Collection Mania

Text and Photos by Maurice de Soissons

Europe’s antiques street markets are where bargains can still be found.

         In all European countries, the past 20 years have seen a huge increase in street markets offering antiques, bric-a-brac, and a wide range of decorative goods such as paintings, engravings, china and brassware. In among the stalls are those selling junk, too, and sometimes barely disguised modern reproductions of popular antique pieces. Today the collector is almost overwhelmed at these markets with too much to look at, too much to take in, and by the crowds which often cram the space between stalls. But all this, in the end, contributes to the excitement and interest, both for collectors and for the many who come to wander through the markets enjoying the animation, and the often larger-than-life dealers, and watch the haggling—almost invariably conducted at a gentlemanly pace, without raised voices—which is the usual way to proceed.

ania for collecting has sometimes been likened to the primitive urges of the hunter-gatherer, before settled farming diminished his usefulness to family and community. Certainly the quest is there, and the search and the hunt. Nowadays the collector goes far beyond the mere decoration of his home. Often whole rooms, perhaps several rooms, are devoted to a collection and even to entire dwellings, with, for instance, teapots, toy soldiers, model railways, or silverware.
          Markets have been with mankind since the dawn of time, no doubt. And centuries ago, mixed with the vegetables, fruit, meat, cheese and fish, were the occasional stalls selling clothing, furniture, tools, pots and pans, and other utilitarian domestic goods. But only with relative affluence for a far greater proportion of a population in the last 50 years, have the antiques street markets of Europe grown to their present-day size and attraction.
          They do not appear to detract from the antiques shops, and indeed many stalls are run by dealers with their own shops, often close by the market. The old commercial adage that similar shops should be close together so that a prospective customer can have the best of choices, seems to be put into practice with the juxtaposition of market stall and shop. Yet many of the stall holders are those peripatetic traders who move from one market to another, who buy at auctions and at house sales. They often trade stock early in the day with their neighboring dealers before the main wave of collectors descends on the stalls.

uite often these antique markets are part of bigger markets where more general domestic requirements are on display. The sellers of perishable products needing to be sold immediately and consumed within a few days, are almost always loud in their praises of their  peaches or cabbages, especially as the time for the close of the market draws near. The antiques dealers are a different breed. Their wares will not deteriorate and will just have to be packed up and taken away to the stall holder’s shop or be stored ready for the next market.
          Having enough money and time to indulge in collecting has produced increasing numbers of private people with special, fairly narrow areas of expertise. These may be in old prints or Chinese porcelain, in 19^th-century jewelry or pewterware, in model cars or old cameras. It is largely these people, as well as the dealers going the rounds of the stalls, who with their particular knowledge are always hoping for a bargain. Hoping to find an item which has not been recognized for what it is and for which the asking price is a fraction of its true value. And sometimes bargains really are found. The stories abound—of a “costume” brooch of supposed colored glass turning out to be garnets and diamonds after careful cleaning, of a painting left to molder in an attic, brought out for sale on a “junk” stall, being by a well-known 16^th-century Italian painter. Sometimes the stories are less dramatic as to price differential, but usually the modest outlay turns into a substantial gain. So, buoyed by these stories, collectors go on searching and hoping.

aris, Rome, Madrid and many provincial cities in Europe have antiques street markets to gladden the hearts and sharpen the wits of collectors, and afford entertainment to the many people who come just as onlookers to wander among the stalls and watch the action of dealing in a huge variety of wares. Belgium’s capital, Brussels, has two renowned markets, the one that takes place on Saturdays and Sundays, the other on every day of the week. They are very different in atmosphere, and in the content and quality of the wares on offer.
         The antiques market of the Sablon is the up-market venue for Saturdays and Sundays. This takes place in the Place du Grand Sablon, quite close to the Place Royale, the great art museums and the imposing Palais de Justice. The Sablon claims to be the oldest antiques market in Europe, and many of its stalls are run by independent dealers without antiques shops, although the Sablon area has dozens of these,  including a “hypermarket” with permanent stalls or small shops. There are numbers of shops specializing in Art Noveau objets d’art for which Brussels is famous.
          The Sablon market has the advantage of not being too large and therefore not overwhelming in choice. Dealers in books, oil paintings, watercolors, and prints, in French porcelain, pottery and silverware offer a good balance of articles at a range of prices from the modest to the expensive. Rugs, brassware, lamps, bric-a-brac of many different qualities and themes are to be found there. The stalls are all well covered so that inclement weather is not too much of a bother.