Religion - What's It Filed Under?

It is amazing how many collectors will walk up to a dealer and ask for religion as if it were some type of generic catchall. Most dealers file Shaker separately and Popes (there are some wonderful cards done by Sborgi in high art Nouveau with glorious colors. A very large set, difficult to complete and very collectible and still not fetching the prices it should separately). Then of course, there is a section for Salvation Army, Spiritualists, and Lord’s prayer, etc. So being specific is rather important. Somehow, even angels, are subject to
discrimination.  “Oh that is a catholic angel or a Protestant angel” and here I was thinking that angels were angels and were not affiliated to any denomination. The ending on the Lord’s prayer is a give-away and that is one of those sets that was printed by different publishers and even in different languages. PFB Paul Finkenrath a Berlin publisher did one of the more ornate highly embossed sets but the others have their appeal too. This is a topic that one often sees framed. Another is the “Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep” set which is great for a child’s room. The subject of religion has appeared so frequently on postcards and is rather varied and should not be considered a catchall unless a dealers stock is very
small. The House of David, Bahi, Druids, etc. usually have very small sections but what about Muezzins calling, Mosques, or Moslems praying? Also, if one is supposed to break down everything what do we do with Easter and Christmas cards? If they show the Holy Family are they filed under Jewish, Essence, or a particular Christian denomination?
This has all become very complex of late and I am inclined to feel that all Easter should be filed together, all Christmas is to be filed together. Judaica is pro and anti Jewish sentiments while Holy land is Holy land, Christian and Moslem mixed together, with the Jewish parts filed under Judaica and Bahi under it’s own section. Then there are the
Buddhist and Hindu sections, which are often filed in the country of origin rather that religion.

To complicate things even more, there are those who collect churches who feel the edifices themselves should be broken down by denomination to cut down their individual viewing time. While it is important to make accessing categories easy for collectors, a dealer can
err on making too many categories as well as too little. Then again there are those who don’t want to look, they just want everything set up specifically for their particular area of interest.

“You mean that there isn’t a category for Rockefeller-looking wedding parties? I have to
look through the entire section of brides” or “I only want real photos of cowboys that won cattle roping contests at the rodeos and don’t want to look at other cowboys” or “I can’t look at Christmas cards as I only want Christmas trees that show an angel topper”.
Those who are so specific and want the dealer to do all the work for them often find
themselves going show after show without finding anything. After the first few times a dealer will be less than helpful when they recognize the person and say, “Sorry I don't have anything for you.” Especially at a busy show a dealer can’t drop everyone else and help go through boxes for the penultimate in esoteric.

One dealer at a slow show decided to see how far one customer would go looking through State Views for “non-public impressive large edifices”. 56 boxes later he had found three cards (one was damaged and marked no charge) totaling $7.00. If the show were busy, this man would have taken up room so that serious collectors couldn’t sit down to look, not to mention the dealer’s valuable time. The fact that for four hours the dealer had been
taken up with waiting on him was unimportant to someone with time on their hands. Why don’t those who are bored put in sorting, filing and sleeving time that every postcard, stereo view, ephemera and trade card dealer is desperate for?

So again I’ve digressed from my original topic. Be charitable, it’s the holidays, bear with me. Everyone starts off as a beginning collector, and some advance to collector extrodinaire. They get that way by spending time looking for the items they want and expanding into categories that just might have a related item in it. For example some
one looking for Polar Exploration would look in sled dogs or dogs, or polar bears, or famous people (for Perry or Cook), or whaling, or the arctic, or snow babies. The better the collector knows their category the easier it is for them to cover all Poles (pardon the pun). Every dealer files differently, they know their stock so tell them what you are looking for and they will be able to help you find what you are looking for. Don’t be like the couple that went through fifteen albums of ephemera and then told the dealer they wanted Borden’s which the dealer filed under cows not in the ephemera albums. Some people have
problems with the ephemera word. F. M. ERR AH.

As for the esoteric collector that can’t be bothered to look and even worse, those who handle paper like they were paying their monthly bills, they are finding themselves unwelcome at many a show. Those who know what they want, are not afraid to ask where they might find an item, and don’t mind looking seem to be finding dealers going out of
their way to be helpful. As for Angels, most people are gratefully more concerned with their artistic execution than which church or temple they might hover over.

Most of you that regularly read this column know that there must be a punch line here. Regardless of what holiday you celebrate, The Englishman and I want to wish a very happy holiday and end of 1999. We will toast you all on Armenian Christmas Jan 6th and hope that the year 2000 is full of health, wisdom, prosperity, comfort, and contentment, and may your oil bills go down this winter instead of up where they have been pushed recently. Blessings Pamela HQ

About the Author: Pamela Apkarian-Russell has an antique shop specializing in postcards, ephemera and holiday items, and is always interested in purchasing items for her shop on Route 10 in Winchester, NH or for her private collection. An author of 4 (going on 5) books, and publisher of the Trick or Treat Trader, she writes for magazines/newspapers internationally. Email: halloweenqueen@ cheshire.net or call 603-239-8875.