Astute Collecting: Ferreting Out the Truly Novel Piece

"Look at me," the large, not-to-be-missed porcelain cried out at the Palace of Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco (Mueller, 2019). And I did. My response was very similar to how I reacted when cats would meow and dogs would bark toward me at an animal shelter. I was drawn in.

The huge porcelain punch bowl that beckoned me was made in China in the 18^th century for an Englishman. On it was a painted inscription, Haeslingfield, the name of a ship the bowl commemorated. It had a curious addition to it; an "e" was added between the "a" and "s" as though it was a superscript. Or, more correctly, apparently, the original spelling of Haeslingfield was faulty, and the Chinese painter inserted the e to rectify the situation. This engaging and unintended error sparked a reaction deep within me—one beyond being impressed with the mass of the bowl itself. What I saw in the correction was unexpected and different. It was unique, unusual—a discovery.

I didn’t know it then, but my novelty center was stimulated. Using sophisticated scientific machinery, special parts of the brain known as the locus coeruleus and ventral tegmental area light up when the unexpected is thrown at it (like this corrected error). It gives our brains a kick, a squirt of dopamine. Indeed, for this reason, I have been looking to repeat the experience ever since by collecting examples of such unusual pieces.

The novelty effect is not unique to collectors

This reaction when collecting is not specific to only collectors. It has also been studied and described in the tourism industry (Skavronskaya et al., 2020), among others. For example, attention to novel intense experiences while traveling leads to ready recall of these encounters. These, in turn, are more likely to be remembered in the long term rather than common, mundane, everyday experiences.

In medicine (Luo et al., 2023), doctors are attracted to novel treatments on the market. This leads to such treatments being selectively reported when they are new and less so when they have been available for a time—thus, a novel.

Why this knowledge is valuable to collectors

The important message here for collectors is that when we see a collectible that is new to us, it stimulates our brain and provides a dopamine surge. Thus, it excites us. Our urge is to possess it, to buy it. That impulse can be dangerous, however, unless we consider factors beyond our first impression.

Is the object new to only us, or is it novel to others in our field as well? A collectible that we consider a fresh find could be such because of our own lack of experience or exposure. Then, it is not such a fabulous discovery, though it has served its purpose, that we learned from it and can put it into our collectible toolbox memory. Another consideration is whether the piece is a fake (Mueller, 2021) made to look authentic but with some alterations that we do not recognize when it is first presented to us.

As the authors of one of the original articles in this field (Bunzeck and Duzel, 2006) so aptly stated: “Novelty stimulates our brains. We are looking for rewards. When we see something new, we don’t know whether it will give us a reward or not, but it interests us until we find out.”