James Baldwin Antique Silver on Pinterest!

Well, we have just joined Pinterest! The main gallery can be found here: 

 Pretty Old Silver http://ping.fm/bAM9J

I was invited to Pinterest in the week, and got around to joining yesterday. I rather like the place. It's rather like a Twitter of photos, except things are a bit less transient than Twitter, where it's very easy to acquire followers, and very hard to get any sort of meaningful dialogue, conversation or traffic from.
I use Twitter because, you know, everyone does right? But I can't say I really love the place. Mostly it seems as though people "follow" each other simply to get followers. It's a community of networkers, and not really a place where one might be likely to acquire a following of like minded people, or build an interesting community around a shared passion or interest.

Pinterest is different. People subscribe to each other and "repin" (a bit like a re-tweet) things they are genuinely interested in and like. It seems on first impressions, to be a great community for the sharing of visual ideas, style and design.

Some people seem to be using it as a commercial site- the facility is there to add a price to an image. However, I've got a website for that myself. I just want to share images, and get people talking and looking. For example, all the pieces of antique silver I've used to illustrate this blog entry are sold.

But everyone should have a chance to enjoy the above image- an extremely rare silver bell by Georg Jensen, with ebony inserts in the handle. I've never seen anything like it before, and it sold to a private collector, and so is not available on view anywhere. A stunning piece, and one that should be shared! I'm glad I now have a visual platform to do just that. 

That, I suppose, is one of the great things about social media, isn't it? Sure, you can use it to try and sell stuff, but it's far more useful for making contact with people who share your passions and interests. The reason for this blog, the JBA facebook page and now pinterest account is to build a community of like minded people, interested in the same things, and able to provide interesting information, anecdotes and share a love of fine objects and the history of design and craftsmanship.

It's also pretty clear to me that many people have no particular interest in antique silver, or even silver in 20th century design, but still appreciate beautiful images of beautiful objects.
From my perspective, I'd like to share my photographs with those people, and show people in the design community at large what amazing designers silversmiths can be, have been, and are at current. There are many objects nearing 300 and 400 years old which people think of as "stuffy" antiques, but someone with a design eye will, without any interest in the age or history of a piece, appreciate what a superb piece of design it is. I relish the opportunity to show off such pieces, and spread awareness of how un-stuffy Antiques, and especially Antique Silver can be!

Here is my Pinterest profile page:
http://pinterest.com/baldwinantiques/

Here is my facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/James-Baldwin-Antiques/174685425906094

And of course, the JBA website (commercial, but also full of images and articles about antique and 20th century silver:
http://www.jamesbaldwinantiques.com

Please do remember to subscribe to the blog if you like it, and if you have any comments about Pinterest or anything else covered above, or just want to say hello, use the comments box below!