Abiding passion for history, provenance and exceptional beauty

The cast of “Pawn Stars”

For some TV seasons now, we’ve been watching “Pawn Stars” on the History channel.

The show is uniquely viewable, because it is set in a family-run pawnshop in Las Vegas that attracts a regular clientele of people who seek to sell antiques and old oddities that have been in their families for generations.

Collectors also make a beeline for the pawnshop’s treasures or doodads, and are prepared to pay accordingly—just $10 for an old electoral campaign button, or $100,000 for a vintage car that still runs and looks like a million bucks!

On one hand, it’s all about bragging rights, being the only collector in town or in the world to possess a rare object actually owned by a top or most controversial celebrity or historical figure (with papers to prove claim).

On the other hand, a few collectors with impressively deep and commodious pockets pay thousands or even millions for an old or exceptionally beautiful object—just because they value history, provenance and exceptional beauty.

These are the collectors who can feelingly declare, “Money is no object” and people believe them implicitly, because it’s obvious that they’re speaking from the heart, rather than from a savvy investor’s perspective.

What makes “Pawn Stars” personally involving and fun to watch is the fact that its resident family of pawnshop keepers is made up of three generations—owner Richard, son Rick and grandson Corey—and they keep disagreeing about the right price for any object that sellers offer up for their perusal and evaluation.

Quite often, the shopkeepers bring in resource persons who are experts in particular areas, and this is when viewers learn the most from the show.

Based on their wise and very educated counsel, viewers are also better able to appraise the value of the antiques they have in their own collections, or just lying around in a clueless corner, just waiting to be dusted off—and sold for a good price!

Another show on History, “The Pickers,” presents a different but related view of the antique-collecting syndrome.

It follows expert “antique scouts,” Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz, as they scour the hinterlands’ old barns and homes for the treasures or detritus of the years, or centuries.

“The Pickers” has a unique charm and appeal all its own, because its forays into the sometimes-forgotten past are actually encounters, not just with objects, but with the old people who own them.

Sometimes, the original owners have already passed on, but it’s instructive and inspiring to note that their children and grandchildren are often full of love and appreciation for the past.

Just like the pawnshop family, these collector-sellers make us confident that the urge to keep and value objects emblematic of the past will, like the prized objects and lifestyles themselves, never lose heart and passion, and fade away.