Attic Treasures, Part I

By James C. Johnston Jr.

The nature of what constitutes treasure seems to be ever changing. With me, the “Aesthetic Factor” plays a big part in what constitutes a treasure. What appeals to my eye is very important, but as the old Anglo-American idiom goes, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, and that is what aesthetics is all about after all. What may be beautiful to some may be ugly to others. I see beauty everywhere in craftsmanship which exists in great art and in the simple functioning beauty of a turned wooden bowl or a postage stamp used to some exotic destination during the period of the winning of the Great American West.

A consistently American and I might add “Human Factor”, is, was, and will always be, the economic consideration of, “What’s it worth, and, “How much can I get for it?” Beauty may very well be in the eye of the buyer and seller and his client’s cash reserves. This is the ugly side of collecting. Really dedicated art and antique collectors do far more than wanting to know the monetary value of everything and the artistic value of nothing. As an appraiser, as well as a collector, I must consider the question of value from all sides and also be aware of changing market trends.

Few people know the answer to what constitutes value with the exception of a very few people, like myself, who have made a life-time study of: art, antiques, stamps, coins, rare books, paper, and the greater world of tens of thousands of rare and exotic items. If one is a professional historian, researcher, and scholar captivated by the mystique of all things interesting, and basically has a deep and wide range of knowledge of all things good, and the ability to access information, because of the possession of that wide and deep knowledge base, one has a great advantage in movement around the tricky geography of the world of antiques and fine art. And it is most important to have the knowledge necessary for the placing those objects into their proper historical context, which is other-wise called provenance, when a line of actual historical ownership can be established. This all influences value both historic and monetary.

I love learning, and I have been learning about the hundreds of thousands of artifacts which have populated my world with purpose and enthusiasm for three quarters of a century since 1948, and maybe even a little bit before that date. I am blessed, so far into my 80th year, with unfailing memory, and I was born and brought-up in an old house dating back to The French and Indian War period and in which I am fortunate to still live. As a historical note, The French and Indian War was, in fact, the first world-wide conflict and is properly called by historians today, The War for Empire.

It took place, officially between 1756 and 1763, between Great Britain and her allies and France and her allies. This war engulfed almost all of Europe, and it involved: British, French, Spanish, and Portuguese colonies in Asia, Africa, and South America, and on all the oceans and seas of the world where the ships of these warring nations were involved in some aspect of trade and where these warring nations would meet in economic competition and conflict.

This war had a bit of a head start in the Ohio Valley between the colonial interests of Great Britain and France which brought fame to a young Virginian by the name of George Washington. In point of fact, however, this war was virtually World War I.

As a dedicated student of philately, or stamp collecting, and as a social and political historian, I can tell you that by the provisions of The Treaty of Paris of 1763, all of French North America was given over to Great Britain except for the islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon. I believe that I once held the largest collection of Saint Pierre and Miquelon Stamps in all of the Greater Franklin area. That collection consisted of deluxe sheets, which had printings of only 150 specimens, and proofs, both conventional and progressive die proofs which were much rarer, not to mention covers and single issues of every stamp ever issued for those two islands by the French postal authorities going back to the earlier days of the Third French Republic. This collection included a substantial portion of the French Colonial Stamp Collection once owned by actor Yul Brynner.

The collection took up many blank custom albums, but unless one had a deep and abiding interest in French, North American, or colonial philately, these books of rare stamps might have had no value. But to those who knew the significance of what they were looking at, this was a collection of both great beauty and value. A strong desire to own certain things is what establishes the cash value of all aspects of antiques, fine arts, and collectibles.

James C. Johnston Jr. is a former Franklin selectman, Franklin High School history teacher, and author of "The African Son," a novel , as well as "The Yankee Fleet" and "Odyssey in the Wilderness," (a history of Franklin, Massachusetts). Article copyright James C. Johnston, Jr. 2023, used with permission.