Level UP your collecting

Is your collection getting out of hand, or not quite as exciting to you as it once was? Maybe it’s time to take it to the next level, says Emma Longstaff, with a few pointers from the experts

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You either are or you aren’t a collector,’ thinks Alison Snowdon, ceramics specialist at the auction house Fieldings. ‘Some children painstakingly assemble albums of football stickers or collect Pokémon cards and, as adults, they keep on collecting. It’s as if it’s genetic, or a personality trait.’

Alison thinks there is a pattern to a lot of novice collecting. At first, collectors start small, perhaps buying Royal Crown Derby paperweights to display in a cabinet. But it snowballs and soon, not only is the cabinet bursting, but there are boxes of paperweights gathering dust in the spare room.

‘It’s like there is a ladder of collecting. As a beginner you’re getting an adrenalin rush finding new pieces, so you buy things a bit indiscriminately. But, over time, as your knowledge increases, you become more selective and only want rarer examples in better condition, or you decide to limit the scope, and stop trying to collect everything.’

Mike Moir, an Art Nouveau and Art Deco glass specialist, agrees: ‘Very often, the first half-dozen or so pieces someone buys will be regretted five years later. It takes time for a collector to realise what they really want." People's collecting styles also differ. Some are completists, on a lifetime's mission to acquire the full set, be it Clarice Cliff conical sugar shakers or silver sixpences from the reign of every British monarch. Some become connoisseurs, who want the best of the best, or who research their collection so deeply, their expertise rivals that of the professionals.