 |
Antiques Shopping
Sarah Gilbert January 22, 2007PAGES: 1 2
Article Controls
For one desultory hour, you've been running around the Mercado San Telmo antiques market in Buenos Aires, elbowing the crowds aside to rummage through boxes of faded gloves, shelves of broken cameras and cabinets of chipped china. Finally, the moment arrives. From a box shoved behind some moldering chess sets, you spy the one item that speaks to your heart: a working train set from the 1930s. You happily fork over the $600 and walk away with your prized possession.
Antique shopping is one of the great pleasures of travel: grand markets and hidden shops offer unexpected objects that can turn just another trip into an unforgettable expedition. And collecting isn't just for the experts any more. "Most serious collectors will tell you that their proudest moments were discovering the unexpected somewhere exotic, and returning from a distant country with something worth far more at home than abroad," says Marina Thompson, an editor at the Forbes Collector Newsletter.
"It's a treasure hunt, going to a big shop or a flea market and finding something that you didn't expect," said Terry Kovel, whowith her husband Ralph authors the Kovels' Antiques and Collectibles Price List." "You always remember where you found it -- its part of your trip forever."
The Web may have made it easy to go antique shopping without stepping outside the cubicle, but nothing can replace the pleasure of happening upon something unusual at a tiny market stall.
See our slideshow of the best vintage and antique shopping spots around the world.
"I can't buy that way," Kovel says of online antique shopping. "I really think to understand anything you collect, you have to be able to touch it. Also, you're missing the fun of the chase."
Indeed, that chase is what some people thrive on. The relationship between antiques hunter and dealer is a special one that begins the moment you clap eyes on a perfect item, heroically bargain down the price, prevail over a perilous taxi ride and imposing airport x-ray machines and place it lovingly on the mantle.
Just make sure it's real. "The fakes are so good that I would not buy anything expensive if it wasn't from a well-known shop," Kovel warns. But that's not your only option: cities like Hong Kong offer dedicated experts to help you assess the authenticity of a product.
See our slideshow of the best vintage and antique shopping spots around the world.
PAGES: 1 2
