51st Annual Delaware Show

HOW I BECAME A COLLECTOR BY BRUCE COLEMAN PERKINS Born into a family of collectors, I grew up in a home filled with art and antiques inherited from my mother’s family: Philadelphia Chippendale; Baltimore Federal furniture; and paintings by Winslow Homer, Maurice Prendergast, and Childe Hassam. Our house reflected the Williamsburg/Winterthur style, and our world was painted Hammond-Harwood green. I was the only one of four sons to get the collecting bug, and like most collectors, I started out early, displaying Steiff stuffed animals on a spare bed and coveted objects such as knives, antique pistols, beer cans, and lead soldiers on a wall of bookshelves (I am still teased today for not using bookshelves to hold my books). It was during visits to my grandmother’s house in Wilmington, “Goodstay,” an 18th- century house acquired by my family in the 1860s, that I truly became an antiques enthusiast. Although the house was a treasure trove of exquisite objects, it was not much fun for a small boy until I discovered a huge third-floor attic space. Trunks, suitcases, and boxes sealed for generations were filled with objects that had belonged to my ancestors. Rooting around and unearthing precious items in that attic fifty years ago, I decided I wanted to be involved with the antiques world one way or another. Pam and Bruce Perkins Bruce Perkins, President of Flather & Perkins, Inc., is an inveterate collector and longtime member of the Winterthur Board of Trustees. — 34 —