The search took him to a database kept in Holland on airborne units. In the case of a commando uniform, it took him to the soldier’s widow in Omaha, Neb.

World War II war correspondent army uniform

(For more information on a pictured item, click on the image.)

Tracking down those stories is for Hughes as important as obtaining the items. In fact, it is more important. “The items removed from their history just don’t interest me,” he said. “These people sacrificed, and their stories shouldn’t be scattered to the winds.”

While Hughes is an eclectic collector of Americana—from vintage electric guitars and clothing to pottery and furniture—militaria hold a special place. “Every item has a story, for a chair it maybe how it was made, why a particular wood was used,” Hughes said, “but with a piece of militaria, you have a piece of history.”

The material itself can tell tales. American gear was basic, while the German equipment was finely made. “We looked like we were going to change the oil,” Hughes said. “The Germans looked like they were going to march down Main Street. We were very utilitarian. That’s why we won.”

Hughes’ first collectible was a helmet liner he got as a birthday present. As a boy, he donned the liner and stormed the beaches of Normandy in his backyard. Since then, militaria and the stories they hold have been a continuing pursuit for Hughes. In 2000, Chris started Rally Point Militaria online, which is rich in both military collectibles and stories.

1940s U.S. Navy midshipman hat

Sometimes, Hughes is searching for stories that even family members have never heard as in the case of getting the material in the footlocker of World War I machine gunner. The veteran’s son told Hughes his father had only spoken to him once about the war. Hughes’ research was able to fill in details, such as the man being wounded in a gas attack on Nov. 1, 1918. In turn, the family offered details about the man Hughes said he could never get from just picking up items in an auction or military show.

The stories, memorabilia and the Internet are fueling interest in militaria. “This is a growing market, an international market,” Hughes observed. “Right now, I am getting a lot of interest in Vietnam stuff from people in Poland and Japan who don’t really have any link to the war.” Speculation isn’t a good reason to get into the market, Hughes cautioned, but he noted, “Militaria outperforms the S&P index. There are some pieces that appreciate 15 percent a year.”

Vietnam War MK2 Conetta bayonet fighting knife

Korean/Vietnam wars M7 bayonet for M16 rifle

As compelling as the militaria market is, Hughes said, every collectible group has its stories and challenges. “The vintage guitar has everything to do with rock ’n’ roll,” Hughes said. “It says little about innovation because most musicians would agree that older is better for tone and feel.” When it comes to vintage clothes, he said, it “has to do with nostalgia and earlier romanticized times . . . vintage jeans are cooler than new jeans.”

1960s wool cape

Vintage lace dress

Hughes, who is known to friends as “the Treasure Hunter,” is constantly on the lookout for it all and for the stories that come with each collectible. “In a way, it is like a jigsaw puzzle,” Hughes said. “At home, I’ve got a lot of jigsaw puzzles, and I hope I can put in more pieces.”

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1840 Japanese vase

Christopher Kent walked into the “Gray Goose,” a Charleston, S.C., junk shop piled with debris and dust. “There were flea-bitten, 1950s armchairs that should have been given a good burial,” Kent said. “It was the sort of place that makes you want to disinfect yourself when you leave, frankly, just my sort of place.”

But two small panels—no more than 3 inches by 10 inches—hanging on a back wall drew his attention. Kent took them to the rotund proprietor, who said, “Don’t you just love Japanese art?”

After a quick negotiation that brought the price for the pair down to $15 from $25, Kent walked out with two 17th-century Russian triptych panels worth about $1,000.

From the junk shop to international auction houses and major museums, Worthologist Christopher Kent has used that keen eye to spot value in everything from Japanese porcelain to Italian decorative arts and everything in between.

“I am a generalist,” Kent explained. “A generalist has the ability to walk into a room filled with items and be able to say something about every piece. There are really only a handful of people who can do that.”

Walking encyclopedia

How does one become a walking encyclopedia of antiques and fine arts?

For Kent, it started with his grandparents who were both ardent collectors—his paternal grandmother was a textile expert and his grandfather, her husband, a collector of American furniture. “These were serious collectors who would go without dinner or lunch to acquire a piece.” Kent said he inherited both their interest and their collecting “genetic flaw.”

At the age of 6, he started his own collection with an 18th-century Japanese porcelain bowl given to him by a family friend who was in her own right an avid collector. At 11, he made his professional appraisal debut with a collection of 18th-century English porcelain for America’s oldest auction house, Freeman’s in Philadelphia.

And so starting with American furniture, textiles and porcelain, Kent added layer upon layer of period and style to his repertoire. In college, where he studied art history and architectural history, Kent also acquired knowledge of 17th-century Italian furniture and decorative arts.

17th-century Italian armoire

(For more information on the pictured items, click on the images.)

Coming out of college, Kent’s plan had been to do museum curatorial work, only to run into some real-world truths. “I loved the collections, but I hated museum politics,” he said.

Kent continued gathering expertise—from museum collections, auctions and research and by asking questions of dealers and collectors. “You begin to make associations,” Kent explained, “about why this piece is similar to that, and about changes in taste, and what influences dictate trends.”

Museums have sought Kent’s eye and knowledge to help evaluate a broad array of pieces.
Among the institutions he has advised are the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art—both in New York City—the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Textile Museum in Washington, D.C.

17th-century Italian chairs

In the 40 years he has been collecting, much has changed, Kent said, including the definition of an antique. “It used to be anything after 1860 wasn’t an antique, it was Victorian, and that was usually said with distain,” Kent said. “Then it was moved up to 1880 and then completely abolished.”

Art Nouveau, Art Deco and other well-designed and well-crafted styles became targets for serious collectors, and more and more collectors entered the market. “There is a lot of newly minted money, hedge-fund money,” Kent said.

Art Nouveau brooch

1920 Art Deco clown

Americana has gotten carried along on these waves, Kent said.

By the 1990s, a wrought-iron weather vane was selling in the millions, where a few years earlier the price tag would have been several thousand dollars.

1954 Hopalong Cassidy lunch box and thermos

In December 1992, Christie’s set a record for a lunch box with the sale of the Dudley Do-Right box and thermos for $2,200. It had cost $2.25 when it was new in 1962. But the kicker that changed the world, as far as establishing the world of collectibles, was the Matt Wyse sale in 1996 where the Superman lunch box circa 1954 sold for an unprecedented $11,500.

“That just changed the way people viewed the market,” Kent said. Once a major house auctioned something as modest as a school lunch box for big dollars, Kent explained, anything might be a valued collectible. “It was,” he said, “a transforming moment.”

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About once a year, some small circus would make its way to Council Grove, Kan., and when it did a circus-dazzled kid named Larry Kellogg—now WorthPoint’s expert on circus collectibles, antiques and memorabilia—would be there.

As an 8-year-old, Kellogg would go to the gas station and markets asking if he could have the circus posters in windows once the show left town. Every ticket stub, program and flier would get pasted into a scrapbook. Those circus posters papered his bedroom walls.

When, in 1956, Ringling Brothers closed its “Big Top” tent, Kellogg, now a high-school student, was “crushed.” It was, however, around this time that Kellogg said he discovered girls, and his love for the circus took a backseat for a few years.

1934 Kelty photo of circus folk in New Haven

In 1960, Kellogg moved to Florida, and by 1971, he was the promotions manager at WFLA-TV in Tampa/St. Petersburg when the circus came walking into his office—so to speak.

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus was appearing at St. Petersburg’s Bayfront Center Arena, and Kellogg helped promote the show—and thus began a 34-season run in helping to publicize The Greatest Show on Earth.

And how does one publicize the circus? Consider the Elephant Santa. One year, the circus arrived at Christmastime—a difficult moment for the show to get the cover of the local newspaper’s weekend entertainment magazine. “But the editor,” Kellogg recounts, “said, ‘If you can get me a picture of an elephant in a Santa hat, I’ll put it on the cover.’”

Larry Kellogg with his pal, Santa Elephant

Santa Elephant makes the cover

A quick order to the circus costume-and-prop department, and Kellogg had an elephant-size Santa’s hat and the magazine cover. Great publicity!

Some of the earliest items he collected were books about the circus, which Kellogg says is a good place for anyone interested in starting a circus collection. Read what Larry has to say about circus books. http://www.worthpoint.com/blog-entry/circus-books-building-solid-foundation-collecting

Ringling's Rough Riders photographed by Edward Kelty

Among the most sought-after items, Kellogg says, are circus posters, which draw a market of both collectors and people seeking to use the posters for decoration. Still, even today posters from the 1920s and 1930s and early 1940s can be bought for $50 to $200. “The problem is reproductions,” Kellogg advises. “Buying a poster without seeking it is risky.” Click here to learn more about posters.

Another popular market is circus photographs. “These are highly prized and can run from $200 to several $1,000,” Kellogg says. For example, large, 12-by-20 inch photos by Edward Kelty from the 1920s to the early 1940s can fetch as much as $7,000.

Everyone loves a circus clown

Sideshow-freak pictures are also in high demand, with price tags reaching hundreds of dollars. “There are freak collectors and well as circus collectors, so that’s what you are seeing in that market,” Kellogg says.

But there are lots and lots of things to collect from a circus. Kellogg’s collection includes thousands of printed items but also gear—from a sunburst circus wheel to an elephant harness.

Sunburst circus wheel

Among the collectibles Kellogg said he finds most fascinating are the marketing, advertising and business records. There are items, such as route books that recorded the travels and financial accounts. For more on route books, click here.

There were circus “couriers”—magazines that were distributed in advance of the show coming to town and handbills and business forms and even canceled checks. A bundle turned up recently signed by some of the five Ringling brothers from 1912 to 1917.

“This gives you the story not only of the circus, but the business that was the circus,” Kellogg says.

Since Ringling Bros. struck its Big Top more than 50 years ago, generations have grown up without experiencing the smell of sawdust and canvas. “I don’t know if young people really have the same romance with the circus we did,” Kellogg says.

Under the Big Top photo by Edward Kelty

And where are those scrapbooks and posters from Kellogg’s youth? “I don’t know what happened to them,” he said. “I sure wish I had them.”

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