Featured Public sharing of your stuff?

I know many of you have accumulated amazing personal collections of interesting, uncommon objects, and that there's sometimes so many of those objects that they overflow into storage, where they languish. What to do?

So I'll ask, have you ever publicly shared / displayed / lectured about / published / etc / parts of your personal collections?

The library, the museum, the school, the civic community center?

It'd be interesting if people talked about what they've done, and that might even inspire someone else with an idea what they might do in the future.

 

I write about my antiques collecting, restorations, repairs, and history & antiques in general, on my blog, and I occasionally put (relevant) antiques on display at collectors' fairs, etc. I've never done a full-blown lecture on anything, though.

Blog: www.throughouthistory.com

 

Yes, right here on this site.

 

I put up a couple of short Youtube videos of dubious video quality, but that's as far as I've gotten.

 

Before I stumbled into Antiquers, I posted some things on the Show & Tell boards of Collectors Weekly, under the name cameosleuth. The difference I have experienced is that there, if you ask for help ("unsolved mystery"), most of the time not much that is useful is offered, while here you can get an array of observations, opinions & knowledge, usually adding up to a good understanding of the item posted.

There was one exception at CW. I posted an Art Deco brooch of Pan & got such keen observations from a member going by the name @kyratango that I had to revise the title & description completely.

https://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/234318-deco-pan-french-silver-with-black-and-co?in=user

 

Occasionally ...

 

There is a monthly newspaper published in a small town by where I live, it is called South County News. Each month they do an article on a local collector. They have a website, if you search on collector or collection you can read some of the articles.

 

I remember your charming Pan brooch!
Thank you for your tribute
I too highly prefer Antiquer's board to CW now, far more knowledge for help, friendly community, and... The possibility to digress and have conversations in private

 

Sounds like a very knowledgeable person, who is kind enough to share her knowledge. Why don't you invite her to join us?
Oops, I see she is already here.

 

I was asked to lecture on Indonesian keris for a Dutch-Indonesian centre in Holland. Unfortunately the funding for the centre stopped, so no lecture.

I am still writing my book on the spiritual and cultural background of Javanese and Madurese keris, with photos from my own collection. Health issues have thrown a spanner in the works several times, but I'll get there some time in the distant future.

I am also considering writing a modest booklet of my own kohl bottle collection, because there is so little information out there.
So far only one book has been written exclusively on kohl bottles, "Paint it Black" by fellow Dutchie Jolanda Bos. An excellent book, but it focuses on Africa, along with a few Middle Eastern bottles.
My collection is fairly comprehensive, from Mauritania in the west to Indonesia in the east. Showing photos with a very short ID shouldn't be as 'brain intensive' as the keris book, and it could help other collectors.

 

Very interesting everyone.
Go for it AJ.
For me, the thought of standing in front of people to give information is one of my greatest fears. No public speaking for this old gal.

 

Before any kind of 'performance' in public, whether speaking, singing, or dancing, I used to spend a lot of time 'you know where'. Even when I was a tourist guide, I had to get up at five in the morning to make sure it was all gone by the time I had to face the public.
I still don't know why I put myself through it. Glutton for punishment I guess.

 

Not intentionally, but if you ever have cause to look up the Seven Sutherland Sisters, there's a good chance you'll see a couple of my images (uncredited).



At some point, someone (not me) combined them:


They even showed up in someone's award winning art installation (where I was credited as "anonymous").

 

I guess yes, I have shared. I have a lot of old ceramics, many are 18th C. It started with my interest in ceramics and led to an interest in archaeology where the two meld.

I have done presentations, both to the public and to people learning about archaeology, showing from my pieces what whole objects look like compared to the sherds people find. I want people to be able to handle things because there is no way to better understand what you have in your hand. It's part of why I started collecting, to be able to touch.

I have offered pieces for study also, for example, when archaeology researchers at Mount Vernon were doing a study of 18th C punch and punchbowls, the museum wouldn't allow them to borrow pieces for volume measure. So I brought some of my 18th C punchbowls and they measured size and volume.

 

I have shared my meager collections on this board for years.

A few years ago I joined our local glass club. We have monthly meetings and usually once a year members are encouraged to bring and talk about something we collect. I've done that few times. It's tough for me, I have never been comfortable talking to a group, but our club is very small and I only have to talk for a few minuets during our "Bring and Brag" day

 

Most of my collecting is related to family history research. I've shared a fair amount on genealogical sites, especially FamilySearch.org so it's available to distant family. I also post some in occasional blog posts, and have shared some old photos on this site. For old family photos that are related more to place than to people, I've provided hi-res digital copies to various historical societies and local historians that were interested.
I'm at the age now where I'm starting to arrange for original stuff to be donated to organizations that have more than a passing interest. For example, I have a handwritten memoir/diary of a distant cousin that was born in the 1760's in Virginia, that the Virginia Historical Society would like to add to their collection. A large amount of old photos and family ephemera I've collected from my wife's family is going to be donated to the library at the University founded by her ggg-grandfather.

 

I hate public speaking but when I am at an estate sale filled with people, I have no problem shouting across the room... that is my stuff. LOL

 

I participated in a curated 20th century decorative and fine arts exhibition and sale. I served as the resident art nouveau and arts and crafts period provider, writing an overview of the period and was available for consultation. Each item also had a descriptive placard explaining how the item fit within the movement. There were also representatives for the art deco period, and two representing MCM. As you can guess, there was some overlap with all the participants coordinating and providing items at large. The exhibition was presented in a time-line format, showing the evolution of design through the period. All items were for sale with pick up only after the exhibition ended. Due to the quality of the items presented, most things were fairly expensive.

The exhibition was well-received and attendance was good, but sales were almost non-existent. I think I sold only one item. I don't think the other participants did any better. It was an interesting experiment but did not serve well for marketing purposes. Fortunately, the family of one of the participants owned the building so there were no up-front costs other than for advertising. Admission was free so we did not recoup anything other than through sales.

 

Brad-I wonder why the sales were so pitifully low ? We used to go to the American Antiquities,Art Deco & Arts & Crafts shows in the SF Bay Area & Marin Co-lots of cash being spent.
Was your sale in Champaign/Urbana or Chicago ?

 

.... because it was in C-U. We should have known better but it was worth a try.