51st Annual Delaware Show

In 1983 Jim Flather, a dedicated Chinese export porcelain collector and lecturer at the symposium, offered me a position with his insurance agency, where I would develop the firm’s book of fine arts insurance for collectors, museums, and dealers. Paid to associate with people who loved the same things I did, I could now afford to buy the wonderful objects for which I had a passion. Win-win! Since then I have acquired 100+ pieces of 18th-century armorial porcelain and established friendships with curators, dealers, auctioneers, and collectors who all have one thing in common: It’s all about the hunt. Every junk shop, thrift shop, antiques store, or auction house could possibly have the one thing you didn’t know you couldn’t live without! This quote from noted Swiss collector Jean-Paul Barbier sums up the sentiment perfectly: “What is a collector? Someone who buys 10 objects, puts them in his apartment, and stops there is not a true collector. He’s an enlightened connoisseur, a man of great taste, but not a collector. A collector is someone who has one million but spends two million, someone who is perpetually short of cash, and someone for whom the most desirable work of art is the one he will discover tomorrow.” This article is generously sponsored by Diver Chevrolet. SAVE THE DATE! WINTERTHUR CERAMICS CONFERENCE From All Points of the Compass: Ceramics Travel the World APRIL 23–24, 2015 For information, call 800.448.3883 or visit winterthur.org . — 36 —