RINKER ON COLLECTIBLES — Column #1424

Copyright © Harry Rinker, LLC 2014

Decorator Value: A 21st Century Perspective

By the arrival of the 21st century, decorator value replaced collector value as the dominant value consideration in the antiques and collectibles field.  The change was profound.  Objects were prized more for their accent, conversation, wow/pizzazz, and nostalgia value than for their historic or collecting category value.

Decorating value focuses on creating and/or supporting a “Look,” usually one that is in fashion at a specific moment in time.  Like furniture design, once a Look is established, it never vanishes.  Its importance ebbs and flows, but it always survives somewhere.  The Victorian Look is an example.

There are pendulum swings within Looks.  Country is the one Look that appears resistant to fading, especially in America’s heartland.  However, there is not one Country Look.  It swings between formal (elegant) and informal (primitive).  Country’s time focus ranges from Early American and pioneer to 19th century rural homestead and mid-20th century middle class, small town America.

Creating a period room, a focus of many of the early antiques collectors, is the historic origins of the importance of Look within the antiques and collectibles trade.  Throughout the first two-thirds of the 20th century, a period Look dominated rooms throughout a house.  In the 21st century, it more likely is limited to one room or a portion of a room.

During the 20th century, Look was the provenance of the professional decorator, especially in urban markets.  Asian, English, and French design styles were the most common approaches.  These Looks supported the attitude that those who incorporated them into their living environment were culturally and intellectually superior.  The adage “if you have it, flaunt it” prevailed.  Eventually, professional decorators added American Colonial and Modernist Looks to their repertoire.

Although design and living magazines, such as “Country Living,” “Martha Stewart Living,” and “Metropolitan Home,” have touted the concept that anyone can be their own home decorator for decades, it was the cable decorating channels, such as Home and Garden Television, that finally convinced the American public that amateurs could achieve the same level of decorating sophistication as the professional.  Although there are a few antiques and collectibles malls that cater to the professional decorator, the vast majority sell to amateur home decorators who seek antiques and collectibles to demonstrate that they are in tune with the latest fashion trends.

The amateur decorator’s goal is to find antiques and collectibles that support a favored Look.  Affordability is critical.  The amateur decorator knows that Looks are trendy.  Staying current is a continuing challenge.  As a result, the amateur decorator does not wish to become heavily financially invested in a Look.

The same applies to the amount of space within the home the amateur decorator is willing to devote to the Look.  The central focuses are the living, dining, and kitchen areas, the locations visitors are most likely to see.  The decorating focus is often limited to a portion of a room, a corner or area where the Look is most visible.

Since the Look is the dominant focus, amateur and professional decorators have no difficulty mixing and matching period pieces with reproductions (exact copies of period pieces), copycats (stylist copies of period pieces), and fantasies (contemporary forms made utilizing older design style elements).  If a reproduction, copycat, or fantasy item is priced lower than a period piece, the decorator will not hesitate to buy the former in preference to the latter.  The Look has no respect for age.  Its focus is solely on initial impression and a sense that the owner appreciates the latest fashion.

The end result is antiques and collectibles represent nothing more than accent, conversation, wow/pizzazz, and nostalgic pieces within a Look.  While they are expected to draw attention, they also are expected to blend it.  It is a delicate balance.

Accent value relies on a host of factors such as color, shape, size, and pattern.  Antiques and collectibles dealers often overlook the importance of color.  The priority order of color sale is blue, red, yellow, green, brown, black, and white.  Even ugly blue objects sell.  Color sales also shift seasonally with pastel color tones selling better in the spring and summer and bold color tones selling best in fall and winter.  Professional and amateur decorators closely follow shifts in color trends, especially wall and fabric colors.  Antiques and collectibles sellers are well advised to become familiar with the color wheel.

Shapes range from the formal to the abstract.  Individuals are comfortable with what they know, often defined as “what they grew up with.”  Difference is not a plus.  Decorators prefer the conventional over the unconventional.  This has not changed from the past.

Size focuses on immediate visibility.  An object too small to be seen immediately is to be avoided.  Accent is sight focus.  It places no value on an object that has to be picked up to be appreciated.  Likewise, an object can be too big.  Blending is different from overwhelming.  A Look focuses on the whole.  Wow/pizzazz objects are the exception.

Patterns must be bold but not too bold, supportive but not overwhelming, simple rather than complex, and bright rather than muted.  Patterned objects must have impact.  Because of the decorating skills required to blend patterned pieces into a setting, amateur decorators favor solid colored objects.

There are two types of conversation value.  The first focuses on an object’s ability to elicit a question – what is this, why do you have it, tell me about it—from the viewer.  The second conversation value is an object’s capacity to allow the owner to share one or more fascinating stories with those viewing the object.

The antiques and collectibles trade does more than sell objects.  It sells dreams, stories, and wonder.  This aspect is lost when sellers do not share what they know about an object during the sale process.  Buyers experience higher purchase satisfaction when they return home with an “I didn’t know this about the object” story.  Knowledge and enthusiasm are critical to conversation value.  The owner’s response or story demonstrates his/her passion for the piece.

Conversation value objects need to stand out, either because of their historic or unique appearance in respect to the other displayed objects in the Look.  It is their difference that calls attention to them.  The object must achieve an “I did not expect to see this here” emotion.

Shock value is a part of conversation value, although not an approach for everyone.  When I lived in Zionsville, Pennsylvania, my coffee table was a child’s funeral bier with a piece of glass on the top.  A 19th century medical lance and a 20th century medical rectal examiner sat atop the glass.  Any one of the three was an immediate conversation stimulator.

Wow/pizzazz value occurs when a single object draws the immediate focus of any individual entering a room setting.  Although supporting the decorating style, it stands out from all other pieces in the room.  Its placement and/or lighting draw attention to its importance.

Although designed to stand out, a wow/pizzazz object cannot overwhelm.  Again, it is not about size but the quality of the piece.  Quality ranges from aesthetic design to a gorgeous image.  Most wow/pizzazz objects tend to be two-dimensional and wall mounted.  Three-dimensional objects also work but placement is critical.

The growing emphasis within the antiques and collectibles trade on decorating value has created a wealth of problems for sellers.  First, as trends shift, inventory quickly falls out of fashion.  Second, since buyers are decorating a limited space, they enter and leave the market quickly.  As a result, it has become increasingly difficult for sellers to develop a steady buying clientele.

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.