Collection starting tips

[Arizona]

Hello all, I recently started collecting silver items, mostly from antique shops and thrift stores where silver items are cheap, sometimes almost "free". I find myself with a very wide range of items, different age, purpose, condition... I would to know how to follow in order to build a collection, how are the acquisition standards, how you decided to collect that particular style... I would like to start thinning out the collection by selecting the most interesting pieces, but I get to have from 1817 forks to a Georg Jensen brooch and I am quite lost on how to tackle it. Maybe someone here went through that too? so how you do it? Any tips for beginners? Any suggestions? Thank you

[Arizona]

Ah, actually the 200 year old spoon and the Georg Jensen brooch are the most intersting things ;) the rest is barely 925 marked and pretty common stuff.

[Arizona]

Since the forum (of 33.000 people!) nobody answers about any tip for beginners I am going to collect the tips that I was told, in order to collect them in a post that is easy to find.

Goldstein dixit:

It is not only important to know the marks - you must know the history and the background - and of course a little of the language.

To buy something you do not know and than ask others is the direct way to financial losses and frustration.

[AG2012/b] dixit:

Be aware of fakes. ``fake unless proven genuine``

specially talking about Russian silver.

[b]Qrt.S dixit:

To collect everything that you stumble into will lead to that your collection sooner or later looks like a scrap yard. What you should do is specialize in a few countries you are interested in and learn everything about their silver marking procedures and history and skip the rest.

Then, I think everybody agrees that to read books and make the research is a main source that any collector should have, bearing in mind that sources, books, can be also wrong in some points.

And as the last collecting tip I would add: if you want to ask something in the forum about a certain piece, please, please, please read the posting requirements, put an adequate title and add pictures, there are so many dead posts(and users) because of that.

Please feel free to comment and add any more advice.

[AG2012]

1.The golden rule: collect what you really like.
2.Decide if collection is investment or to have nice things in your house.Then silver is not enough, one needs furniture, paintings,art glass,Oriental carpets, porcelain.
It`s pathetic to accumulate expensive and huge collection of one single sort,the rest of environment being rubbish.
But that`s my opinion.I like to rotate things on antique tables and in display cabinets; silver,Loetz and Murano art glass, Bergmann Vienna bronze,Wiener Werkstatte porcelain,ormolu frames,miniatures on ivory.
There is a problem with this approach, though - not really an expert in every field, but enough knowledge accumulated during decades.
Enjoy nice things,that`s important.

[Traintime]

Collector-poorly used term. A real collector tries to accumulate items still being produced from alpha to omega in order to have a complete set of perfect examples of each item in the category they concentrate on. That is not what this is. This is conservation. These items are out of production. They are often "lost" and being re-found so they will not end up lost forever to the meltdown. The ones that come here have usually been separated from their identity and need it restored. So everything else aside, the most important thing is to create a record that ensures these things are not lost after you are gone. At a minimum, a tag or file card to go with each item when not being displayed. What you share builds a historical record for the future, just as the people who wrote books on these subjects have done for us. A salute to past generations firmwhat they did. Preservation for the future generations, whether they deserve it or not. And maybe, some investment to pay you back for the work you put into it..unless you plan to take it with you like King Tut!