The Collector Loft, with thirty years experience, offers an eclectic blend of modern, traditional, and industrial finds for your home or business. A resource for numerous renowned Boston and Manhattan decorators and the feature film industry, The Collector features vintage, signed and brand name American and European furniture, lighting, art and found objects.
“I want to have a shop that can be eclectic and that it will work, that people get it,” Connell said. “I like modern things, industrial things, Victorian things. I only buy what I like and that’s what’s in the shop.”
Owner Rex Connell has been in the antiques business for decades, having inherited his interest from his father who was a dealer. Connell had previously worked at an antiques shop in Cambridge, as a cabinet maker, as a restaurant decorator and as a set mechanic in the movie business when he decided the time had come to open his own place.
“People want something nobody else has. They want quality, not big box stores. They want a good thing,” Connell said, gesturing around his shop. “Why would you spend more for something made in China?”
Connell hunts down his treasures in a variety of places, trekking to the Brimfield Antique Fair several times a year, sometimes buying whole estates and often getting calls from other antique dealers that he knows when they find something they know he’ll like. And though the demand for mid-century modern pieces has increased and the demand for traditional antiques has decreased, Connell knows that a mix of pieces truly produces the best look, which is why he stocks a variety of styles.