When Is It a Collection?
04.27.06 By Deanna DahlsadI have a friend, Karen, who collects angels — though, if you ask her, she’s not a collector, she’s just a woman who likes angels.
Another, Helen, has a huge collection of feminist items. She has more books on the subject than I can count, numerous suffrage and Equal Rights Amendment paraphernalia, along with assorted photos and magazines with articles on leaders, authors, candidates, etc. But Helen does not call herself a collector either.
Gina has one small box of Christmas ornaments that once hung on her grandmother’s tree. Gina doesn’t call them a collection — they are “only kept for sentimental reasons, and not worth anything.”
Karen, Helen and Gina are liars. OK, maybe ‘liars’ is a bit strong, but these women do not recognize collections even when they own them.
So often I hear people dismiss their collections because they do not think they have ‘value’, they are not a predetermined category on eBay, it’s a small number of items, or they are not difficult to find items. But a collection’s value lies in the collector’s passion for the items. A collection’s definition is not only in the eye of the collector, but a work in progress. It may change over time. It may begin small and remain small. Or it become unwieldly both in terms of description and space for storage and/or display. But that doesn’t mean it’s not a collection.
In my family, we have a saying: If you have three or more of something, you have a collection.
Obviously, we are talking ‘things’ here. We have three children, but we are not ‘collecting’ anymore (so please, do not send us any!). And three pairs of pants? Well, those are things we use. Place settings for three — again, practical items we use. But three Around the World in 80 Days plates? That’s a collection of Jules Verne plates. Even if each was broken in half and glued back together sloppily. (We all have to start somewhere!)
Maybe you have souvenir spoons purchased on your travels in the past five years. You think they have no value, as they are new and easy to find. To you they are just easy to display reminders of your travels. Like Karen’s angels, the spoons are a collection. (And won’t you add a forth and fifth as time goes on? Karen still is buying angels when she finds them!)
If you have three of your grandmother’s Christmas ornaments, you either A) collect vintage Christmas ornaments, or B) ‘only’ collect Grandma’s ornaments, but you have a collection. How you define your collection is personal, and it may limit the size of your collection. For example, in scenario B) your collection will be limited because Grandma’s ownership of ornaments was not infinite, and survival of her items even more diminishes those numbers. (But you have the power to change your collection definition at any time!)
Poor Helen has an enviable collection of items which document feminism and women’s issues, but she devalues her items simply by saying “I just have this junk because it’s interesting to me — I don’t know what you’d call it…” It doesn’t matter if your definition is popular, easily put into words or even easily understood by others. It doesn’t matter if, like Helen, it began with what you like to read and now has grown into other areas. Your collection matters.
So stop diminishing your collection as ‘not good enough’ or ‘not worth anything’ and repeat after me:
Anytime you have three of something, you have a collection.
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Article Tags: collection, Jules Verne, three================
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March 18th, 2007 at 12:37 pm
Hi:
I am just starting to collect plates, I did not know that they could be damaged in the
dishwasher. This was a very good tip.
Any other tips on care of collector plates.
Thank you
Art