In touch with history
The many reasons people collect
Justin Miller (left) and Ethan Miller (right) at their auction gallery in New Hamburg, Ontario. Photo by Paul Knowles.
It’s all about the stories. Or the opportunity to hold a piece of history in your hands. Or perhaps the chance to own something that takes you back to your own, earlier days.
Those are at least some of the reasons people continue to collect antiques, collectibles and historical artifacts. One thing is clear – people do continue to collect everything from native Canadian artifacts and bicycles, to classic cars to hockey memorabilia, from clocks to lithograph advertisements.
Justin Miller, of Miller & Miller Auctions in New Hamburg, says, “There are many different reasons for being collectors. A lot of people collect things from the area they grew up in.”
His brother and business partner, Ethan Miller, adds, “The ultimate word is ‘meaning’ – if something is meaningful, they will collect it.” And the urge to collect heritage items can strike, unexpectedly: “People stumble on an object and get the bug,” says Ethan, adding, tongue in cheek, that it’s “a gateway drug.”
The Miller brothers have created their successful in-person and on-line auction house, following in the footsteps of their father, Jim Miller, a well-known and highly-respected classic car and antiques dealer who passed away in 2010.
While their auction business is fundamentally different from Jim’s antiques business – Ethan and Justin don’t buy antiques or collectibles, they represent clients and offer the items for auction – they do share their Dad’s sense that the real reason for collecting is “the story behind the item.”
There are other related reasons people collect heritage items, say the Millers. Justin refers to “the ‘completists’” – collectors who will not rest until they have every item in a particular category. Others “collect for the history of it.”
Ethan believes this urge to own a piece of heritage will never die. But he insists that true collectors look for meaning in each piece. There is “no hoarding.” And Ethan says that “when a collection is done well, I get goosebumps.”
An impressive example of a complete collection: On June 8th, 2019, The Curt Davidson clock collection hit the auction block at Miller & Miller Auctions in New Hamburg Canada. It contained a full run of Pequegnat models (with variants) totalling close to 200. Never in history had such a collection been offered to the market, entirely without reserve.
Justin sees collectors as “curators” of historical and significant objects. Museums, he says, “can’t collect and store all this stuff,” so “we help to find new homes for these things.”
The brothers are intrigued by the younger generation of collectors who they’re meeting through their business. There is also a thriving market in ‘mantiques’ – objects that typically would decorate a den or a ‘man cave’.
Some of the items sold through Miller & Miller have been costly; other pieces are relatively inexpensive. They’ve sold a diamond ring that went for $33,050 and a toy dump truck for $177. A collection of sports photos sold for only $60, while a National Model 3 cash register fetched $11,500. A Creek Chub Intro Wiggler fishing lure sold for $3,245, and a Morrison’s Gold Filled Overlay fountain pen brought $90.
For collectors of these kinds of hands-on history, the value is not in the price tag. As the Millers know well, the value lies in the story.
By Paul Knowles
(This article was first published in Our Heritage/Our Home magazine; used by permission).
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