Thrifting & Antiquing

I set off on an ambitious antiquing expedition into Cambridge and downtown Boston in the spring of 2011. I hadn’t been out antiquing since the previous fall and I was eager to see what new treasures I could find.

My first stop was a small shop I had last visited almost a decade before near Porter Square in Cambridge. The only problem was that it wasn’t there anymore. That wasn’t too surprising; it had been almost a decade since I was there last. And besides, there were still a couple antique stores near Harvard Square I could hit before crossing the Charles to check out downtown.

However, after a short walk, I was soon dismayed to discover that these two antique stores also no longer existed. And unlike the shop near Porter Square I knew these two stores had been open recently, within the last couple of years.

A bit disgruntled, I took the Red Line to the Charles/MGH stop. This subway stop lets you off right at the beginning of Charles Street. Charles Street runs through the exclusive Beacon Hill neighborhood in an area called the Flat of the Hill. It is Boston’s antique Mecca, lined with very expensive shops, each carrying a menagerie of wonderful, old items.

This was a gimme – a mulligan – a layup. I knew I was unlikely to find great bargains or hidden gems here, but after my prior disappointments I needed a success. And success for me at this point was finding open shops.

As I gradually worked my way up Charles Street it became apparent that there were far fewer shops than when I had last visited a mere 6 months ago. One of my regular stores – Antiques at 80 Charles – was now a soulless bank branch. What was going on?

After leaving Charles Street I went to my favorite consignment shop in the Back Bay, Annabelle Jones. To my great relief, it was still there. As I traveled home that evening, I wondered to myself, “Is this the start of an antiques Armageddon?”

My fears of a widespread collapse in Boston area antique dealers were well founded. A couple months later, I visited Annabelle Jones, the Back Bay consignment shop, again. It was closed. And it wasn’t only antique stores that closed either.

Less than a year later in the spring of 2012, the venerable J.J. Teaparty coin shop on Bromfield Street – founded in 1957 – closed its doors, becoming an online only vendor. The hits just kept on coming. In early 2013 Windsor Button, an indie button/craft shop in downtown Boston, closed its doors after 77 years.

2011 and 2012 were Boston area antique dealers’ annus horribilis. Here is my theory why. Most antique stores are sole proprietor or small partnership businesses with only one location. They don’t have access to the capital markets like larger companies do. When the financial crisis of 2008/2009 hit, most antique store owners hunkered down in an attempt to ride out the economic storm.

But their sales never really recovered. People couldn’t – and didn’t – spend impulsively on antiques like they did pre-crisis. So these small antique stores held on against tepid sales and inexorably rising rents until 2011 or 2012, when they couldn’t hold on anymore.

As it gradually become apparent to these dealers that their sales volume was never coming back – one by one – they closed up shop. Some of these antique stores had faithfully served their clientele for years, others for decades. In my eyes, Boston has never quite been the same city since.

How old is antique?  What age must an item reach before it can be considered antique? It is an intriguing question with no simple answer.

It used to be, long ago, that an item was antique once it was more than 100 years old. This traditional definition derived from British import/export law and later became a convention in the antique trade. So in 1925, for example, only items from 1825 or before were thought of as legitimate antiques in the trade. However, the 100 year rule is now widely considered defunct in the industry, with only the most ardent of traditionalists still adhering to the concept.

Another, even older, rule of thumb is that only hand crafted items can be considered antiques. This is a throwback to the immense changes in European manufacturing techniques that took place during the Industrial Revolution of the late 18th century. In a certain sense this guideline is much less arbitrary than the 100 year old rule.

However, it too has major drawbacks. For one, how do you treat recently created items that have been hand crafted? For this reason, among others, the hand-made test for antiques isn’t widely used.

So where does that leave us? While any standard we choose will be somewhat arbitrary by necessity, I believe a reasonable conclusion can still be made. First, antiques are generally older than vintage or retro items although the latter two terms can be rather flexible. But, in my opinion, requiring an age of 100 years is too restrictive. So where do we draw the line?

At this point, I can’t help but think back to when I used to visit antique stores with my grandmother during the late 1980s to mid 1990s. When browsing through the accumulated treasures, we rarely spent much time on anything produced after World War II. They might have still been collectible, but we didn’t consider them quite old enough yet. And I think that precedent works remarkably well today too.

So how old is antique?  In my opinion, an item can generally be considered antique once it is about 50 years old. This means that today, in 2015, items produced anywhere from 1965 to 1975 gradually transition into antique status. Although admittedly unscientific, this guideline functions unexpectedly well in the real world. It helps us mentally divide more recent collectibles and fads from older, more seasoned and desirable antiques.