About The Discerning Collector

Our Service Pledge

Our aim on this site is to offer items of quality, many having the provenance of being included in one of my three published books on antiques. The condition will be honestly presented. Any questions will be answered usually within 24 hours, and items will be shipped as rapidly as possible after verification of payment via Paypal.

About Us

My name is Genevieve Cummins and I am a retired Australian Paediatric Surgeon with a passion for antiques and gardening. I have been a collector of antiques for more than thirty years and was co-author (with Nerylla Taunton) of "Chatelaines - Utility to Glorious Extravagance”. Initially I was interested in boxes for needlework but this rapidly spread to an interest in all boxes, especially those fitted for specific purposes. A box with its contents is so much more satisfying than one that is empty or has lost its original contents. To encourage dealers and collectors to keep boxes intact, I wrote a second book titled “Antique Boxes – Inside & Out”. This covered a vast variety of fitted or specific purpose boxes. My third book, “How the Watch was Worn – a Fashion for 500 Years” continued the story of the chatelaine, in particular those for watches, and it soon became apparent that the fashion of wearing watches, rather than the mechanism, was a topic that had never previously been covered in books on antiques. This book includes watches, all types of watch chains, chatelaines, brooches, rings and the now almost universal wristwatch. To illustrate how watches were worn, the collection also includes a vast number of original photographs, engravings, some paintings and original clothing. All these books have been published by The Antique Collectors’ Club, and are now considered definitive texts in their genres and have been well-received.
To illustrate these books, I have amassed significant collections of antique and vintage collectibles of quality – too many for one person to display or use!
Many of the items from all three books are now available for sale on Ruby Lane and some others will shortly be for sale on ebay under the name boxes! You can now also follow us on Facebook. These items will appeal to collectors with general or specific enthusiasms. It would be fantastic if these fascinating items were to find appreciative and discerning new owners.

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