The Collectible Figurine
WHY ARE WE FIGURINE COLLECTORS?
Figurines - For Home Makers
The collectible figurine can be found nestled in homes all over the world, in all but the most ardent of minimalists. Perhaps you will even find a very fine collection lovingly put together over decades of hunting and treasuring.
I would make a wager you have never, or seldom seen a figurine in the final stages of the sculpting process, just before it goes off to be cast.
The picture just above is exactly that - my own work in the finishing stages.
These figurines will almost certainly have great value, whether it be sentimental or monetary or both.
They may have the romance and prestige of being made from fine bone china by English artisans, as my own sculptures, or they may be fond reminders of precious family moments.
Why Do We Collect?
I have to hold my hand up and say I have a need to collect things. Don't we all?
But Why?
"Could any form of wealth be more basic than scarce, tangible objects" - Jim Halperin on why people collect.
“Nothing is as enduring as change" – Ludwig Borne
Sometimes collecting can be about a way to learn more about the world,
and sometimes it is about re-imposing order into a gone wrong world.
In my case it is both, I collect bubble gum flag cards dating
from the World's first flush of enthusiasm about the United Nations in
the 1950’s.
For me, these United Nations cards from the 1950's/60's represent a new, optimistic world order where chaos can be turned into order through a set of cards first offered to me as a very young child in a bubble gum packet.
So what is the burning gratification exactly?
There seems to be universal and primordial need with active collectors to gather together as complete a set of 'the collectible figurine' as possible. For me with my cards, it was as if I was the custodian. No one else had ever heard of them. People seem to prefer rare.
Figurine collectors are not just mere accumulators or ‘completists’, they are people who love and cherish beauty, romance and hope .
I find them downright up together people. They like things to be whole and complete, yes, but they are often high achievers in many ways – not necessarily in terms of business enterprise, but for instance in terms of knowing how to keep a happy family or household.
Collecting is their means of cultural transformation – turning the mass of bad news which circulated in the media out of skew to reality which we all know generally contains far more good news than bad.
We can remind ourselves that life is, actually, about good news in the main with a sprinkling of bad stuff which we know happens, so do not need to be constantly reminded of.
Collectors will go to any ends to keep a thread running through their specialist personal interest. What is wrong with setting up goals that are tangible and attainable and provide us with concrete feedback of our progress?
I know I thrilled when I finally collected all 80 of my cards. If they were lost in a fire or mishap, I would be bereft and devastated. They are part of me.
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