Future Value of My Stuff

-
More and more often, I read or hear comments about the declining value of antique furnishings and vintage items. As a collector, I do hope this won’t be true for me. But, who knows? This has always been true when the selection is mediocre; I believe that my things are curated with informed taste. 

I’ve carefully collected my furnishings and clothing over a lifetime. I spend time researching and documenting provenance and value. Here's one article that reduces my efforts:

Sorry, Nobody Wants Your Parents' Stuff

Here’s a more sympathetic viewpoint, with dozens of helpful comments:

What to Do With Mother’s Stuff

This gives advice on how to help aging parents with too many belongings:

Aging Parents with Too Much Stuff -- and Children Who Don’t Want It

This article contains worthwhile tips to help you downsize:

Going, Going, Gone

While some professional estate sellers offer clarification:

Who Says No One Wants Your Parents’ Stuff?

What’s a collector to do?

My approach has been to establish as much provenance as I am able, and to catalog everything that might be of value. I am well on my way, using various web facilities to store the information. This blog — “... about the afterlife of Stuff that you’ve inherited or are about to inherit. Things. Objects. Items you have to deal with when your loved one has passed away and left you with a houseful of Stuff...” — provides a great deal of valuable information: Stuff After Death.

Updated on March 25, 2024

However, by the second half of 2023 I’ve begun to read about renewed interest in antique and vintage furnishings that are custom made and of enduring quality and value. Today’s furniture is substandard in quality of materials and construction; fortunately some individuals are recognizing this.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Adam Tihany for The Pace Collection

-
Image
In January of 2013, I finally removed my treasured, custom made mahogany and burl elm Chippendale dining table and its period chairs from my house. They are stored in my garage, as I'm not yet prepared to part with them.  In its place I installed the Isadora dining table with Rebecca chairs from The Pace Collection, distinctly different in style and more suited in scale to the corner of the room that's allocated to dining. The table is of gorgeous lacquered birds eye maple with space-age stainless steel accents on the base. Distinctively shaped “Rebecca” chairs are in an ebony finish. The Beatles encaustic painting is by Jeffrey Schaller , commissioned by my husband. The two vibrant abstract Big Island paintings on the right are by Gary Pezzoli. Information about Adam Tihany's Isadora Collection isn’t easy to find online. On page 102 of Tihany Design , published in 1999, Adam Tihany says: “My first collection for Pace was inspired by one of my fav...
Read more

The Pace Collection

-
Image
I first encountered furniture from The Pace Collection in 1977 at a party in the home of the vice president for my region, a boss who was many levels higher than I whom I didn't know well. I found him and his wife to be rather pompous, but I swooned over their art and furniture. I couldn't afford the furniture even with my "highly paid computer professional" salary, but by the second exposure, I had familiarized myself (through design publications) with quite a few of the sensational Mid-Century Modern pieces offered by The Pace Collection and designed by Leon Rosen, James Rosen, Adam Tihany , Milo Baughman , and other notables. Examples from the Pace Collection are for sale at incollect In 2002, when we moved to Hawaii, my husband and I became friends with a neighbor who had a marvelous collection, which I recognized and admired. Recently, as he is downsizing, I've been able to acquire his furniture. Although I would like to use it all, I love too many of my own...
Read more

Putting Our Furniture from The Pace Collection to Work

-
Image
We've painted Peter's office using Sherwin-Williams SW 6150 Universal Khaki, with accents on the pocket door wall and the soffit in SW 6151 Quiver Tan. It works well with the lacquered four-drawer wall mounted shelf of burlwood stained in a complementary green, from The Pace Collection. Additionally, the khaki wall provides a flattering backdrop for our painting by Maui artist Tony Walholm . Peter's "new" desk, called "Boca" and designed by Leon Rosen for The Pace Collection, is made of gorgeous burlwood with legs of black enamel on wood. Finished with countless coats of lacquer, it perfects the mid-century modern look that The Pace Collection mastered. Alas, the desk was designed circa 1970 when computers on desktops were science fiction ideas ... so we hope to figure out an attractive placement for his iMac. I've seen a couple pieces that I like (including an acrylic side table ), but we're going to try a few things that we already own first....
Read more