Radio 4: The Rise and Fall of the Antique

[Wellington]

By chance, I caught some of this little fifteen-minute programme yesterday and I thought it might interest the forum.

It briefly covers how the antique trade has changed over the past few decades, the distinction between 'vintage' and 'antique' and the impact of the internet.

There's an interesting anecdote at about 11¾ minutes in where a contributor describes her indignation at some potential buyers of 19th Century table linen who wanted it to cut up into bunting! It reminded me of the various discussions on this forum about the old stuff we love – are we custodians of special objects that must be preserved (yes, in my opinion) or just holding on to obsolescent junk that's fair game for repurposing?

[The General]

I'm with you Wellington, my view is that vintage kit is worth appreciating for its quality & history. I enjoy bringing vintage kit back into a usable state & will only part something out if it's truly beyond saving.

[Tractionist]

According to a friend 'in the business' - the bottom fell out of the antique business some considerable time ago - but the question really is why? It could simply be about austerity [AKA lack of disposable income] and/or lack of space ..... this country apparently has a housing 'crisis'.

Equally, in terms of 'technological antiques' [i.e. our passion] it could also in-part be because the 'noughties generation' [and to a degree their predecessors] don't recall having these devices around and therefore are not nostalgic? Much collecting is incontestably based on nostalgia - albeit that many of my sets pre-date me and my childhood by a considerable margin!

[Brigham]

There are two types of enthusiast: The type who looks at a thing, learns about how it works, how it developed and who developed it; and the type who remembers something from being a kid.
A small percentage of the latter become the former.

A close friend of mine, she is a canny wheeler dealer, often gives me old interesting bits as there is no market/profit for them. Stuff that does get sold is small (less than a quarter a cubic foot, yes volume is a big factor) ornaments and clocks (working or not) and (mainly costume) jewellery. Books, no interest, tech stuff the same.

[Uncle Bulgaria]

I would imagine that a lot of antiques are furniture. Considering how in Britain we have some of the smallest houses in Europe (and the poorest quality - yes, with my architect hat on all this makes me very angry) then there's not much demand for them. Add the unfashionable nature of much of the previous eras' output (dark wood, decoration...) and it doesn't seem surprising. There seems a trend for portable wealth again, rather like the middle ages, except this time it's tiny, high-tech objects at vast expense. Who wants an armoire, escritoire or heavy radio that can't pick up any stations?

For most people, even the possibility of parting out doesn't occur because they aren't used to using tools or appreciating the different elements of objects, having become used to 'black box solutions'.

[Radio Wrangler]

The snag with putting money into expensive high tech portable gizmos is that they have a staggering rate of depreciation, especially when a next generation is announced.

David

[Uncle Bulgaria]

There's a reason we stick to the old stuff!

[G6Tanuki]

I guess there's a differentiation between "modern antiques" and the real-thing. I'm reminded of the comment made by the late Alan Clark* about Michael Heseltine that "he is the sort of person who buys his own furniture" [the implication being that 'old money' inherits their furniture rather than buying it].

Half a decade back when I was clearing my late mother's house, nobody was interested in 'sixties/seventies what-was-once-considered-good-middle-class-furniture [G-Plan/Waring&Gillow sideboards/drop-leaf-dining-tables/sofas/chaise-longues] so we got a skip.

Fashions come, fashions go: wood-veneer and square-boxes are really not-in-fashion, even if people did have space to house chunky-clunky VHS VCRs and horrid 1960s TVs with fixed legs and a 'tambour' pull-over thing to conceal the CRT when it wasn't being used.

I'm sure that in coming decades we'll view IKEA-esque pseudopine and the "Piano-black" housings of current TVs with equal disdain.


[*] Not to be confused with Allen Clark, who was one of the masterminds behind Plessey.

[Paul_RK]

"People who do still want to buy antiques want to buy one or two very, very nice signature items, rather than having a house cluttered and filled with lots of mediocre old things."

Well, after fifty years' diligent effort I've pretty much achieved the latter now, albeit with perhaps a few lapses from mediocrity, so there's no need to buy anything else...

Paul

[mark_in_manc]

Originally Posted by Paul_RK

"People who do still want to buy antiques want to buy one or two very, very nice signature items, rather than having a house cluttered and filled with lots of mediocre old things."

Well, after fifty years' diligent effort I've pretty much achieved the latter now, albeit with perhaps a few lapses from mediocrity, so there's no need to buy anything else...

Paul

I'm with you, Paul. But then I'm not a person who likes to buy antiques - the few things I once bought, I sold, and what remains (a lot) I can remember who gave it me / willed it me / where the skip was I found it in / where I was working when it was thrown out. I really enjoy the 'organic' result of that kind of semi-random process, where my taste is formed by the exercise rather than itself being formative.