For long-time antique lover Melinda Richter, the value of an object comes not in its price tag but in the story it tells.
“We live in a society where we have a lot of stuff, but it all has such meaning,” she says. “When someone’s in a moment of transition — looking to do something with all those items they’ve grown attached to and talking about items when they’re trying to find new homes for them — you really have to be gentle with people.”
Being gentle with clients and their objects is exactly what Richter does through her Peterborough-based business Curated. Offering personalized collection management services, Curated does online valuations and appraisal reports, arranges sales and donations, and hosts online consignment auctions.
“It’s really about getting to know the problem that the client is dealing with if they have stuff they don’t know what to do with, and then working with them to honour the collection and do the appropriate thing,” says Richter.
With her education in museum management and curatorship from Fleming College, Richter founded Curated as a boutique in Peterborough which was “everything I ever wanted it to be” — a place where she could sell artwork and antiques and host performances and workshops.
In 2017, Richter moved the business into her home and re-focused it to be more “service based.” There, clients can bring their individual items or collections for Richter to give insight on its worth — a task she says isn’t always easy but is certainly satisfying.
“It comes with experience of just looking at a whole bunch of different objects from all sorts of different places and time periods, and you really just start building up a database in your own brain,” she says.
With art as her largest passion (as evident through both her music and her soap-making business, Meowlinda, a vendor of the Peterborough Regional Farmers’ Market), she will spend hours staring at a signature at the bottom of a piece until she cracks the code.
“That’s the most satisfying thing — when you finally figure out what the signature says, and you can identify the artist,” she says. “I love when that happens, and I don’t care how long it takes me. I could spend days staring at a signature.”
Online valuations can be done by sending Richter photos of an object. While the process can differ depending on the object, Richter explains that most often, valuations and appraisals begin by evaluating the object and making notes on a variety of factors like markings, labels, materials, and condition.
“There are certain things that ceramics do when they’re old enough that can give an idea of age, and paintings have a bit of crackly varnish so that gives you an idea that it’s been around a while,” she says as an example. “It’s little clues about what the object is telling me about its life and its story. Everything has a bit of a story — you just have to dissect it.”
From there, using auction databases and other resources, she can make an assessment based on how much similar items have sold for in a recent marketplace. When it comes to appraisals, the goal is to have a least three comparable samples.
“There’s often the adage that something is worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it,” Richter says.
Appraisal services may be needed when a person is sorting through items, either their own or those of a relative who has passed away.
Richter often works with and recommends Caitlin Smith, founder of ReCreate Space. As a professional organizer, Smith will help a client declutter a space or home so Richter can spend time sitting with the individual objects themselves.
“There’s often a two-step process there, especially when you’re dealing with a whole house full of stuff,” Richter says. “People might be in the midst of cleaning and decluttering while you’re doing that valuation process, so it’s really helpful to have someone who can go in and do that organization before I get there.”
For those who do end up selling, the monthly multi-consigner auctions allow clients to keep track of their beloved antiques, ensuring they are going to a good home.
“It gives all the objects equal weight or treatment, so you might have a $2,000 painting next to a $30 lamp, but they’re both treated with the same reverence, and it really shows that these objects are going to be valuable to whoever wants them,” Richter says, noting that the fun is also in the clients getting to watch their items get bid on. “It’s a really nice way for people to know that these objects are finding new places.”
As for the current resale market, while Richter hasn’t noticed a huge impact with rising living costs — at least not yet anyway — she does suggest the “middle-ground” market has dropped due to a lack of disposable income and the trend towards minimalistic lifestyles, driving people towards smaller and portable objects.
She, however, will always be a lover of vintage.
“Often older items are really well-made, especially with wood — there’s just some beautiful old wood that doesn’t even exist anymore,” Richter says. “I just think that older items have a lot of character to them. They weren’t necessarily mass-produced, so you can find really unique stuff, like hand-painted, handmade items. If you’re interested in having something unique in your life or something that probably has an incredible story behind it, you can find it in something older.”
“I’ve always been interested in making sure that I’m not over-consuming as well,” she adds. “If this object already exists, I don’t need to go out and buy a new one.”
Curated’s online-only May consignment auction opened Sunday (May 19) and continues until Tuesday, May 28th, with 200 items available for bidding.
For shoppers who prefer to see their purchases in person rather than shopping online, Richter also has a regular booth at Peterborough’s multi-vendor antique barn, Nostalgic Journey.
“There are all different kinds of shoppers, so it’s nice to have a bit of both,” she says. “Sometimes if I see a piece and I know it’s going to be hard to communicate it online, then I’ll try it in the booth first, just to see if someone will buy it there.”
Whether an item sells or not, Richter is above all hopeful she can help bring a bit of problem solving when it comes to managing a collection of products.
“I’m often seeing people in a moment where they’re vulnerable or maybe something has happened, or they just have the challenge of dealing with a collection of things they don’t want, and they’re feeling overwhelmed, and I really love being able to take some of that stress off their plates,” Richter says.
“I feel incredibly honoured that people share their stories and their collections with me.”
Visit curated-peterborough.ca for more information on Curated’s services and to access the monthly online auctions.
