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Making method in their menageries

Whether it's old toys, fountain pens or seashells, don't keep your collection in a closet or under the bed. But choosing how to display them is an art.

By ELIZABETH BETTENDORF
Published April 21, 2006

"Sunday dinner meant fresh roses, linen, silver, and afterward, hymns at the piano with my grandfather," said Apthorp, whose family lived in the Lake Thonotosassa area and on Davis Islands. "It took a lot of work and wouldn't be possible today, but those meals were so enjoyable. I will remember them for the rest of my life."

Apthorp, an interior decorator who collects antique musical instruments and just about everything else, displays her collections throughout the house. The silver, including precious Orange Blossom flatware, is relegated to the room where it might "historically have been used in the past.''

That means the dining room, where she spreads out her prized pieces with casual grace: a beautiful orchid in her grandfather's old silver horse show bowl, baby utensils on an antique high chair.

"As if people were really about to sit down and eat," she explained.

Displaying cherished collections is an art form, one that design experts like Apthorp just get intuitively.

But for the rest of us, it's not so easy. Many collections - old toys, fountain pens, Depression glass, miniature sailboats - take a lifetime to acquire.

Amassing alike objects is one thing. Bringing them to life in a home, whether in glass cabinets or on built-in shelving, is another.

"I would say you have to edit, pick and choose what you bring out so that you don't clutter up the space and you appreciate what you have," said Karen Brown, a Tampa Bay interior designer whose clients collect everything from bottles to family photos to pillboxes. "You want a nice composition, and for things to relate to each other. Put the rest in closets or get rid of it.

"Otherwise, dusting is a nightmare."

Brown has collected unusual artwork during her travels, including watercolors and oils that reflect the places she's visited. The framed pictures cover the entire wall of her stairwell in "a random arrangement."

An antique postcard collection she acquired in bulk now wallpapers her bathroom, with the more cherished objects in the foreground.

"Now I see them much more frequently than if I had left them in boxes," she said.

In House Beautiful's Collections on Display, a book devoted to decorating with favorite objects, author Elaine Louie offers tips on creating drama with treasured objects. Collections, she said, can be displayed on walls, tabletops, mantelpieces, shelves, cabinets, even in drawers.

She recommends arranging focal points, particularly when displaying collections on tabletops, and creating a "strand of connective tissue," a relationship between collectibles arranged on a tabletop or mantel, for example.

Among her tips:

-- Isolate what's in the center and point out the levels of importance. What's highest, biggest and most fascinating is clearly the most important and goes in the center.

-- When you have lots of little things, keep them at a low angle or on a low table.

-- As you group the objects, consider height, rhythm, variation and silhouettes.

-- Think of a physical landscape with mountains and valleys. Put the flattest, smallest pieces on the perimeter. These are the supporting pieces to the central objects.

-- Natural items such as stones, seashells and fossils are obvious collectibles and are gathered by children and adults. One way to display them on a table is to center the display with a shell-framed mirror, a piece of art made of shells, or a gigantic seashell.

At the Henry B. Plant Museum in Tampa, curators are constantly finding new and creative ways to display historic collectibles.

Right now, the big draw is a show of souvenirs and related objects from the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. The museum also houses permanent collections of ephemera and items from Plant's railway, hotel and steamship empire, as well as beautiful collections of things that might have once been displayed in the hotel, including a Chinese display cabinet arranged with Wedgwood vases.

Sally Schifke, museum spokeswoman, recommended that collectors shake things up a bit when displaying beloved treasures.

"How many times can you look at the same thing?'' she asked. "If you collect spoons, add something like an old pen and pencil set to create more visual interest and variety."

Schifke is also a fan of the "less is more" school of display.

"When you have a lot of something and it's all crammed together in one spot, you don't see it," she said. "It's much more efficient to take a collection and rotate it."

Apthorp has stopped acquiring items for her collections because she's run out of space, even though she does give things to her grown daughter. Still, she said, having your prized collections around you makes life interesting "and brings history so close I can sometimes feel it."

She displays her antique musical instruments around the dining room to create a feeling that it's possible to break into song once the last plate has been cleared. She uses all her silver, including her egg coddlers, which are festooned with birds. Her 1905 Orange Blossom silver is a regular staple at dinner parties.

"You can spread a collection out or keep it all together for the most impact," she said. "If you collect trillions of matchbooks, say, you may want to pull the most beautiful one out and display it solo."

As for all the good wedding silver you were hoarding, stop waiting for company or a holiday to bring out the best. Create a collection with what you already have by dusting it off and incorporating it into everyday entertaining.

"Use your stuff and live!" Apthorp said. "It's so much more fun that way."

[Last modified April 20, 2006, 08:20:11]