The Passion for Collecting - 1stDibs: Antique and Modern Furniture, Jewelry, Fashion & Art

The Passion
for Collecting

Our search for beautiful things often leads us to discover something about ourselves. To build a collection is to shape your own world — it's a life-long pursuit that intrigues, inspires and fills with joy.

The Passion
for Collecting

Our search for beautiful things often leads us to discover something about ourselves. To build a collection is to shape your own world — it's a life-long pursuit that intrigues, inspires and fills with joy.

Discover ancient artifacts that capture your imagination or modern sculptural pieces that satisfy your design eye

Delft Tulip Vase, ca. 1750

Qing Dynasty
Porcelain Vases, 19th Century

Gilt & Enameled
Imari Charger, ca. 1880

Framed Italian
Majolica Charger, ca. 1880

Wilhelm Kåge
Argenta Vase, 1930s

Meissen Porcelain Cobalt-Blue Krater Pate sur Pate Vase, 1875

Wedgwood Crimson
Jasper Jardinière, ca. 1920

Set of 12 English
Porcelain Plates, ca. 1880

Rookwood Pottery Co.
Pitcher, 20th Century

Piero Fornasetti
Piscibus Hanging Platters, 1955

“My favorite interiors aren’t really decorated — they represent years of assembling.”

— Rodman Primack

Collector of Latin American artwork

Comb through a treasure trove that’s filled with rare delights — from first-edition books to antique maps

Egyptian Polychrome Painted Upper Sarcophagus Lid, 700–100 BCE

Arabian Limestone
Abstract Female Idol, 100 BCE

Wright Brothers' Flyer III Artifacts,
20th Century

Giorgio Vasari First-Edition
of Lives of the Artists, 1568

Victorian Voting Ballot Box, 19th Century

Suffrage Movement Poster, 1915

Oreodont Skull, 35 Million Years Old

Roman Marble Torso, ca. 2nd–3rd Century

Apulian Bell Krater, 350 BCE

Demetrius Poliorcetes Silver Tetradrachm, 289–288 BCE

"The best artists are poetic in the way they remind us of our common humanity and also in the truths they reveal about the society in which we live.”

— Pamela Joyner

Collector of artwork by American artists of African descent

Take an artful approach to personal expression with works by notable names in photography, painting and mixed media

Albrecht Dürer, Der zwoelfjaehrige
Jesus im Tempel
, 1503

Rembrandt van Rijn,
The Pancake Woman, 1635

Roy Lichtenstein,
Reflections on Crash, 1990

Andy Warhol,
Campbell's Soup I: Vegetable, 1968

Kara Walker, Untitled, 1993

After Jean-Michel Basquiat,
Ligaments of the Elbow, 1984

Banksy, FLAG (SILVER), 2006

Jackson Pollock, Untitled, 1944-45

Helen Frankenthaler, Aerie, 2009

"The most impressive collections are those that are shared."

— Lee F. Mindel

Collector of 20th-century Scandinavian furniture

A Conversation on Collecting

with Style Editor Gianluca Longo