Collecting as a widespread middle-class phenomenon is only about 50 years old. Before World War II, old things held little value, unless they were really old, one-of-a-kind items that the Rockefellers and Hearsts bought for their mansions.
“Middle-class people never bought used clothes. They didn’t even buy old furniture unless they were very eccentric,” said Terry Kovel, who published his first price guide 48 years ago.
Having new things meant you were modern, forward-looking, American. This was especially true for immigrants. “First-generation Americans don’t collect,” she said. “They want to blend in.
“But if your family has been in this country for several generations, you know you belong. You have the confidence to decorate in whatever style you want.”
The post-War boom in travel helped plant the seeds for collecting. Soldiers had seen an older culture in Europe; they went back with their families to pick up souvenirs.
As Baby Boomers began to age, they wanted to recapture their youth. Buying Davy Crockett lunch boxes helped. And the older the Baby Boomers get, the more past they have to draw on, and the more money to indulge their interests.
Much of the reasoning behind collecting remains inexplicable. New York psychoanalyst Werner Muensterberger, whose 1993 book “Collecting: An Unruly Passion” (Harvest Books, $13) is considered the most provocative current survey of the field, argues that collectors are in some way damaged.
“Repeated acquisitions serve as a vehicle to cope with inner uncertainty, a way of dealing with the dread of renewed anxiety, with confusing problems of need and belonging,” Muensterberger says.
According to this theory, assembling a collection is a way of imposing order on an unruly world. Perhaps it’s not surprising that, despite a 25 percent fall-off in the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11, eBay boasted a record number of listings in the third quarter of 2001.
“Everyone’s telling us we should go out and live a normal life,” Kovel said. “Collecting is part of a normal life, and a way to get away from it.”
If you go to an antique show, she said, you see fragile things that have lasted a long time. “It’s reassuring. It always amazes me that people in Los Angeles collect glass. I know someone who lost 400 pieces in the last earthquake. But collectors are eternal optimists.”
