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- Written by Dr. Lori Verderame Dr. Lori Verderame
Kitchens are one of the best places to spot valuable collectibles. From antique fine china to vintage appliances, kitchen collectibles can hold their value for generations and serve as wonderful accessories in the most popular place in the house during the holidays.
Kitchen collectibles range (pardon the pun) from aprons to zesters, and all of these objects are making a strong market impact.
Utensils, cookie jars, bowls, trays, cookbooks, coffee pots, and sterling silver flatware have always been available to estate sale and yard sale shoppers, thrifters, and collectors. Now, with much of the collectibles market online, everyone can find vintage holiday kitchen stuff.
Have you heard that entertaining is a dying art form? Not true … not by a long shot.
In fact, young adults enjoy the art of entertaining and are actively collecting barware and vintage kitchen items for parties, gatherings, and social events. Everything from 1960s martini shakers to Sunbeam Mixmasters are in new 21st-century kitchens, assembled in groups by collectors in their 20s and 30s.
Collectors with an interest in the history of cooking look for items like cookbooks, antique utensils, and Victorian food processors. Despite the varied collectibles from the kitchen, when it comes to value and high-style design, some of the most coveted collectibles are also the most common.
When it’s all said and done, dishes win the day.
Collectors and shoppers look for fine china, holiday patterns, and established brands as they are desired by collectors. Fine-china serving sets are not as fashionable as they once were, but collectors in the know are still collecting china services from big names like Meissen, Spode, Haviland for Limoges, Lenox, Herend, Royal Copenhagen, Royal Doulton, etc.
Seasoned collectors are telling their grandchildren about the value in fine china and the family history that goes along with it. As a result, many fine china sets are staying in families for the next generation and, hopefully, generations thereafter, too.
And, mixing and matching is totally acceptable, unlike the tables set by our grandmothers, where a match-or-die attitude was the only way to entertain. The kitchen mix-or-match idea harkens back to the 1990s, when variety in dishware was embraced.
While collectors amass kitchen objects in bulk, the trend for resellers is to find the bargains and market the items on YouTube Thrift with Me channels, social media groups on Instagram, and Facebook, and by old-fashioned word of mouth.
Ph.D. antiques appraiser, author, and award-winning TV personality, Dr. Lori presents antique appraisal events nationwide and appears on The Curse of Oak Island on History channel. Visit drloriv.com and youtube.com/drloriv or call (888) 431-1010.
