A potty man: the collecting bug

[callmemadam]

Ransacking my shelves in an attempt to get rid of even more books, I found Collector’s Progress by Stanley W Fisher. This was published in 1957 and is an account of the author’s life as a collector of porcelain. In real life he was a headmaster but seems to have spent every spare minute either fishing or sallying forth on china hunting expeditions; this in spite of having a wife and two children. Though he would have called himself an amateur he amassed (and later sold) two fine collections of porcelain and wrote books and articles on the subject. I enjoyed my second read of it just as much as the first; it’s fascinating to learn about the experts and dealers he met, the collections he examined and above all, the thrill of the chase. He’s quite honest about the desire of every collector to get a bargain by knowing more than other people do.
[Poll #1214638]

So what makes a real collector? I think real collectors are single minded and usually limit their collecting to one area only. They will go without food if necessary to pursue their goal. They can be pretty ruthless. I could obviously never be a real collector. People look at my books and talk about ‘your book collection’ but with the exception of one author it’s really an accumulation. Although I have complete sets of some writers’ books, I’ve picked them up here and there as I found them, rather than actively pursuing them. It’s the same with stamps. I’ve occasionally sought out one to complete a set but on the whole I’m happy to have lots to enjoy, when the sensible thing would be to specialize. Then there’s the question of quality. Your true collector will have only ‘mint in dustwrapper’ first editions of the books he/she wants and stamps/glass/china or whatever only in the best condition.



I always enjoy books which feature antiques or book collecting and I’ve been trying to think of a few. Robert Graves’ Antigua, Penny, Puce, his only light novel, is about sibling rivalry over a stamp. Headlong by Michael Frayn is ‘a question of attribution’. Can anyone suggest more collecting titles?

Comments

[minniemoll.livejournal.com]

I've almost stopped collecting books, mainly because the ones I need are so expensive, and because I've run out of space to collect anything new. I've upgraded to a certain extent, and still do if I spot a bargain, but I'm not that bothered really. But I obviously have the need to collect something, so I've been obsessively buying yarn for the last couple of years. That's outgrowing the space too, I need something new to collect, preferably that won't take up much space. Sadly stamps don't appeal.

My Dad would tell me that I should collect money, he may have a point, given that ebay sales have pretty much dried up. I got an email from abe the other day offering me three months free subscription if I went back to them, I'm thinking about it - at least they don't change their site every five minutes for no apparent reason other than to confuse.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Yes, you get to a level in your field where you can't or won't go on. I still don't have a 1st of The Man with Three Fingers for instance, but I won't pay the going rate for one.

I should have included yarn in the poll!
As for collecting money, how about gold jewellery? small, pretty, portable, gold keeps its value...

eBay's current behaviour is driving me nuts. There was an article in the Telegraph on Saturday headed 'changes to eBay to favour power sellers' and make it less like a car boot sale. That was a come-on, as they said eBay refused to comment and the rest of the article was stuff we already know about how to sell things you don't want. I experimented with the new searching today and it's just awful. Plus, I checked the opt out button and it kept returning me to the new system. When I complained to them originally I said I was thinking of closing my shop because no one would be able to find my items. True.

[minniemoll.livejournal.com]

I found a first of Man with Three Fingers in a charity shop once for 50p. With a dj. I sold it almost instantly for £75, but it seems to have gone up since then, should have hung onto it.

Gold's a thought, but I don't really wear it, so I probably couldn't work up too much enthusiasm for collecting. Plus there's not the thrill of the chase that you get with books. I could start collecting old china of the Clarice Cliff variety, but again I have no space to display it.

I'm going to have a good look at abe soon, I just wish you could put more than one photo on there. And unless it's changed it's really fiddly to put photos on at all - you have to upload them separately from the main database, and then they often don't appear for ages, by which point you've missed all the folks looking for newly listed stuff. Of course it may all have changed, I'll have to investigate.