Rare Book Monthly
Articles - January - 2010 Issue
Collecting: A Changing Perspective
The new collector: prospecting
If the pursuit of exceptional material requires money, patience and judgment, the pursuit of intensive narrow collections rely on filtering software, patience and experience. Narrow collections can be expensive but most are not. What is similar with these approaches is the satisfaction they bring. They are light-years apart in style but both will be celebrated when sold or donated to institutions in the years to come.
For dealers this transition in collecting style is complicated by the fixed nature of inventory which tends to be more general than a successful collector's focus. As a result, even if a collector prefers to deal with a few dealers, if they search randomly they encounter more sources and more options. As a consequence the new collector, simply using the resources available, tends to replace traditional dealer-client relationships with an ever-changing group of sources that provide material to collections they generally have no idea about. In this new world the collector builds the collection. In the world that slips away the dealer built the collection for the collector.
So is the dealer done for? I think not, particularly at the top of the market. Many collectors and institutions prefer the assurance of the money back guarantee that dealers often provide; the higher cost offsetting the reduced risks of defective and made-up copies. As well, to bid at auction, a collector, In my opinion, needs representation and if a consistent client of a dealer, can expect such service.
For most collectors however, their exceptionalism will manifest itself in the building of self-directed collections. They will, by degree, focus on a field, follow availability, note the frequency of appearance, develop opinions about condition, remember the sources and track the analogous material that vies for inclusion within their ever-refining scope of collection. In a few years this jiggering with the equation that begins as chopsticks becomes a Brahms concerto.
Either way, or employing the more traditional middle ground of collecting techniques, 2010 looks to be doubly difficult for many dealers and a rich opportunity for collectors.
