posted 06-17-2005 04:36 PM            

All that said, there are some things that I dearly want to acquire for this collection before I retire (or go mad). We have a great little group of Colonial silver, with some stellar pieces. But I desperately want a fine colonial silver coffee pot (pre-Federal). Don't care what maker or city. It would be great to have a family history. I'd also like something wonderful from the Chicago World's Fair of 1893. I personally collect the "Bertha Palmer" souvenir spoons from that fair, because she was my great-grandmother's sister; but they're hardly museum quality. Ironically, we own the Tiffany exhibition touchmark from the 1893 fair, given to us by a silversmith (to keep the world safe).

posted 06-29-2005 10:58 AM            

As to your questions. Museums do borrow things, frequently, to fill gaps in exhibitions. But we don't tend to take loans on any other basis unless there is the promise of a gift in there somewhere. Many museums have been burned by long-term loans that never became gifts, and simply served to increase the market value of the loaned objects.

While "trading" isn't something museums do literally, it is certainly a practice for a museum to dispose (deaccession) objects it considers irrelevant or secondary in order to upgrade the collection by acquiring better examples. The whole idea of "museum quality" is, as you suggest, very much open to discussion. It depends on what museum. Few museums care much about NJ silver, but I do, and thus it is "museum quality" for me. If any museum wants one, it is museum quality. Pretty loose, huh?

But, in this instance, when I mean "important" I mean something that most other museums would not have. When I speak of an important colonial piece, I'm thinking of that rare, meaning-filled and beautiful thing that would not only enrich our interpretive mission (the story we can tell with silver) but also increase the prestige of the collection overall. Curators SHOULD always have an eye on how they can make any collection (in this case silver) appealing and interesting to a public that is not necessarily interested in what they are. That is our mission as educators. That is also the fun of these forums, because everything posted is not always "great," but it is always potentially educational and interesting. But, as collectors with an eye to a legacy (i.e. how will we be seen after we retire/die) curators also want to add objects to their collections that will build the quality of the collection, not just increase its size. As a result, we tend to be more circumspect about what we buy, because we need to husband our resources. Gifts can allow us more leeway, but the trap there is we accept second-rate gifts because we're either too lazy or too fearful of offending.