“I don’t have room for another thing.” That’s the mantra of browsing collectors hoping not to find something they absolutely have to have. There’s a story I tell to those I think can take it. It’s about Charles Darwin, and it goes like this:
One day Darwin decided that he would set out on a walking expedition, but this time he would try to take in the beauty of nature, not as a scientist, but as any other person might.
After a few minutes strolling, however, he notice a beetle on a leaf that made him curious, so he captured it in one hand. A few steps later, he spied a totally different beetle scurrying up the side of a tree. He quickly snatched that beetle in his other hand before it could get away.
With his two hands full, Darwin decided to turn back to his base camp and deposit them there so he could continue his walk.
Just before he got to the site, he noticed a third beetle crawl out from under a rock. Not only was this a magnificent looking beetle, it was a species he was certain he had never seen before.
But what to do? He had two hands full. He had to act quickly. So, he popped one of his captured beetles in his mouth and grabbed at the new beetle with his now free hand.
The moral, of course, is that there is always room for one more, and that a collector can no more stop being a collector that Charles Darwin could stop being Charles Darwin.
There is one field of collecting, however, where there is always room for one more, and our compulsion will never break the bank–collecting miniatures, and those are just a couple of the reasons they are fast becoming the most popular collectibles on the market.
There is an entire Lilliputian world going on in every antique shop right under our noses. Monkeys are wrestling, mice in aprons are doing laundry, dogs are dancing, soldiers are at the ready.
Toy soldiers are among the oldest miniatures. Mass-produced lead soldiers (called “metals” by collectors) go back to a French company, Mignot, in the late 1700s. They were quickly followed by the English companies of Britains and Hyde.
Metal characters were also produced to populate the cities, villages, railroad yards and train stations of model train sets. There were also metal animals, including pets, woodland creatures and farm animals.
Small Nativity set animals–cows, camels, sheep and donkeys–are collectible in various materials, including papier-mache, plaster, wood and ceramics. The old German stick figure sheep made with real wool are particularly prized.
There is a whole menagerie of animals and birds to collect in such a wide variety of materials, including silver, brass and bronze, that it’s hard to limit yourself.
Some figures were made by well-respected companies, like Royal Doulton, Royal Copenhagen, Rosenthal China. Some were meant to be more than just figures, like Japanese carved ivory or wood netsules (toggles) or figural bottle stoppers and pourers.
You could have a case just for your miniatures. Or you could creatively display them around the house to be discovered–among the dishes in the china cabinet, or books on the bookshelves, on a shelf in the bathroom, atop the fireplace mantel, under a lamp on an end table.
Not to worry. Wherever you choose, there will always be room for one more.
Appraisals: Mouse, Royal Copenhagen, $75; Elephant, bronze, $50; Monkey, pouring bottle stop, .800 silver, $225; Owl, Purbeck, cold cast bronze, $125; Netsuke, wood, wrestling monkeys, $225; Teddy bear, Saworvski crystal, $110; Set of six lead (metal) WW I soldiers, Britains, $125; Dancing dog, porcelain, Japan, 1930, $35; Porter carrying bags, metal, $30.
Arthur Schwerdt, a certified appraiser, is author of “The Antique Story Book: Finding the Real Value of Old Things,” and co-owner of The August Farmhouse Antiques on route 9 in Swainton.
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