RINKER ON COLLECTIBLES — Column #1514

Copyright © Harry Rinker, LLC 2016

The Shelf Sitter Era Has Ended

A shelf sitter is an object that rests upon a hanging shelf, mantle, tabletop, bookcase, or cabinet with glass doors.  It is an object that is meant to be admired rather than used, albeit it can have a utilitarian purpose.  Reasons for admiration vary – beauty, family heirloom, nostalgia, souvenir, or simply a conversation piece.

Shelf sitters were common elements in late 19th and early 20th century households.  The Victorians loved knickknacks, especially in the parlor.  Objects, such as Staffordshire figures and dome covered handcrafted pieces made from hair or wax, evolved into collecting categories—some major and some minor.  An examination of photographs of Victorian era interiors lends credence to the concept that Victorians abhorred a vacuum (with apologies to Aristotle).  Clutter was a major decorative element.

Post-1920s Colonial Revival and Early American decorator looks allowed ample display opportunities.  A kitchen or dining room plate rail is not an architectural feature found in a twenty-first century home.  It was commonplace in the first half of the twentieth century.  The decorative motif of the plates varied – color, pattern, souvenir, or eclectic – depending on the choice of the housewife.  Although no firm empirical evidence exits, it is likely that the end of the collector/limited edition plate craze in the 1980s signaled the end of the plate rail as a standard decorative feature.

Whatnot furniture was common from the early 1920s through the 1960s.  Corner and free standing whatnot shelves were popularized versions of the Victorian étagère.  These stepped shelf units were found throughout the house.  Hanging whatnot shelfs also trace their roots back to the Victorian era.  Although found in Chippendale, Hepplewhite, Sheraton, and generic country primitive style designs, most were fantasy pieces and not reproductions (exact copies) or copycats (stylistic copies) of period pieces.

Fireplace mantels and built-in alcoves were other popular places to display shelf sitter objects during the 1920s through the 1960s.  When viewing American movies made in the 1930s through the 1960s, pay close attention to the room interiors.  Whether depicting a mansion or a farmhouse, Hollywood set designers understood period tastes.  Although liberties were taken (every collector loves spotting objects used in a film setting that were made later), the Hollywood image was accepted and duplicated.

The knickknack experienced a golden age in the 1950s and early 1960s.  The Country Store look invaded the kitchen and family dining areas.  The tops of kitchen cabinets became home to advertising tins and assorted food packaging.  Obsolete kitchen utensils were incorporated into decorating schemes.

The 1950s and 1960s also was the era of the miniature ceramic figurine, many manufactured by southern California pottery companies such as American Pottery Co., Florence Ceramics, Hagen Renaker, Josef Originals, and Sasha Studios.  Animals, especially dogs, were a topical collecting favorite.  Young girls filled their bedroom shelves with horse figurines.  Young housewives loved the fanciful female figurines.

The 1950s and 1960s witnessed the arrival of the Hummel figurine.  Hummel’s Golden Age occurred in the 1970s and 1980s when the Goebel Collectors Club membership numbered in the tens of thousands.  At the high end of the market, Lladro and Royal Doulton figurines bolstered gift and jewelry shop sales.

Although individuals assembled groupings, they were not collections in the true sense.  Once a grouping filled a space available, interest waned.  To use a Pennsylvania German phrase, the figurines were “just for nice.”  1950s and 1960s ceramic figurines were inexpensive, optimistic, upbeat, fun, and admired by visitors.  Many of these shelf sitters found their way to the table top, especially if the figurine had a holiday theme.

It was not until the 1980s that individuals began collecting 1950s and 1960s shelf sitter figurines in earnest.  Nostalgia triggered the craze.  The publication of checklist and price guide reference books began in the late 1980s and drove numerous collecting crazes.  While the secondary resale market for this material has suffered, the publication of reference books, such as Nancy Kelly’s three volumes on Hagen-Renaker Pottery (Schiffer Publishing,) still continues, albeit not with the same intensity as in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Modernist decorating styles challenged the role played by shelf sitters.  The style is minimalist.  Shelf sitters clutter space.  Modernism also emphasizes pieces associated with industrial designers and studio artists.   Art, an elevating word hinting that the user has better taste than those who love tchotchkes, knickknacks, and other dust collectors, is an integral part of Modernism.

Decorating plays a key role in influencing what sells in the secondary antiques and collectibles marketplace.  The use of antiques and collectibles in contemporary decorating schemes continues to decline, often reaching a point where, with the exception of Country Look periodicals, no use of antiques and collectibles is shown.  Little wonder young adults have lost interest in objects from the past.

The lack of support from the decorating community is only one reason interest in shelf sitters has diminished.  Time plays a critical role.  The generations who grew up with this material are aging.  Their children and grandchildren do not identify with shelf sitters.

Linda’s mother Catherine Houck had a collection of dog figurines.  She displayed them in a three-tiered bookshelf near her easy/reading chair.  She loved looking at them.  In her travels, Linda often found dogs to add to Catherine’s collection.  When Catherine died in 2009, Linda packed up her mother’s dog collection, not able to dispose of something that meant so much to her mother.  Where is the collection now?  It is in an archival file box stored in a basement storage room.  Three of Catherine’s great-grandchildren never saw it.  Sophia has no memories of it.  Most likely, Linda will own Catherine’s dog collection when she dies.  Its value is minimal.  Chances are the dogs will end their life at a garage or estate sale.

It makes little difference if the collection is dogs, salt and pepper shakers, or Josef figurines.  The future is bleak.  Children and grandchildren constantly tell parents who own shelf sitter collections: “Get rid of them before you die.  I do not want to have to deal with it.”

The shelf sitter secondary resale market is flooded.  The survival rate for shelf sitters is much higher than collectors initially thought.  eBay proved that.  But, eBay alone is not responsible for the flooded market.  There is no sustained generational demand.  When there is no demand, there is no market.

There are two distinct shelf sitter groups.  Thus far, this column has focused on the first – the inexpensive, fun, period focused knickknacks.  The second is the collector edition / limited edition material dating from the 1960s through the mid-2000s.  This material was never meant to be used.  It was made for display purposes.  Plates, many issued in series, graced the last of the plate rails in homes.  Bells and other objects filled china cabinets and hanging shelves.  It was the golden age of the Mints such as Danbury and Franklin.  Many purchasers bought the material as an investment.  Time has demonstrated that the investment was speculative and unwise.  The 2008 Great Recession, the collapse of Beanie Babies, and a realization that initial retail prices for everything from Norman Rockwell figurines and Thomas Kinkade prints to Hallmark Christmas ornaments and Wade Cottages is not recoverable when these items are sold in the secondary market appears to have quelled the general public’s appetite for this material.

Actually, there is a third category of shelf sitters – the dinnerware, stemware, and other materials that were removed from use and placed into china cabinets because the items “are too valuable to use.”  As with the above, long-term collectability depends on memory creation and perpetuation.  Today’s young adults do not want things they cannot use.  If they are going to display something it has to evoke memories of what they had and not what their parents or grandparents had.

Harry L. Rinker welcomes questions from readers about collectibles, those mass-produced items from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.  Selected letters will be answered in this column.  Harry cannot provide personal answers.  Photos and other material submitted cannot be returned.  Send your questions to: Rinker on Collectibles, 5955 Mill Point Court SE, Kentwood, MI  49512.  You also can e-mail your questions to harrylrinker@aol.com. Only e-mails containing a full name and mailing address will be considered.

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 on the Internet at www.gcnlive.com.