Displaying Your Antique and Vintage Collections

by Kelly Keating on 01/01/11

Theodore Gerard (1829-1895), The Collector's Studio

If you have a collection(s) of antique and vintage items, a central question is often how to display these treasures so that they will enhance your settting and provide visual enjoyment for you and also perhaps your guests.  Yet, many times in a living room or dining room a collection is dispersed throughout the entire room, placing some here and some there without much contemplation.  Displaying your antique or vintage pieces randomly throughout a room only serves to dilute their impact and significance and in the end makes the room appear cluttered and uninteresting.  To achieve the maximum impact of your collection within a particular setting, it should be grouped together in one or two areas, so that it can be seen as a collection- similar items chosen with taste, refinement. pleasure and a critical eye rather than a haphazard placement of singular objects around a room- one here one there alone and unconnected.

Before you group your collection together, you first must scrutinize it and edit it if warranted.  Are all the pieces in good condition?  Are there any pieces that are duplicates?  Are any objects very dissimilar in style, color, date or material so that they don't belong in the grouping and would thus distract a viewer rather than enhance the experience of the collection.

Next, you should consider the size of your collection, how much space it needs to be displayed and how much space in a particular room you are willing to devote to it.  Will one shelf be enough or do you need a series of shelves or an entire display cabinet?  Small vintage display cabinets can be found for a good price and their size allows them to be tucked into tight spaces, yet they can hold a substanial amount of objects.  For example in my apartment, I placed a vintage English 1930's/1940's walnut cabinet with a glass front and mirrored back to display part of my silver collection.

 

The glass front and the mirrored back along with the shiney reflective surface of the sterling and plate within the vitrine create a gorgeous visual impact and an intriguing display.

My cabinet of silver also illustrates an important point regarding the display of your collection.  The setting of for your objects is just as essential as the pieces in the collection itself.  If my demilune vitrine had a solid instead of a mirrored back, the silver would have still looked beautiful, but the visual impact would have been much less.  The reflections produced by the silver, the mirrored back and the glass create a strong visual play for the eye and enhance the presentation of the silver.

Also, for example, you could display a collection of antique pottery in a Welsh cupboard to achieve a rustic, country look, but those same pieces of pottery displayed on modern dark cube shelves in a wall grouping would give a decidely more contemporay art feel as if each piece were an individual sculpture.

Lighting is also important.  If you can use uplights or spot lights to highlight a collection then do so.  Think also of a lighted display cabinet which can produce a pleasing effect and draws your eye to the objects within that piece of furniture.

Furthermore, think of other areas in your house to display antique and vintage objects.  Use a large, round table in a foyer.  A group of antique boxes perhaps some on stands to have different heights could be quite beautiful or a collection of antique brass- candlesticks, vases etc. could produce a charming vignette.  Or perhaps a back hallway is perfect for a presentation of plates mounted on the wall or a collection of antique dog prints or mirrors of different shapes and sizes.

The bathroom is also a great space in which to exhibit a small collection.  Here is the bathroom of a client with a small grouping of various types of collectible dogs.  This display makes a strong visual impact and imbues the bathroom with a sense of fun and whimsy.

Wall groupings are often the best way to display certain collections that are suited to be hung because they do not take up as much space as for example a cabinet.  Antique plates and platters make a superb wall exhibition.  But don't use tension/spring hangers to hang plates on the wall as they can cause stress fractures and rim chips.  Instead use brass ball plate hangers that come in a variety of sizes to fit the dimensions of your specific plate.  These hangers are simple and effective and do not compete with the beauty of your plate or platter.

In the bedroom of my apartment, I had a large blank wall that I decided to fill with my collection of late 19th century (1880's) English Aesthetic transferware pottery in brown and black. 

 

Aesthetic pottery was heavily influenced by the arts of Japan in its use of asymmetry, overlapping insets with different subjects, geometric patterns and motifs of flora and fauna.  A good example of Aesthetic pottery is this 13" brown transferware platter in a pattern called Fan circa 1880 by Bovey Tracey Potteries.  It demonstrates many of the hallmarks of the Aesthetic style.

Also, in my wall grouping are earlier mid 19th century transferware plates influenced by Chinese subjects.  This type of plate is often categorized as chinoiserie.  Here is a good example, a 6" black transferware plate in the Jeddo pattern by W. Adams & Sons, circa 1849.

 

You may have noticed that in my large wall grouping of 33 plates and platters, I have used 3 sets of pairs.  Often having 2 of the same item in a grouping of a collection is not a good idea.  If you have only 5 plates on a wall and 2 are the same, the result is not as pleasing as 5 distinct pieces.  However, in a large display such as mine with different size items, having a few pairs can help create a structure and cohesiveness to the whole presentation.  I also have 6 pieces on the wall in different shapes and sizes, but all in the same Aesthetic pattern called Cairo which features Near East/Egyptian motifs with Japanesque styling.  Notice the mosque in the unfurling scroll in this 10" platter.

So, if you have a collection of antiques or vintage items group them together for the greatest visual impact.  You will enjoy seeing your collection together and your guests will derive great pleasure from seeing your beautiful treasures as well.  Remember to edit your collection, consider the amount of space you need for your exhibition so it does not look crowded or cluttered, decide what your collection will be shown on or in and what feeling that will impart on the viewer, use unusual spaces such as  a bathroom or back hallway for your display and finally consider lighting so that your collection can be clearly viewed and visually heightened.

If you are looking for a particular antique or vintage item contact me at [email protected] and I can find it for you.  Perhaps, you would like to start collecting silver, but do not know where to start.  Or maybe you have a flatware pattern from your grandmother, but you need more serving pieces; I can find it for you.  Or would you like to assemble a 19th century  transferware pottery collection for a country hutch?  Contact me and I can be of assistance.   Also, if you need help grouping collection(s) that you already have for maximum effect and are in the NYC/New Jersey area, I able to come to you and arrange your accessories.

Happy New Year!
Kelly T Keating