They are the kind of people who watch “Antiques Roadshow” to wind down.
They scour auction houses, estate sales and antiques malls as if it were a sport. They can tell you exactly what decade their antique chair is from and what it’s probably worth. But it is the observing — not the buying — that connects them.
Naomi Sosnovsky, 33, yearned for a community of antiques obsessives like herself but found that many organizations “don’t want young people involved, and there’s this barrier,” she said, noting she found it challenging to find guidance as a novice. But then she found the Fine Objects Society, which was, Sosnovsky said, “welcoming and designed to nurture that next generation.”
Founded in October 2024 by Ben L. Miller, the Fine Objects Society is a members-only association based in New York that organizes talks, meet-ups, overnight field trips and tours for lovers of historical objects. In the year since its formation, the group has grown to approximately 200 members — each paying $120 in annual fees — through word of mouth; satellite chapters are in the works.
Though working in the profession is not a requirement to join the society, most members work in proximity to the antiques field. The group includes museum workers, antique dealers, interior designers, scholars and even an archaeologist. “We’re trying to pitch a bigger tent,” said Miller, 37, who himself is an antiques dealer and the host of “Curious Objects,” a podcast from The Magazine Antiques.
For its debut last fall, Fine Objects Society hosted a “Please Touch” exhibit, taking an unbuttoned-up approach. “Tactility is an indispensable experience of the decorative arts,” Miller said. “It’s one thing to see an object through museum glass, it’s another to be able to turn it over and hold it.”
While most of the programs are based in New York City, the group celebrated its first birthday with an upstate retreat at an estate in Germantown, New York, that included visits from curators and casual “fireside chats” in the living room with a makeshift projector. Other events have included visits to historical homes and a trip to the Delaware Antiques Show.
Besides networking opportunities and educational workshops, the group offers “entry to doors otherwise locked away to the public,” such as previews of auction lots before they are live or access to private spaces, said Brenton Grom, 41, the treasurer.
While recruiting younger members is not the sole mission of Fine Objects Society, its presence has injected new life into the field. Sosnovsky and collaborators plan to debut the complementary Young Antique Dealers Association in January with a fair showcasing up-and-coming sellers of decorative home objects.
The Fine Objects Society’s youngest member is Kaveh Bahar, a 17-year-old high school senior. Kaveh was always fascinated by antiques, but it wasn’t until the COVID pandemic, when he spent hours on online auction sites, that he became enraptured.
“It was a way for me to feel less sad and isolated at the time,” he said. “I sought out the most inexpensive and overlooked stuff,” including a 19th-century partners desk he bought for around $10.
Bahar had tried to start an art history club at his school, but there wasn’t enough interest: “I wanted to make a space for myself,” he said. So he searched outside, wandering into galleries to absorb all he could. One gallery director pointed him to Miller.
The Fine Objects Society has enabled Kaveh to envision a professional future. In particular, he has a growing collection of funerary objects, including a Victorian mourning bodice he found at an antiques mall for $20. “Whenever I would go to an estate sale, I always thought about death because it’s a big part of old objects,” he said. “It’s a magical way to think about what the person’s life was like: the attachments and memories.”
Rachel Gould, 34, another society member, runs the Instagram account the Art Tourist, where she posts videos on subjects like the history of the snuff box.
“Social media has definitely brought about a revival of these objects and a renewed interest in old-world craftsmanship,” said Gould, who is a Metropolitan Museum of Art gift shop copywriter. A key part of keeping history alive is storytelling in relevant formats.
Grom, who is also the executive director of the Webb Deane Stevens Museum in Wethersfield, Connecticut, offered the demolition of the White House’s East Wing as an example of why not to take objects for granted and why groups like the Fine Objects Society might resonate right now. Club members mention a renewed urgency to study and appreciate historical objects in a world that far too often prefers newness and speed over craftsmanship.
“I grew up in an age of millennial minimalism that never really spoke to me,” Gould said. “It’s nice to have a community of nerds who appreciate beauty and craftsmanship. It’s heartwarming to see that this niche is not as niche as it seems.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.