Collecting A Beginner’s Bibliography

First, decide what you want to collect; second, learn something about it; and third, collect it. When I first began, somehow my number three got ahead of my number two, which caused me great financial pain and suffering. So that I may be positive that the same thing doesn’t happen to you, I’m going to begin this series of articles by discussing number two ahead of number one.

Knowledge in the antique and collectible world is as essential to survival as height is in pro basketball. There are a number of ways to go about obtaining it which I will mention here; don’t select a few among them, though – do them all.

General References. It’s comforting to know a little bit about everything. To accomplish this you need to buy, or have access to, some type of across-the-board source book. Perhaps the most prestigious and scholarly is The Complete Color Encyclopedia of Antiques, an exhaustive work, concentrating on European and Oriental furniture, glass, pottery, porcelain, clocks, watches, carpets, armor and metalwork. This is a classic at only $37.50. (Don’t leave, I’m going to mention a book later that costs only a dollar and a half.) If this work has a shortcoming, it is that the authors know too much about everything, including such tidbits as the fact that there were 70 porcelain factories in Russia in 1870 compared to only 45 in 1817.

Another good all-purpose starter is the New York Times Book of Antiques, by Marvin D. Schwartz and Betsy Wade, dealing primarily with furniture, textiles, ceramics, pictures, metals and glass. And a work only slightly more narrow is The Collector’s Complete Dictionary of American Antiques, by Frances Phipps, covering American handiwork from 1640 to 1840.

General Price Guides. Who would have the audacity to claim to know the appropriate selling price for every single antique and collectible known to man? Well, there’s the Official Guide to Popular Antiques and Curios, by Hal L. Cohen, and Complete Antique Price List, by Ralph and Terry Kovel, and Twelfth Antiques and Their Current Prices, by Edwin G. Warman. Thrusting modesty aside, Mr. Warman proudly introduces his book as “the first and foremost price guide on antiques.” And almost everything Hal L. Cohen writes has bestowed upon it “official” recognition, perhaps derived from the fellows that taught Billy Batson to say “Shazam” or from the same people who authorized NFL Electric Football.

At any rate, such an ambition is out of reach. Mr. Cohen’s book does have a good section on Currier and Ives prints and the Kovel book has good coverage of pressed glass. But to say that “Furniture Table, Dining, Oak Round” is worth $85, as the Kov-els do, is not at all helpful, unless they’re talking about some poor hapless table which spent 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. in the center lane of North Central Expressway. If you have five or six dollars you don’t need, you might find one of these books slightly helpful. But if you buy that $85 table, you’d better also pick up Alfred Hig-gins’ Common Sense Guide to Refin-ishing Antiques.

Specific References. Now you’re ready to do some serious collecting. You need to know a lot about a little bit. Unspecific, but sufficient, is Furniture, The Connoisseur’s Illustrated Guide, by Edward Joy, covering Gothic to Victorian furniture, with special emphasis on the great English and French designers (a great crutch in your efforts to identify and judge comparative quality). And a real buy is John T. Kirk’s Early American Furniture, a primer on recognizing, evaluating, buying and caring for high-style, country, primitive and rustic 17th to 19th century American furniture ($5.95).

Dorothy Hammond’s Price Guide to Country Antiques and American Primitives ($6.95) is too ambitious in scope, but will provide you some indicators of representative prices in pewter, copper, brass, pottery, clocks, tinware and furniture. And that dollar and a half book I promised you is Elmer L. Smith’s delightful Early Tools and Equipment.

There are all kinds of bottle books, but if you’re going to collect bottles seriously get The Illustrated Price Guide of Antique Bottles, by Carlo and Dof Sellan ($29.95). This is a fantastic work, picturing and pricing 7,000 bottles, mostly in the $2 to $40 price range, but ranging up to $1,000. If you’re not that serious, Grace Ken-drick’s Antique Bottle Collector ($2.95) will suffice. And if you prefer something offbeat and lightweight, Hal L. Cohen has an Official Guide to Comic Books, probably his best official guide. Did you know Daredevil No. 1, in which he battles Hitler (Daredevil, not Hal), is worth $200, but No. 12, which tells how The Claw got to be, goes for only $50? I don’t know why I’m laughing – if I plotted the price trend of Detective No. 1 alongside my Polaroid stock, I’d have a perfect ” X” with one black leg and one red one. The next time I go to one of those nostalgia conventions to scoff, I may remain to buy.

Reference Locations. Where do you get all of these books? Go to the downtown public library – but don’t go in – walk across the street to Cokesbury’s. They have the best selection in town. It’s funny about the library – they have books with specificity, which I like, but it’s specificity to the point of tedium. Their antique shelf is a place to go when you have to learn something, not when you want to. They have 29 volumes on Greek coins. (And by the way, if one day you’re absent-mindedly thumbing through your pocket change, and you run across a little copper coin with Harpocrates on its face, standing naked, wearing a lotus on his head, raising his right hand to his mouth and holding his chlamys and a cornucopia on his right arm, save it – it’s a Perinthus No. 3, and it’s very old.) The neighborhood libraries seem to be a little better. Maybe all of the Greek coin collectors work downtown.

Periodicals. I suppose the leader is the Connoisseur, published in Great Britain and available at the Commerce Street Newsstand for $5 a copy. I find it to be a bit stuffy, warning above the table of contents that not only is reproduction forbidden, the magazine is not even to be loaned out! Then there’s The Magazine Antiques which, amazingly, is available at the downtown library, and which must have been the brainchild of an ardent admirer of The Brothers Kar-amazov. But my favorite periodicals are Hobbies and The Antique Trader, also both available at the Commerce Street Newsstand.

I don’t know why they call it Hobbies, because there’s not a thing in there about golf or bridge or sex or any hobby other than collecting things. There is a monthly wealth of information on all kinds of old. things, including a lot of “for sale” ads. And The Antique Trader is a weekly newspaper full of valuable information, such as the fact that Red’s Antiques of Forney, Texas, has reproductions available of china cabinets, round oak tables, pub mirrors, kerosene lamps and weighted brass spittoons. What, you don’t want to buy any reproductions? That’s why the information is valuable. The Antique Trader will also tell you where you can obtain highly specialized reference works on everything from art glass nouveau to barbed wire. And read the “wanted to buy” ads – you’ll be astonished at the things people are collecting: like auto hood ornaments, nutcrackers, teddy bears, straight razors, silk woven postcards., horse hitching blocks, early mouse traps, whales’ teeth and Michigan license plates.

I use these “buy” and “sell” ads for educational purposes, to find out what’s hot and what collectibles cost in the world of barter, which, in the final analysis, is the only price book that really counts. Since all these antiques and collectibles are “used,” I’d rather get mine in person from a dealer, so I can look at it and see just how used it really is.

It probably goes without saying,but don’t overlook perhaps the bestsources of all – those who walkaround and breathe and inhabit themany fine, established Dallas antiqueshops. Have you ever met a dealerwho doesn’t like to talk about antiques? The only disadvantage of reference books is their lack of dimension. Seeing what you’ve been readingabout all this time, plus the insightsof a pro, are indispensible to smartcollecting.