Never Enough: Confessions of a Capricious Collector

By John E. Burke PhD

From a basic Boy Scout knife and other simple pocketknives to rare Persian rugs, and from a strong interest in historic American clay jugs to fine Asian jade pieces, author Dr. John E. Burke has collected it all. In Never Enough, he describes his life journey through collecting, and at the same time explores why man is a collecting species.

This memoir offers a look inside the mind of a passionate, knowledgeable collector as he discusses his progression from a curious neophyte to a proficient, expert collector in each of his eight domains. Burke walks through the stages of how to gain knowledge and experience and how he personally mastered each of his collections. He narrates how he became a collector of antiques and explains his passion for the objects he collects.

Offering a useful introduction to collecting. Never Enough focuses on Burkes personal aspects of collecting including his own motivations and those of other collectors, and, ultimately, the meaning and satisfaction of collecting.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Aug 21, 2015
• ISBN: 9781491772881

John E. Burke PhD

John E. Burke, PhD, is the former president and CEO of the Accreditation Association, a leading national and international healthcare organization. The author of more than 100 books and articles, Burke has also served as a professor and dean in three major universities and as an executive in a Fortune 100 company.

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Copyright © 2015 John E. Burke, PhD.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Photography by David Linsell

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ISBN: 978-1-4917-7287-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4917-7288-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015913049

iUniverse rev. date: 08/21/2015

Contents

Foreword

Introduction

Chapter 1 The Urge

Chapter 2 Collectors and Collecting

Chapter 3 Knives

Chapter 4 American Ovoid Stoneware

Chapter 5 Carpets

Chapter 6 Netsuke

Chapter 7 Jade

Chapter 8 Canes and Walking Sticks

Chapter 9 New Collections: Art from Africa, Indo Asia, and the People of the Earth

Epilogue

References ¹

To my wife, Mary Kay;

my children, John, Elizabeth, and

CC;

and collectors everywhere

Foreword

T hrough this marvelously crafted book, John Burke allows us the opportunity to look inside the mind of a passionate, knowledgeable collector. He masterfully provides excitement in the learning process as he discusses his progression from a curious neophyte collector to a proficient, expert collector in each of his eight collecting domains. He also describes how life changes and serendipitous opportunities enabled him to find and enjoy new collecting challenges.

In this enjoyable and entertaining memoir, John’s collecting tastes move from a basic Boy Scout knife and other simple pocketknives to rare Persian rugs and from a strong interest in historic American clay jugs to fine Asian jade pieces. It is evident from this work and the depth of his described collections that he is at the level of a connoisseur in several of his collecting domains, as described in the chapter On Collections and Collectors. As a collector of antique canes, I have the same sense as John that the art and science of collecting is much more than hunting, finding, and putting the new piece on the shelf with the accumulated others. Learning the history, art, and science of each piece is equally or more thrilling than the find.

John provides us with an excellent role model for an ideal collector as he walks us through the stages of gaining knowledge and experience and masters each of his collecting domains. His prose has the entertaining flow of a novel as opposed to the dry, encyclopedic style found in many books on collections. He treats readers to an enjoyable autobiographical story while they watch this potential new collector try to decide how to collect knives, jugs, rugs, jade, canes, and more.

We collectors wish we would have, like John, spent more time as students, accumulating knowledge in our chosen collections before purchasing many expensive pieces we knew little about. Many seasoned, knowledgeable collectors have made purchase mistakes, but by following the advice and methods described in this book, one can hopefully avoid regrettable purchases.

Though this book is not an in-depth, complete review of each of the eight types of collections described, it is an excellent primer for each. John also provides a generous reference source for each topic, which will allow the reader to find books and articles on a chosen topic in order to gain a more-thorough understanding. However, there is more in the learning process to becoming a knowledgeable collector than just reading text. It is also important, as John describes, to spend time with experts in the field—including seasoned collectors, known experts, and dealers—in order to bring the collector’s understanding to the next level. Developing new, strong friendships, as John did in his collecting journey, proves invaluable and enjoyable.

Never Enough: Confessions of a Capricious Collector also focuses on the importance of small details of collectible items, such as Persian rugs, jade carvings, and African tribal pieces, in differentiating between a valuable, rare antique and a cheap reproduction. It is obvious that John not only read assiduously and spent time and effort with each of his collections but also worked closely with dealers and experts to be able to effectively discern and appraise each piece. Here for the reader, he provides a model pathway for the collector to follow by sharing the art and science of collecting.

Peter Robinson

Senior Director

International Society of Cane Collectors

Introduction

The beginning is the most important part of the work.

—Plato, The Republic

T he year was 1970. I was a twentysomething doctoral student at the Ohio State University. One autumn afternoon, I was discussing thesis topics with my senior adviser, Walter Emery, a distinguished professor of communications and an outstanding researcher and writer. After a while, Professor Emery suddenly changed the topic. I think that I would like to write a polemic, he said. Academic writing gets a little dull. Not knowing the meaning of the word polemic at the time, I simply responded that I agreed. Soon after our conversation, I made a quick exit to the library to look up the word. It referred to a personal argument or a writer who expressed a strong personal opinion about something. I then understood what he was getting at. Dr. Emery was growing tired of just writing scholarly works and research papers.

An anonymous Chinese proverb states, A man should have a child, plant a tree, and write a book. Well, I’ve done all three in my life, including writing a couple of books, but I’ve never written anything that relates to my own life or experience or expresses a personal opinion about anything—until now.

I wrote this book as a personal statement on collecting, focusing primarily on my own collecting and collections. Rather than dispute anyone else’s opinion on collecting, I offer a memoir of my own experience as a collector of antiques and explain my passion for the objects I collect. The book might also serve as a partial catalogue or record of my collecting interest and my collections. It might serve, as Blum suggests, to guarantee the survival of the collection as an ensemble, as organism and as personality (Blum 2003, 215). While I have included a general chapter on collectors and collecting, summarizing some of the research I have done over the years, this book does not pretend to be a scholarly work on antique collecting or any other type of collecting. Also, in the process of writing this book, I realized that it would be best not to try to provide a detailed primer on collecting in the seven specialty chapters relating to my own collecting interests. Trying to do so would result in a book of several hundred pages that few would care to read. Besides, there are excellent and detailed works by many other authors and scholars in these areas, several of which I’ve included in the reference list at the end of this book. I recommend any of these works to anyone with a serious interest in the specialty areas I discuss or, more generally, the world of collecting. In this book, I offer some general comments about what collectors need to learn if they become serious about collecting in any of these specialty areas. Having spent more than fifty years learning and collecting in my own way, I would not presume to suggest to others how to learn or what to collect.

In this book, I have relied primarily on my own memory of experiences and influences that have impacted my life as a collector. I have included anecdotal information throughout the chapters that might provide insight into why or how I became interested in the area and what has sustained my interest over time. A great many people and events have influenced my collecting over the years, and I might not have included everyone; indeed, I might not have recognized all of them myself. I have purposefully avoided acknowledging individuals who have had an impact on my interest in collecting and who possess knowledge of my areas of collecting. It would be impossible to do them justice, and some would prefer to remain anonymous. I have mentioned only a few individuals anecdotally in the text, but I am grateful to all of the collectors, dealers, and friends who have nurtured me, taught me, and, more recently, while I was writing this book, discussed their own personal and professional experiences with collecting.

There have been, of course, societal and mass-media influences in recent decades. Television programs like Antiques Roadshow have had an impact on the world of collecting, but although shows like this are an interesting and often enjoyable development, they have had little appreciable impact on my own collecting. They offer sometimes-useful and entertaining material that enhances the joy of collecting, but such programs must be seen for what they are. The serious collector must obviously go much deeper than what is usually found in mass media.

The proliferation of personal computers and the Internet, however, is a different story and has definitely had an impact on my development as a collector. Used properly, the Internet can be helpful to the serious collector regardless of the area of interest. Several decades ago, when I first began doing basic research on objects in my early collections, the only places I had to turn were libraries, local museums, some bookstores, antique shows and flea markets, and a few focused periodicals. A few specialized societies and collecting clubs existed that I had not yet discovered, but these were often located in large metropolitan areas or, for other reasons, were not accessible to all collectors. As I mentioned, friends with similar interests were also helpful, and dealers were usually willing to share their knowledge, particularly after they got to know me as a collector. All of these are still valuable sources of information and encouragement. But today one has only to access any of a number of good search engines to find a world of information on almost any area of serious collecting. Although I did not mention it in the body of this book, I must acknowledge the Internet.

I have tried to focus this book on the personal aspects of collecting; my own motivations and those of other collectors; and, ultimately, the meaning and satisfaction of collecting. That is more than enough! A topic so vast and deeply complex deserves more than the ramblings of one capricious collector. I hope we will hear from many more in the future.

Finally, I want to note that this book started as a personal project to document my collections and reasons for building those collections so that those who inherit or otherwise acquire them might have a better understanding of the objects and why I collected them. I sincerely hope, however, that others besides my children and their heirs will find some interest in these pages; perhaps identify with my experiences and passion for collecting; and, upon reflection, find even more curiosity and sensitivity with the things they collect.

Chapter 1

THE URGE

Anyway the conclusion is that the man with the acquisitive urge should do more than think about what he is to possess: he should fall in love first, and afterwards understand what it is he loves.

—Lord David Eccles

I t was a mild December in 1955. Christmas was only a couple of weeks away, and everyone was busy with holiday preparations. It was a particularly happy time for our family because I had recently recovered from a serious illness—somewhat miraculously, they said. However it happened, my parents were relieved. I was thirteen years old, on the mend, and getting excited about Christmas. My sister was still looking forward to Santa, but not me. I was a teenager now, and all I could think about was a pocketknife. Actually, it was a brand-new Scout knife on display at the Anderson Newcomb Company department store, in the third-floor boys’ section, in a large case full of what I perceived to be truly wonderful things. The case held all sorts of Scout items, including an assortment of pins, emblems, compasses, notebooks, and, of course, several beautiful Scout knives, some containing what seemed to be an endless number of blades and other gadgets. I marveled at how the makers were able to get so many blades and other little tools inside one small knife. Well, maybe they weren’t that small, one knife being almost an inch wide. But it was amazing to me at age thirteen. I guess it still is.

I had visited the department store several times since Thanksgiving, and I always stared at those Scout knives, trying to decide which one I liked best. Once, a store clerk took a couple of them out of the case so that I could have a closer look. He would not let me open the blades, but he was a pleasant sort and took the time to explain each of the knives in detail. I think he asked how old I was and if I was a Scout. I explained that I was now, having previously been in the Cub Scouts, and that I knew how to handle knives. I had, in fact, been practicing my knife-throwing skills using a small hunting knife with a broken handle that my uncle had given me. It was old and a little rusty, but it was pretty well balanced, and I wasn’t worried about throwing it at things. Actually, I threw it at Mrs. Schweikart’s weeping willow in the back of our house. Mrs. Schweikart was our next-door neighbor, and she called me over one day to explain that I might kill the weeping willow if I kept throwing knives at it. I said that my knife was pretty small and probably wouldn’t hurt it much and then changed the subject