Whether we’re collectors or dealers, most of us will come across items for possible acquisition that we haven’t seen before and about which we may know little or nothing beyond a gut intuition that it’s something worth having. If we’re wise, we’ll try to find out what it is before we try to sell it.
Pricing it right and moving it out may well depend on what we can tell potential buyers about it. This, of course, begs the question of where to look for information. Our first instinct nowadays is to look for information on the Internet, AKA “the Web.”

They don’t call it the Web for nothing

Just as a spider spins its web the better to catch its unwary prey, so, too, can the unwary researcher be trapped by widespread misinformation on the Web. Especially when it comes to antiques and collectibles, websites often cannibalize from other websites that have in turn plagiarized from someone else. It would be fairly easy for an unwary dealer to get trapped in that web of hearsay and conjecture passed off as solid information – especially when what it weaves is a compelling fantasy about the value of an item. Internet auction descriptions are famous for this kind of cannibalism.

One problem with the website as an information source is that the author is often not identified. Consequently, there’s no way to judge the qualifications or credentials of whoever wrote the information except by inference from the reputation and reliability of whomever or whatever business or organization owns the website itself.

A helpful way of vetting for items you’re trying to identify is to do an image search on Google. There’s an “image” search option right there in the upper right corner of the opening search page. Clicking on any of the loaded images will bring up a link to the page of origin. Images from such a search are linked to a variety of sites, including but not limited to eBay. Checking out a few of these can usually lead to a set of rudimentary and sometimes conflicting facts that can then be used to filter further web search or lead one to look for print resources for more reliable information.

Print resources less tangled than the Web

We’re in an era where people think everything worth knowing can be found online. But books on antiques and collectibles by authors who are experts in their field are usually a better bet for reliability (some more than others). Unfortunately, many collector books went out of style and out of print as the Web took up more and more of the information space.

Even when books are out of print, you can often find copies in antique malls. Generally, books on specific topics are a better buy for information than the many generic antiques and collectibles guides that tried to touch on everything without covering much of anything. Most authors specialize in specific types of antiques and collectibles. Some (though not all) of the most reliable authors by collecting type include James Measell or Kenneth and Margaret Whitymer (glass), Gene Florence (American pottery), William A. Turnbaugh (Native American basketry), Henry Kauffman or David G. Smith (cast and wrought ironware such as Griswold and Wagner), and Nancy Schiffer or Sandra Andacht (Asian antiques). Books on maker marks are also indispensable, including (as just a couple of examples) the two books on pottery and porcelain marks by Ralph and Terry Kovel and Louis Lehner’s encyclopedia-sized book U.S. Marks on Pottery, Porcelain, and Clay.

Whatever your collecting passion, there’s probably a book about it. Note that the least reliable information in books is the price quote. Some of these books were published in the 1980s and ‘90s, and that doesn’t mean the quoted prices hold today. For collectors and dealers alike, there’s no substitute for reliable research, so do your homework!