WHAT TO COLLECT? |
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Collecting vintage compacts is easy. There are millions of them. They are small, are mostly very affordable, but, above all, they come in infinite varieties of shapes, materials, sizes, decorations and colour combinations. And for the the canny dealer, there are profits to be made in reselling cases that can often be purchased at bargain prices.
Beyond these reasons for collecting vintage compacts, there is also the fact that every single one of them was once owned by a woman, or young girl (and, believe it or not, there were even some compacts made for men) and it is tempting to visualise where a particular compact case fitted into their life story. Was it a graduation gift? A souvenir of a vacation? A gift from a lover? Was it just a purchase from the local drug store? Or was it thrown away in a fit of anger after a quarrel? Mostly, we will never know these intimate details but when you open a vintage vanity case you can be sure that its mirror reflected the face of its owner in all her moods, perhaps thousands of times.
The answer to the question 'what to collect?' must, surely and literally, be 'anything you like'. The possibilities are endless because there are so many options. I have known some collections to be based simply on colour, others on a particular brand and others on style or era. My own preference is the souvenir cases made in Belgium and France in the early 1900s, before World War I. But, there are many other categories that I dabble in as well.
Whatever you decide to collect you need to face the fact that, one day, you will want to dispose of your treasures (or someone will want to dispose of them on your behalf). So, my advice is to acquire cases and compacts in the best condition possible and ideally in mint condition with original packaging. This is rarely achievable and you will need to be prepared to pay a premium for items in mint, or even in near mint, condition. In the absence of an unused case coming your way try and avoid cases with damage or with paint/enamel loss. But if you can't avoid this and you must have a particular case then we will all understand and price becomes less of a factor than the sheer joy that can be experienced in finding a case long sought after.
With so many collecting options open it is a challenge to dream up some artificial categories....but I have attempted...and will add more
Beyond these reasons for collecting vintage compacts, there is also the fact that every single one of them was once owned by a woman, or young girl (and, believe it or not, there were even some compacts made for men) and it is tempting to visualise where a particular compact case fitted into their life story. Was it a graduation gift? A souvenir of a vacation? A gift from a lover? Was it just a purchase from the local drug store? Or was it thrown away in a fit of anger after a quarrel? Mostly, we will never know these intimate details but when you open a vintage vanity case you can be sure that its mirror reflected the face of its owner in all her moods, perhaps thousands of times.
The answer to the question 'what to collect?' must, surely and literally, be 'anything you like'. The possibilities are endless because there are so many options. I have known some collections to be based simply on colour, others on a particular brand and others on style or era. My own preference is the souvenir cases made in Belgium and France in the early 1900s, before World War I. But, there are many other categories that I dabble in as well.
Whatever you decide to collect you need to face the fact that, one day, you will want to dispose of your treasures (or someone will want to dispose of them on your behalf). So, my advice is to acquire cases and compacts in the best condition possible and ideally in mint condition with original packaging. This is rarely achievable and you will need to be prepared to pay a premium for items in mint, or even in near mint, condition. In the absence of an unused case coming your way try and avoid cases with damage or with paint/enamel loss. But if you can't avoid this and you must have a particular case then we will all understand and price becomes less of a factor than the sheer joy that can be experienced in finding a case long sought after.
With so many collecting options open it is a challenge to dream up some artificial categories....but I have attempted...and will add more