How do most collectors and dealers learn how to recognize antiques? Identify, curate, and understand them? And what is that special touch that some people have for spotting a diamond piece in the rough?
Only those at the upper end of the antiques world have any formal training. Most have learned their skills through a combination of trial & error and self educating.
We cant know everything about all the stuff that interests us, we are not encyclopedias. But many develop the knack of quickly spotting good objects hidden among piles of ‘tat’. And knowing that they are genuine /old/interesting/quality, sometimes before they even know what the objects are.
Of someone skilled with this we say they ‘have a good eye’. They have the ability to recognize quality as soon as they see it and can do the deeper research later.
They have trained their eye to pick up on tiny telltale signals, even subconsciously, that help in making sound choices. Always the ‘lucky’ ones at a fair or sale – it makes them quick and talented buyers. They usually also have a feel for putting together a room, or a certain look, a bewitching collection, or a fascinating sales display. Developing a good eye is far more than just learning how to recogize antiques, its about evolving an aesthetic sixth sense that will pay off in all sorts of ways.
It’s an almost indefinable skill-set. Somewhere between artist and scholar.
Here’s five tips on developing your own ‘good eye’ for antiques & art
1) Museums;
whenever you get the chance, where ever you are, spend time in museums. Soak up the knowledge, spend hours at your favourite displays, check out the different exhibitions that change throughout the year. If there’s a special exhibition in say London, I will travel down on the train and make a day of it. I once came home from the V&A and that evening spotted a 900 year old afghan tile of a mythical beast on ebay for £30, – only because I’d literally been staring at one in a museum cabinet just a few hours earlier.
There are certain exhibitions I can visit time and time again, learning something new with every trip. I drop by the Boscastle Museum of Witchcraft & magic in North Cornwall once every couple of years or so, The Ashmolean and Pitt Rivers in Oxford at least every few months, and the big London museums whenever I get the chance.
Many larger museums host public talks from experts in a particular field, – if the topic is of interest its an amazing chance to access the knowledge of people who’ve dedicated years to their subject.
Don’t leave out the little museums either – they’ve often been gifted private collections from years ago, like the tiny local museum in South West England that had somehow ended up with an amazing collection of First Nations American antique baskets, – they can sometimes house real treasures that are hard to find elsewhere.
Above all use your eyes, study the objects you love, read the labels, become familiar with materials, styles, and how things are made, immerse yourself and experience the very best artefacts out there. Not only will you learn how to recognize antiques but you’ll develop a truly sophisticated eye and become a culture-vulture into the bargain.
2) Salerooms;
Unlike museums, sale rooms often allow you to touch items, pick them up, turn them over, even smell them… One of the best ways to learn is to get your hands on good things up close. This way you learn to feel when something has the right weight to it, which materials are warm or cold to the touch, and finer details like the thickness of a certain glaze or the texture of something hand carved.
I used to go to salerooms where I knew I’d never be able to afford anything, just for the experience of spending a day surrounded by say Antiquities, or Islamic Art, or Antique Textiles. Sales catalogues can be great resources to keep hold of, and you can jot down the hammer prices to begin understanding how things are valued. You will also start to know which objects are relatively common and which are like gold dust.
3) Historic buildings
If you’re in the UK we have more historic buildings than you can shake a stick at. We’re surrounded by the damn things – and a great many are open to the public.
But even closed buildings are wonderful to study – medieval architecture and stone work, the way old oak beams look after 300 years of English weather, the style of a cottage window or the colour of Victorian stained glass – everything, every detail, drink it in, its delicious & its free education.
4) Specialist Collectors Events
If something particular really piques your interest see if you can find any specialist fairs or events on the topic. You don’t need loads of money, you don’t have to buy, but what a great way to spend a day surrounded by amazing things. Talk to people, ask questions, be inspired.
If you realize that you’re becoming obsessed with amulets, go to Tribal art week, or an ethnographic jewellery fair, or an upmarket gallery exhibiting ancient beads and body adornment… And don’t forget there are online events too. Of course it’s loads better to see things ‘in the flesh’ but there are often virtual tours of swanky fairs if you cant visit in real life.
5) Books Books Books
I feel like books get a bit left out sometimes in the internet age, but a good collection of reference books will be your friend for life. These don’t have to be the ultimate nerd’s guide to some miniscule niche class of object, although that’s always handy!
Books on early cultures, or periods in art history are useful, as well as the many incredible books on actual antique artefacts. Museums will often publish a coffee table style book on a major collection or exhibition, sale catalogues are great (and often found for a couple of quid in charity shops), and second hand bookshops can be a goldmine for obscure and out of print tomes on folklore, ancient cultures, mystical art, and magical traditions.
Obviously you will want to study the pictures, but read too. Understanding the history and context of objects greatly enhances your ability to recognize them, and knowing how they were made helps with filtering fakes.
6) Holy Places & Sacred Sites
Old churches, Mosques, Madrassa, Temples, Monasteries, Holy Wells, Graveyards, Burial Sites, Roadside Shrines & Standing Stones… so many places our ancestors created to honour the spirits and gods. Visit as many as you can, not only for the peace and the magic, but also for the art. Some of the loveliest stone carving, paintings, sculptures and architectural elements are to be found in these spaces. It will soak into you on every level, the smell and texture of ancient stone, the tone of medieval tiles, strange faces carved in ceilings and doorways, protection symbols and sacred texts.
We are so blessed that many such sites are open to visitors of all faiths. To experience mystical art in its original home is surely the truest way to understand it.
7) Foriegn Travel and the Mysterious Business of Learning Antiques….
Any trip abroad, for any reason, is also an amazing chance to ‘train your eye’. Of course it depends where you are travelling, there won’t be souks in Ireland or ancient Pagan festivals in the US, but travel is my favourite way to get good at antiques.
Apart from museums, temples, and ruins, there’s the festivals, markets, and ancient villages or towns, all prime venues to get your eye in.
Local antiques markets are amazing for this, as are any sort of festival where you can see traditional jewellery and dress. But even just walking through the old parts of a city is an education in the colours, materials and artistic styles of a region.
I know I’ve said this before but your surroundings will literally soak into the library of your brain, so take the chance to be emersed in cultures who’s magic attracts you. I spent a lot of time in Rajasthan in my youth, and because of this I can spot the red sandstone of that region at twenty paces, I’d recognize certain amulets from the villages even if they turned up on the other side of the world, this is how it works, so now you have another excuse to book some leave and go travelling, (its not a holiday – it’s work – youre studying how to recognize antiques!).
Final Thoughts…
Magical objects and Mystical Art, Folklore, Amulets, & Witchery, these are the things that I love and that I trade in. It encompasses a Vast array of artefacts from across history and around the world. There’s no way that one person can become an expert on all of these things, even in multiple lifetimes.
But strangely, through immersion, and study, and the sheer love of it, it’s been possible to get good enough, in a thousand small ways, that cut across that vastness to make my business possible. There is a magical cumulative effect at work in all this too, the better you learn to recognize one artistic style or antique period, the easier it will become to learn the next.
You might be lucky and have a much smaller obsession to cater too, maybe its only Goddesses, or Burial goods, or traditional witchcraft that floats your boat. Whatever it is, I promise you that time spent learning through all the ways we’ve talked about here will never be time wasted.
