Dear Lee,

Collectors are special historians who focus on a time or industry or “look.” We study, search and buy the best to be found that’s affordable. Ralph and I started with 18th-century blue and white English and Chinese porcelain lamps and ashtrays. They could be found at bargain prices at house sales and rummage sales. (Trying to identify the makers led to our first book, Kovels’ Dictionary of Marks.)

Soon we were hunting for furnishings for our house. We started with Chippendale dining room chairs and art pottery (although nobody called it that yet). “Antiques” had to be more than 100 years old and most museums and arts magazines were very snooty about what was of value. Quilts, Currier & Ives prints, Staffordshire figurines, and Art Deco and Art Nouveau anything were not old enough or artistic enough to earn space in a museum or an important collection. Mission pieces were too ugly to even be considered.

But times and tastes changed, and we covered the changes as they happened. Instead of early Meissen, it was Eva Zeisel dishes collectors wanted. Instead of Chippendale chairs, it was Eames. A few “fads,” like cookie jars and lunch boxes, along with limited editions of Christmas plates and Hummel figurines, plus pedal cars, transistor radios and designer purses were sought by adventurous collectors. Today’s collectors want other things not deemed worthy in the past—things like toys, electric fans, cast-iron doorstops and early computers.

We have written about collecting for over 40 years. During that time, we rarely wrote about our family—we mentioned only the births of our children and grandchildren, and Ralph’s death. But this month we want to brag that after more than 10 years of trying, started by Ralph, we have succeeded in getting a 1910 carousel restored and ready for riders in Cleveland, its original home. Collectors donated money, publicity, volunteer time and passion to a project that seemed impossible. So please visit our city and ride Cleveland’s Euclid Beach Park Carousel. You’ll be able to see—and ride—“my” largest collectible, a flag-draped carousel horse that’s now “living” on the carousel for all to enjoy for generations to come. (For more information, visit ClevelandCarousel.org.)