WHEN IS AN ANTIQUE AN ANTIQUE?

There is an official designation you’ll be interested in: The U.S. government says items must be 100 years old or older to enter the country duty free, as a genuine antique. Antique collecting today has become quite chic, what with programs like Antiques Roadshow on TV. But also knowing background information on famous people who may have owned the pieces is even more intriguing and it may boost the prices you pay or can sell for. Frank Farmer Loomis IV wrote a great book called “Is It Antique Yet?” in which he gives us a primer on collecting and delightful background tales about some of the luminaries. For instance he tells about President Lincoln’s wife, who during the Civil War, tried to make the White House as elegant as Buckingham Palace with her buying and furnishings. Or another snippet about Josiah Wedgewood  who occasionally decorated his wonderful ceramics with political messages.

But an item being old does not mean it has to be 100 years old to make it valuable. The prices paid for things that are even 50 years old can be astronomical. If you are lucky enough to have something that also has backup letters or pictures of it in use and some of the people that have owned it, the value soars. The market for collectors is so huge now and the prices, as we said, are going up like a rocket. But then again there are the phony antiques, some of them wonderful forgeries, will often fool even the most learned and knowledgeable. So beware.

There are many stories of discoveries in a thrift shop of paintings or other treasures that turn out to be worth, at auction, thousands or even millions are coming many times in a year. Or maybe an innocent has had a dull dirty painting hanging over the fireplace for decades and all of a sudden someone comes along and tells them it is by a famous Renaissance painter. What a happy moment. Well, this author will certainly give you the detailed knowledge to keep your eyes open to paying attention, no matter where you are. It could be like winning the lottery when you think about it.