For some time, the common image of antique collectors was overwhelmingly feminine, the kind of person who collected old furniture, glassware, china, and jewelry. But that was just the popular image. There have always been men who appreciate the quality of things made long ago. However, men tend to collect more varied objects, such as gadgets, military memorabilia, tools, toys, and things that are hard to classify. A new word sprang up to describe these antiques: “Mantiques.” Collectors Weekly talked to Eric Bradley, author of Mantiques: A Manly Guide to Cool Stuff, about the new crop of male collectors.
Collectors Weekly: Do mantiques collectors skew younger than regular collectors?
Bradley: I think so. An older generation took the approach that if you were going to start collecting, you itemized what you needed to acquire and then set about acquiring each piece to accumulate the whole set. Today’s mantiques collectors are a lot more laid back than that. They’re not so interested in being completists. Instead, they’re surrounding themselves with interesting things. Some of them are collecting strictly for décor and searching for objects that just look neat. Maybe you have a collection of three vintage typewriters, but you’re not going to necessarily fill your basement or try to obtain every typewriter that was ever made in Germany. But those typewriters look really cool on a shelf in your living room.
Read the rest of the interview, learn about some of the cool things that people collect, and see a gallery of awesome pictures from Bradley’s book at Collectors Weekly.