In the seemingly little and insignificant things that accumulate in a lifetime,” archaeologist James Deetz noted, “the essence of our existence is captured.” For the avid collector, this accumulation of objects becomes a specific, highly refined pursuit. With their own unique and extensive personal collections of art objects, Nashville collectors Robert Hicks and Richard and Molly Schneider have not only created beautiful environments in their homes, but a place for the imaginations of visitors to flourish.

Not far from Leiper’s Fork, Robert Hicks’ small, hillside cabin overlooks an uncut field just filling with goldenrod. When asked what he collects, Hicks quickly recites a list: “18th-century maps of Tennessee, face jugs, Agrarian writers, regional furniture, and outsider art.” But there are really a hundred collections here.

“I am an accumulator,” says Hicks. Although he works with numerous museums and sits on a new trustee board for the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts in Winston-Salem, N.C., he prefers this label to the highbrow connotation of collector. Despite such modesty, however, the objects in his home are the clearly the products of informed and endless curiosity.

Outsider art dominates Hicks’ collection. Defined as work by self-taught artists who practice their craft “outside” the influence of the established art world and sometimes beyond mainstream society itself, its objects are often striking in their high level of inventiveness. The power of the work lies in its lack of refinement, in the struggle of its artists to express themselves by limited means. At its best, the lack of expertise and high innovation manifest in outsider art creates works of great purity.

Many people react strongly to this work—questioning whether it is valid art to collect. Hicks’ visitors have even asked tentatively, “Did you draw all of these?”

Hicks became enamored with outsider art after meeting the Reverend Howard Finster, a visionary painter who depicts sermons and biblical images—often combining real and imagined figures. In 1979, Hicks purchased his first work by Finster and continues to refine his nationally recognized collection to this day.

In another corner sits a group of dark-colored pottery. Hicks takes up one of his favorite pieces, and, turning it slowly, points out the head and torso of a woman with her arms braced against the lip of a giant mouth. By molding a face swallowing this figure, the potter, Georgia Blizzard, portrayed death taking her sister. As is the case with most outsider art, discovering the story behind the work is part of the joy of collecting it.

Not every group of objects bears such a serious narrative. Small clusters of things, from rare to common, cover every available surface of Hicks’ home. Old brass candlesticks sit on a pie safe, seagrass baskets cluster in a corner, and dominoes and antlers rest on a table.

Hicks vividly recalls his first purchase of antique furniture when he was 8 years old. Traveling with his parents, he visited the Savannah home of dealer Jim Williams. There, he spied an oak credenza with serpentine shelves, making the perfect cabinet for his rock collection. His father gave him a loan, with interest, thinking Williams would never take only $125 for the piece. Hicks returned to Williams, told him the amount, and walked out with the credenza.

Southern furniture forms another group within Hick’s remarkable collection. A Davidson County sideboard, a Williamson County secretary, and a carved New York table number among the highlights. A quirky worktable resides in the bedroom. Worktables such as this (with rounded sides and drawers) were made to hold women’s sewing materials. The Tennessee cabinetmaker in Hicks’ collection followed the form but made a top that cannot be opened, and deep, impractical drawers unfit for use.

“It has an eccentricity that I like to think you can only find in Tennessee, or only south of the Mason-Dixon line,” Hicks explains. It’s idiosyncrasies in a piece like this cabinet that Hicks clearly delights in and loves to share.

The home of Dr. Richard and Molly Schneider also sits on the top of a hill—a steep slope covered with trees. Located in West Nashville, the rooms are painted in creamy shades and filled with soft furnishings. Then, you notice pottery, which after 25 years of collecting fills every room of the Schneider’s home.

The Schneiders tell their history jointly. After five years of marriage, they started looking at antiques. They browsed the regular show at Nashville’s Municipal Auditorium, where they discovered pots of a dark chocolate color. Intrigued, they learned that this was the Standard glaze produced by the Rookwood Pottery, one of the best potteries in the country.

American art pottery thrived at the turn of the 20th century. Factories produced pots with high artistic creativity, good forms, and innovative finishes. Art pottery has become highly collected over the past 30 years, with some collectors striving for complete sets of pots. The Schneiders take a different approach, saying, “We just get pieces we like.”

Dr. Schneider recounts their first purchase. “In 1976, we went to an antique store in Gatlinburg and found a Weller jardinière. I still remember it was $125. The lady was so nice—she actually gave us a book on Weller. When we got home, we took the price tag off, and there was a big chip under it. So our very first experience was a losing experience...but it did teach us to be a little more keen, canny, and observant.”

“Basically, pottery collecting is a little bit fine art appreciation and a little bit of the collecting mania,” states Dr. Schneider. Indeed, the collection reads as a potter’s encyclopedia: Van Briggle, Weller, Roseville, Newcomb, Rookwood, Tiffany. Plants formed one popular subject among pottery artists and especially appealed to the Schneiders. Dr. Schneider cultivates orchids while Mrs. Schneider focuses on gesneriads, a family that includes the African violet. Dr. Schneider pulls down a vase from a high shelf—lavender blue flowers of spiderwort cascade down one side. He explains that they discovered the plant on the vase while hiking on their honeymoon.

The pride of the collection is a wall plaque showing the profile of a young woman, St. Cecilia. The glaze shimmers with pinks and golds. Rare for its size, the monumental plaque is the work of a French artist, Jacques Sicard. Starting in 1902 at the Weller Pottery, Sicard mixed glazes that reflected the popular iridescent finish of European ceramics. Refusing to disclose his formula, Sicard’s glaze ceased production when he returned to France in 1907. This short period increases the rarity of these objects—an appealing detail.

Recently, the Schneiders have added glass from the turn of the century, particularly the work of ...mile Gallé, the master glassmaker in Nancy, France. American potters copied many of Gallé’s fluid styles and finishes. This expansion increases the collection’s depth and offers a new line of investigation.

As the Schneiders begin to explore collecting glass, Hicks has other areas of interest as well—perhaps photography. In many ways, the portraits of these collectors and their collections are still unfinished.

Like any serious collector, both Hicks and the Schneiders pursue these objects with almost artistic passion. By assembling extraordinary objects—objects that sing to them—these collectors craft an intensely personal vision within their homes. Individual collections speak to their life stories, such as a trip, a gift, an adventure. So, the significance of collecting resides not only in the rare object, but in the act of preserving and sharing that treasure with others. In all, it is a vital pursuit with the ultimate goal to capture, for a moment, some of creation’s beauty.