Those in certain generations and even all living in our present age, are said to prefer experiences to things.
Experiences may include travel, theme parks, cruises, dining out, subscriptions, memberships, sporting events and any other [activity] that one can participate in.
On the other side of this coin and of less interest are things that you may buy. Fancy watches, purses, jewelry, collections of any kind, artwork, home furnishings and even real estate.
In a third category and still of interest are still things that facilitate experiences which people purchase. Ipads, phones, televisions and cars (Although I have read the sales of those may be on the wane).
Asked to put antiques in one of these three categories of spending most of us without hesitation would lump them in with things.
And you couldn’t say that’s incorrect, but it certainly isn’t the whole story.
Items like these, as we’ve seen from Antiques Roadshow and any number of Instagram reels, are about stories.
There’s the wondering what an item was used for, the questions about who owned it, where it was made, when it was made and even where it has been since then.
Many items present answers to these questions if we know how to ask. And much of the time the answers are only conjecture.
Answers are revealed through a combination of our knowledge, careful observation as well as research and written information that sometimes accompanies them.
Finding these items takes us on a trip through antique malls, estate sales, shows, auctions, yard sales, shops and sometimes even a random knock on the door.
On our journey we meet people, hear stories, discuss possibilities and scour through many books and other materials.
Along the way we learn, make friends, an occasional enemy, and live with items that sometimes can reveal clues about the questions we’ve been asking. Moreover, we use many of the items we find in the course of our mundane activities and add to stories and experiences.
And so, there’s that word, experiences. Antiques may not be experiences, but they certainly are a container of human experience.
Most people who have a hobby, whether it be collecting or mountain climbing, are in it for the experiences. Antiques are no different.
In fact, antiques, like art, go beyond consumer products and straddle a unique position between things and experiences.
And so there may be a fourth category of non essential purchase possibility.
If you think what you want more out of life than things antiques and art have more to offer than decoration. They allow us to embrace a connection to a continuum of human experience.
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