Inside the New Book Spotlighting the Next Generation of Antique Collectors

Antiques Roadshow, the 44-year-running reality series in which inheritors find out if their family jewels are invaluable heirlooms or passed-down clutter, may have you believe that the only entry point into the rarefied world of antiquities is either by bloodline or copious amounts of disposable wealth. (To be fair, such was the case for a very, very long time.) But as Michael Diaz-Griffith explores in his new Phaidon book, The New Antiquarians, a younger generation of creatives is engaging with these historic objects culturally, personally, and aesthetically—and often in new and unexpected ways.

“I’ve never watched the show,” the New York-based curator, designer, and now author laughs. “But that’s never been my journey. Rather than trying to find an old Tiffany lamp lost in an attic that’s worth however many dollars, I’m more interested in learning about the history of Tiffany.”

Raised in Florence, Alabama by adopted parents, Diaz-Griffith, 36, honed in on his curiosity for craft at an early age and against all odds. His maternal grandmother was a dealer of old-world treasures but her “abusive parenting,” as Diaz-Griffith describes it, left his mother fully against the decorative arts, meaning their family home was all but antique-free. Nevertheless, his passion took hold naturally: Decades before Diaz-Griffith would come to work at various top design organizations and institutions (from the Sir John Soane’s Museum Foundation to the Winter Show and the Design Leadership Network, where he is now an executive director), he remembers a scrubbed pine, Irish sideboard found in the depths of a flea market in Jackson, Mississippi stealing his heart at the age of eight. “It had a pediment top that I found so fascinating,” he remembers. “Even though it was a rural example, there was this naive kind of attempt at creating classicism in the form of the piece. I was in love.”