RINKER ON COLLECTIBLES — Column #1418

Copyright © Harry Rinker, LLC 2014

What Does President Kennedy's Death Have to Do with Dating Antiques?

I received over two dozen emails in response to the “Rinker on Collectibles” column defining an antique as anything made before 1980.  Much to my surprise, those finding the definition intriguing and worthy of thought outnumbered those that were critical, cynical, and certain I was “over the edge.”  One of the primary goals of “Rinker on Collectibles” is to stimulate thinking about trade concepts and practices.  The definition column achieved this result.

A January 21, 2014 email from Susan Barker of Columbus, Ohio, noted: “And, by the way, what does President Kennedy’s death have to do with dating antiques?  I’ll be paying less attention to your columns from now on.”  Based on the latter, Susan may not read this column.  Hopefully, you will.

Universal agreement upon a set date or series of dates that define an antique, collectible, or desirable is impossible.  The 100-year advocates are like ostriches with their heads stuck in the sand.  They have no ability to see, let alone comprehend, what is happening around them.

Like so much in the antiques and collectibles trade, the definition of antique, collectible, and desirable is subjective.  It is a reflection of the mindset of the definer.  Multiple factors impact the definition – age, region/nationality, socio-economic status, and ethnicity, just to name a few.  Nick Ryan from Australia raised the question of the role nationalism plays in the definition, something I currently am investigating and plan to write about in the future.

This column focuses on critical events that reflect a mindset shift between an historical time period and/or generation.  As one grows older (note I have neither inferred nor wish to suggest gracefully), a person becomes increasingly aware that he/she has witnessed a number of monumental changes in the way the community, nation, and world thinks.  These “ages” are defined by key events that serve as triggers or transitions between the time periods.

[Author’s Aside:  Although individuals live through multiple time periods, they tend to associate with or favor one that primarily defines who they are.  More often than not, it is the mindset developed during the period when they are young adults.  As the individuals grow older, this is the time that they look back upon with fondness and nostalgic longing.  The diverse, economic, political, religious, social, and other views shaped during this period stay with the person throughout his/her life.

This is different from the “formative years” or adolescence, defined by The Free Dictionary as “the period of physical and psychological development from the onset of puberty to maturity.”  While some ideas formed during this period do continue, it is the mindset that comes from the first independence, home ownership, partnership, first job, and child rearing that is relevant for this discussion.]

When an individual in the antiques and collectibles trade first encounters an object, a key question is “where does it belong time-wise?”  The common practice is to associate it with a specific date, for examples, the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and so forth.  The antiques and collectibles trade finds it easy to “think decade.”

However, thinking decade is meaningless in terms of defining shifts in mindset or distinct historical periods.  Nothing magically happens when a new decade arrives.  Life in 1959 was similar to life in 1961.  It is events, not chronological date changes, that define mindset shifts that
translate into identifiable historical periods.

Change is gradual rather than catastrophic.  Several years are required before a distinct change is evident.  Few notice the initial shift.  It is not until the change is complete or near completion that the majority identifies it.

Because of this, it is difficult to designate a specific year or date that identifies when the change occurs until sufficient time has transpired.  Even then, disagreement is common.  Selection is governed by the prejudices of the person who is making the choice.

There is no common agreement among academic and non-academic scholars as to when distinct mindset shifts happen.  The economic historian sees break points that are different from those seen by political, technological/scientific, and other historians.  In the current age of specialization, there are hundreds of possible approaches.

Shifts in life-style, design style, and social mores are critical points when trying to define antique, collectible, and desirable.  The difficulty is that as the twentieth century progressed, unlike the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, an eclectic mixture of life-style, design style, and social mores occurred simultaneously.  In the twenty-first century, as Cole Porter wrote in “Anything Goes”: “…In olden days, a glimpse of stocking / Was looked on as something shocking. / But now, God knows, / Anything goes…”

Reiterating a point made in previous “Rinker on Collectibles” columns, the last 100 years breaks down into these basic time period:

1.  World War I – 1914-1919
2.  Roaring Twenties – 1919-1929
3.  Depression Era – 1929-1942
4.  World War II – 1942-1946
5.  Post War Era – 1946/7-1963
6.  Civil Rights, Hippie/Beatnik/Age of Aquarius – 1963-1981/82
7. The Reagan and Post-Regan Era – 1980 to 2008
8.  The Recovery Era – 2009 to the Present

Life-style, design style, and social more shifts occurred more frequently in the pre-World War II period.  I ended the Post-Reagan Era with the 2008-2009 Great Recession, fully realizing that future historians and others may chose to select another date based on historical hindsight.

In order to understand each date choice, ask a basic question—did the life-style, design style, and social mores differ five years before the date and five years after the date?  If the answer is yes, a list of differences will easily exceed a dozen.  Focus on the generation of individuals at the time who were between 20 and 35 years of age.  These are the bellwether years.  Older generations are wedded to the past.  Youngsters are the future generations.

While I used dates to define the eras, it is easier to select one or more specific events as a reference point for change.  December 7, 1941, Roosevelt’s “day that will live in infamy,” marks America’s formal entry in World War II.  The end date is nebulous.  Although V-J Day, August 14/15, 1945, marked the end of hostilities, it took almost a year for the military to return the bulk of its troops back to the United States.

It is difficult to explain the impact of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination to those who did not experience it.  First, it was a global, not a national event.  America’s grief was the world’s grief with a few notable exceptions.  Second, it occurred at the beginning of the civil rights era and served to accelerate its impact.  It happened less than two months after the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (August 28, 1963).  All aspects of the Civil Rights movement capitalized on the assassination’s shock value.   America in 1968 was far different from America in 1958.

Changes in life-style, design style, and social mores influence how each generation views the past.  Those who were young adults from the mid-1960s through the early 1970s had a very different view of the past than those who were young adults in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

The view these two generations toward the antiques and collectibles seems inconsequential given the broad implications of the change.  However, when put in a collecting perspective the change is profound.  The groundwork for the legitimizing of the collectibles sector that took place in the early 1980s occurred between 1963 and 1981/82.  A list of additional changes in the antiques and collectibles field includes an expansion of the monetary value between the low and high-end objects in some collecting categories of 10 times or more, an exponential expansion of trade literature and reference material, a growing public awareness of the monetary value or antiques, and an expansion of sale venues ranging from flea markets to the arrival of the antiques malls.

Would this have happened had President Kennedy not been assassinated?  The answer is yes.  Whether it would have happened as quickly is subject to conjecture.

Rinker Enterprises and Harry L. Rinker are on the Internet.  Check out www.harryrinker.com.

You can listen and participate in WHATCHA GOT?, Harry’s antiques and collectibles radio call-in show, on Sunday mornings between 8:00 AM and 10:00 AM Eastern Time.  If you cannot find it on a station in your area, WHATCHA GOT? streams live and is archived on the Internet at www.gcnlive.com.

SELL, KEEP OR TOSS?  HOW TO DOWNSIZE A HOME, SETTLE AN ESTATE, AND APPRAISE PERSONAL PROPERTY (House of Collectibles, an imprint of the Random House Information Group, $17.99), Harry’s latest book, is available at your favorite bookstore and via www.harryrinker.com.