A few weeks ago, I watched two buyers sizing up various galvanized tin watering cans to purchase from a dealer. Curious about their motivation since I am firm believer that if I can remember using it, then I just cant understand why you would collect it. They were talking about how they saw a watering can being used in a shelter magazine and so they just had to have one. Before going on, a quick note that shelter magazines are those popular publications on home design and dcor that have been around for a century and remain mainstays of the magazine publishing world. What bothered me about this is that the watering cans had no heads on the spout! Now to my eye, all the headless watering cans were flawed, and if I wanted a watering can, I would have passed on all of them. My logic being that they were broken, and since I have never seen a dealer selling piles of watering can heads, I was pretty sure that these would forever remain flawed. And yet apparently the shelter magazine they had looked at was promoting headless watering cans as some kind of new shabby chic marvel. Years ago, I wrote a column on the impact of these magazines on collecting. They really do establish the buying trends for antiques, particularly if the house or apartment shown belongs to a Hollywood star. And in those celebrity homes, the ones that I always worried about was where a decorator had decided some antique or collectible element deserved a place of honor. Sure as God made little green apples, those celebrity-highlighted antiques and collectibles would suddenly make an abrupt and gigantic leap in price. The trend rarely ever lasted, and prices returned to normalcy soon thereafter. But oh-how-wonderful if you were a dealer who benefitted from having that special item in stock and thus could sell it for any price to the aspiring collector. Readers who doubt this can look back on the crazy market fluctuations that occurred around Andy Warhols cookie jars, Barbara Streisands Arts and Crafts furnishings, and Harrison Ford and Bill Cosbys interest in Americana. These celebrity collections all sent markets up as decorators and buyers scrambled to copy what the publications said was the hot decorating look or style at the moment. So, in surprise, I watched two headless watering cans walk out the door with proud new buyers. It made me scratch my head then, and frankly it still does now. I like to think that I am personally immune to such craziness in the marketplace. On the other hand, I do find myself looking at the magazines to see if just maybe Ralph Lauren will start promoting the western look and turquoise jewelry will go crazy again. Out will come my Navajo cuff and Zuni Ranger Belt! Born to collect should be the motto of Peter Seiberts family. Raised in Central Pennsylvania, Seibert has been collecting and writing about antiques for more than three decades. By day, he is a museum director and has worked in Pennsylvania, Wyoming, Virginia and New Mexico. In addition, he advises and consults with auction houses throughout the Mid-Atlantic region, particularly about American furniture and decorative arts. Seiberts writings include books on photography, American fraternal societies and paintings. He and his family are restoring a 1905 arts and crafts house filled with years worth of antique treasures found in shops, co-ops and at auctions.