| In the mid-18th Century, Roman antiquities became | | | | a song and sold for a fortune. There are those, of |
| popular by way of home decoration. Pots, bronzes | | | | course, who have what they call in the trade an |
| and statuary recovered from archaeological sites | | | | "eye"; they have a natural ability to spot the "real |
| were all sought after items. In order for the gentry | | | | thing" in the midst of a roomful of rubbish, but they |
| to accommodate these (it was only the gentry who | | | | are few and far between. For an amateur, the |
| could afford to), their houses and or gardens needed | | | | likelihood of striking it rich is even lower, so the best |
| to undergo a complete remodelling. As a result, their | | | | course of action is to collect what one likes. If one |
| old furniture and decorative items were stored in | | | | likes a piece, is happy to look at it on a daily basis |
| outhouses, attics and relegated to use by the | | | | and has paid a sum for it which one can afford, then |
| servants. It is these items, which are now so eagerly | | | | it doesn't really matter whether it will bring an |
| sought after. | | | | undreamed of sale price. |
| In the early part of the 19th Century, people didn't | | | | In most cases, an aged decorative item will increase |
| collect things just because they were old. They may | | | | in value. However, keen amateurs can disturb the |
| have collections of books, manuscripts, coins or | | | | market, as they did in the late 1980s, when Clarice |
| maybe maps but furniture was for storage, sitting on | | | | Cliff pottery and lesser-known Impressionist paintings |
| or sleeping on and paintings were usually family | | | | were in vogue. The market became flooded with the |
| portraits. Other items such as porcelain and glass | | | | genuine and not-so-genuine and eventually, the bubble |
| were also purely functional. However, later that same | | | | burst. It recovered in time of course, but too many |
| century, with Queen Victoria's reign in full swing, her | | | | people seeking items with not enough knowledge can |
| subjects began to take an interest in the origins of | | | | cause a hiatus in the natural flow of buying and selling. |
| their possessions and that was the beginning of what | | | | If he concentrates on one type of item; paintings, |
| we now know as the antiques industry. | | | | ceramics, furniture, etc., then an amateur has a |
| The definition of "antique" originated in the 1930s | | | | greater chance of building up the knowledge needed |
| when American customs officers needed a yardstick | | | | not to be fleeced by unscrupulous dealers. Experience |
| by which to judge whether duty was chargeable on | | | | and knowledge can be gained by studying books and |
| works of art. As mass production of articles had | | | | the objects themselves or better still hanging around |
| begun some one hundred years earlier, an antique | | | | with an expert. Even then, the diversity of styles and |
| was deemed to be something more than one | | | | periods will take a great deal of learning and of |
| hundred years old. Today, however, the BBC's | | | | necessity, information will overlap. For example, in |
| Antiques Roadshow defines an antique as "an older | | | | order to fully understand English Georgian furniture |
| object valued because of its aesthetic or historical | | | | and recognise it, one may need to study Louis XIV |
| significance", in other words a collectible. | | | | and XV furniture as well, for the purposes of |
| Obviously, there are those who deal in antiques for a | | | | comparison. There's nothing like experience, so the |
| living but even they may live a whole life in the field | | | | more time spent rummaging in antique shops and |
| and never come across that elusive piece bought for | | | | talking with the owners, the better. |