiques, it's all about the power of stuff. At least, so says Tim Luke, host of HGTV's "Cash in the Attic" and former director of collectibles at Christie's auction house.
In his nearly 20 years in the field, including nine years on the "Antiques Road Show," Luke said the hardest part of his job is convincing people they have too much stuff. Currently, he is co-owner of TreasureQuest Appraisal Group, in Hobe Sound.
"In my job as an appraiser, I will see what we're doing in an estate, how the sentimentality of stuff takes over and blinds us to what we're really looking at," he said. "When it gets into hoarding, that's when it's a really bad thing."
Luke, an energetic, entertaining and gregarious speaker, will talk about this in a series of lectures at the Vero Beach Museum of Art's 16th annual Antiques Show and Sale. The lectures include:
"What's It Worth?" in which he will help train the average person's eye to look for valuable collectibles, 11 a.m. Saturday and Sunday.
"The Art of Auction," in which Luke, in part, will recount his experience working at Christies, 3 p.m. Saturday.
"The Art of Collecting," includes talks on focusing on the best, maintenance and weeding out items of lesser quality, 2 p.m. Sunday.
This will be the first time he will appear at the museum's annual antique show. Organizers watch him regularly on the "What's It Worth" segment during the WPTV (West Palm Beach) noon news. They thought it would be a good idea to invite him to speak at the show.
"We felt that Tim's expertise, enthusiasm, professional background would be a draw," said Robyn Orzel, the museum's director of development. "He was very enthusiastic and said 'I'd love to.' "
In addition to presenting Luke and an exhibition of pieces from the museum's permanent antiques collection, the show draws 38 dealers, mostly from Michigan to Maine and down through Florida, who offer pieces for sale.
Luke hopes his participation in the show will set people on the right path when it comes to recognizing truly valuable items, letting go of items that have no meaning and little or no value, taking care of their antiques and maintaining focus on a collection.
The "full cycle of collecting" means to acquire the best, watch out for defects and get rid of lesser quality items as the focus on your collection tightens, according to Christie's auction house in New York City.
"A lot of times, people will have 20 or 50 items, and they're happy and complacent with that," Luke said. "They don't realize they have two items which are extremely rare, and if they got rid of the lower value items and invest in more rare items, that will set their collection apart and raises the value of the whole thing."
To acquire the best, a serious collector will look for defects on any item and then compare it to what Luke calls the "holy grail" pieces in a certain category.
Anyone can train themselves to recognize these good pieces by going to auction houses, reading books, attending antique fairs and seminars, researching online and even by spending time on eBay, he said.
While Charlie Miller, a professional appraiser from North Carolina, agrees with Luke, he said the eBay market is primarily useful for researching 20th century items. That's because the provenance of the items is more likely to be accurate, thanks to an 1890 and 1914 United States laws requiring labels stating the country of origin and country where the work was made.
"The eBay market is primarily a collectibles market," Miller said. 'It is not a sophisticated antiques market per se, especially when it comes down to antique furniture."
Still, Luke said, the hardest part of collecting is knowing when to get rid of something.
"I joke that we do interventions," he said. "People become blind to their stuff. Sometimes, you have to take a survey. . . . If you have a storage facility filled with this stuff and you don't know what's in there, that's a problem."
Luke said most homes have about $1,000 in collectibles. Selling items like old manual typewriters and hand-push lawnmowers can add up if they're in good condition and you can find a collector to buy them.
"All the things we've been carrying around, all that adds up," he said. "Get rid of it. The sentimentality is in your head. It's not in the stuff. . . . That's the downside of shows like 'Antiques Roadshow' and 'Cash in the Attic.' They want cash but are blind to the condition of their items."
Then again, you could have a small fortune, especially if the pieces are in good condition and are rare.
"When you have these really desirable rare pieces, people will go crazy," he said.
Luke recently arranged for the sale of a collection of 20,000 Victorian cardboard Christmas ornaments. The collector had bought only the best he could find, which set the collection apart
The collector said "now is the time for someone else to enjoy them," Luke said. "We sold one-third of it. The low estimate for the whole collection was $150,000. It brought close to $300,000."
This certainly is not typical.
"It doesn't happen all the time," he said. "But this is a good example of someone who focused their collection, bought the best conditioned items and really focused his collection."
Contact Harbaugh at 242-3717 or
pharbaugh@floridatoday.com.
